San Francisco Bay Area Foreclosure Statistics

East Bay Area - South Bay Area

REOs (bank owned properties) and properties going into pre-foreclosure (NODs) continue to rise across the country, California and the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Banks and local real estate agents are reporting multiple offers on bank owned properties throughout the Bay Area. 

In the East Bay, Contra Costa County continues to lead in the number of properties entering foreclosure and being returned to the bank.

In Contra Costa County, the communities of Antioch, Pittsburgh, Oakley, and Brentwood continue to see increasing transaction activity as buyers looking for good deals and investors buy up REOs.

Alameda and Santa Clara Counties show a dip in foreclosures for June.

In San Francisco Count, the foreclosure figures are the lowest in the Bay area - almost a tenth of other Bay Area counties.

This is the time to buy a Bay Area home or to invest in East bay real estate. Convergent downward forces on home prices are most likely at their maximum right now. 

We may see further price erosion in some areas, but increases in interest rates will likely negate any savings realized by a further drop in price.

Additionally, buyer's negotiating power is peaking. Any improvement in any area will begin to erode the buyer's side of the negotiating table.

If you have an interest in foreclosures or bank owned properties in the East Bay communities of Alamo, Antioch, Brentwood, Concord, Danville, Dublin, San Ramon, Pleasanton, or Walnut Creek, CA - contact Craig (925) 984-4910.

Positive Cash Flow Investment Opportunities are Available in Antioch California

That’s right, you can purchase real estate – homes and condos – in Antioch & Brentwood California that can produce positive cash flow from the get go.

A recent deal in our office is going to produce over $200/month positive cash flow for the investor from day one. This takes into account all expenses including HOA and property management fees.

The property tax base in Contra Costa County is being reassessed on over 150,000 properties and the county tax assessor believes that property taxes will be lowered on about 80,000 properties.

That means the cash flow on this Antioch property may increase even more next year.

If you are interested in Antioch homes as investment opportunities with positive cash flow – contact Paul – (925) 963–4246

Real estate investors and home buyers who aren’t buying San Francisco Bay Area real estate right now, are going to miss the boat. Home owners in the East Bay have seen the worst, but don’t expect price values to start climbing until Spring of 2009.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal backs up what we have been saying since the end of last year – the housing crisis will bottom out in the first half of 2008 and the second half of the year will see more stable prices and higher than normal sales activity.

“The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.”

 Read the article – The Housing Crisis Is Over. The article also reflects, in part, the analysis given recently by Mukesh Bajaj, Ph.D, a financial economist teaching at UC Berkely.

What we see happening with local housing markets supports the opinion given in the WSJ article. For example, we had clients in from Florida this week looking to buy. The top five properties on their list all had received acceptable offers in the 24–hour period proceeding their arrival. One of the properties had been on the market for over 120 days. Several of the properties received multiple offers.

Our last listing that entered escrow had six offers submitted. Prices are not climbing, they are stabilizing. Multiple offers are bringing the sale price up to the asking price. There are a few sales closing where the sale price is above the asking price, but this is not the norm.

What does this mean to local home buyers and sellers?

The upper end of the market will remain more sluggish than the bottom end. Investors looking for cash flow properties and buyers looking for great deals that hold the most potential for rapid appreciation are beginning to gobble up foreclosures and bank owned properties. This “bottom-feeder” activity is going to escalate and drive sales activity figures up for the second half of the year.

The increased activity is not going to drive up prices. It is going to reduce and stabilize the downward pressures on pricing.

Residents of communities like Dublin and San Ramon where there is still a significant presence of new home builders are going to see some relief as reduced new construction starts begin to impact the overall local housing markets. This is bittersweet news for existing homeowners in these communities as the value of their new homes has been hammered more than other areas.

Eastern Contra Costa County communities like Antioch and Brentwood are going to see huge reductions in inventory as investors increase their activities in these foreclosure rich areas. International investors and buyers are showing increased interest in U.S, real estate foreclosures as the weak dollar coupled with depressed prices affords them an incredible investment opportunity.

Bottom line? Home sellers have seen the worst. Buyers need to get off the fence if they don’t want to miss the boat.

Related Articles:

• East Bay Real Estate Investing
• San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate is Always Local
• REO Interest Climbing in TriValley Area

Fantastic real estate investment opportunities are available in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The declining U.S. housing market with the resulting foreclosures have resulted in a large inventory of bank owned properties in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. These properties represent the type of investment properties that foreign investors have been hoping for.

The U.S. real estate market is one of the most sought after investment opportunities for international buyers. Today’s bargain prices in the San Francisco Bay Area is resulting in more and more foreign investment activity in the Bay Area housing market.

One Realtor in the East Bay community of San Ramon recently announced she had a Chinese investor arriving in a couple of weeks that was interested in buying up to 100 homes in Antioch and Brentwood, CA.

It seems every street in Antioch and Brentwood has at least one home for sale on it. In some of the neighborhoods we have been through, you find 4 or five homes for sale on some streets. Many of these properties are vacant and bank owned.

The situation is far from over. You can find continuing signs of more homes going into the foreclosure process. Lawns are dying and home maintenance is suffering.

Homes that sold for $800K+ a few years ago are now being priced in the $300K range. Rents are rising and this is increasing the potential for positive cash flow investment properties in the East Bay Area – something very hard to accomplish with the high property values in California.

Some golf course homes in Brentwood, Ca. are listed at prices that reflect almost no appreciation for the past several years. These are great buys for waiting for golf enthusiasts. Our recent tour through Antioch and Brentwood, confirmed our belief that these communities offer great retirement opportunities for baby boomers in San Ramon, Danville and other I-680 corridor communities.

We wrote about: Now is the Time to Buy that Retirement Home

Antioch and Brentwood represent a perfect buying opportunity for young couples looking for their first home. Housing this affordable is hard to come by in the Bay Area. The housing market will recover and when it does, the same affordable housing dynamics will push property values in Antioch and Brentwood back up.

When BART extends into Antioch, this will bring more upward pressure to home prices in the area. Population increase in the area is expected to be in excess of 40,000 in the next 20 years.

When the bottle-neck on Highway 4 in Antioch is removed, another positive factor for home value increase will be in place.

All-in-all Antioch and Brentwood currently offer some of the best real estate values for buyers and investors in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

If the activity on our site is any kind of indicator of today's buyer mindset, then interest in REOs (bank owned properties) is one of the top areas of interest for today’s home buyer. Our inbound leads with an interest in bank owned properties and foreclosures has increased about 30% over the last month.

In parts of Contra Costa County, home values have dropped more than 50%. Rents are continuing to rise. This is the perfect scenario for investors looking for real estate opportunities that can create cash flow or at least get near positive cash flow.

The situation in eastern Contra Costa County (Antioch, Pittsburg, Brentwood) is producing some of the best price values, but investors are showing some concern about those depressed home values bouncing back. The thing to remember is that the same housing affordability dynamics still exist in the East Bay and Contra Costa County.

East Bay communities like Antioch, Brentwood and Pittsburg still offer some of the most affordable real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. With BART considering an extension into Antioch in the next few years, it is going to make these East Bay communities even more attractive to home buyers looking for affordable housing.

Large investor groups are beginning to look at these communities. It would not surprise me to see the lion’s share of foreclosures in these areas gobbled up by investors in the next 6 months.

As I noted in my post – Now is the Time to Buy that Retirement Home – this is a wonderful window of opportunity for East Bay baby boomers.

The interest in foreclosures and bank owned properties is not confined to eastern Contra Costa County. On Friday, we received an inquiry from an investor looking for a vacation home or second home in the Bay Area in the $3million range. There are foreclosures and REOs in all price ranges.

High-end communities like Blackhawk, Danville and Lafayette have their share of real estate deals to offer this summer. Communities like San Ramon and Pleasanton, CA continue to see value-priced homes entering the market, which is a real benefit for employees of companies moving into Bishop Ranch like PG (links to past posts).

We think that the second half of 2008 may be the best second-half real estate year the TriValley has seen is quite a while.

Dr. Bajaj, a financial economist is very optomistic on the possibility of real estate recovering from the subprime mess in the near future. A couple of good quarters with the banks not taking any more drastic write-downs, some relaxation of over-reactive lending guidelines – and we could see foreign investment in the U.S. economy return in a big way.

If you have an interest in foreclosures or bank owned properties, talk to our REO specialist - Craig - (925) 895-2694