Foreclosures Selling For 1/2 Original Price

Property Shark has released its foreclosure report for August, and it has some really interesting stuff in it. As Elise points out, there are some new areas popping up in terms of having lots of foreclosure sales, like this area of Glendale she writes about.

What caught my eye, though, is the price foreclosed properties are going for: Half of what they last sold for! That’s a big discount and potentially a great buy, depending on the condition and location of the property. Here’s what Property Shark found:

Foreclosed owners in Los Angeles paid almost twice current values: Owners of Los Angeles
properties facing trustee sale in August originally paid almost twice what similar properties sold for in July of this year. For example: Zip code 93535 (paid on average $303,088, now selling for average of $152,614), zip code 93534 (paid $303,733, now $153,584), zip code 91342 (paid $520,519, now $326,798), zip code 93550 (paid $329,585, now $171,837).

But even though the report says that zip codes in the San Fernando Valley for the first time broke into the top 5 by number of sales, it is still Palmdale, Lancaster and the surrounds that account for most of these numbers. We are simply not seeing these kinds of firesales on a large scale in more central areas, and definitely not in desirable and established areas like Los Feliz and Silverlake. Those zip codes Property Shark is citing breakdown like this:

• 93535 – Lancaster
• 93534 – Lancaster
• 91342 – Sylmar
• 93550 – Palmdale

So if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the absolute bottom to buy, is it time? Well, if you’re planning on moving to one of these zips, then don’t be greedy – start looking for a deal. Because it does seem like the brunt of foreclosures has peaked….read my next post on that!