A 27% price drop in Reseda

A quick follow-up to yesterday's post about open houses in Reseda. We checked Zillow for the sales history on the foreclosed house at 6921 Lindley Ave., and it's instructive. It looks like this:

Sold 4/2004: $345,000
Sold 7/2006: $520,000
Sold 4/2007: $441,429
Listed (date unknown): $457,900
Reduced, now listed: $379,900

This is the listing billed as "You Better Act Fast" ... "Bank Foreclosure"... "Needs some minor TLC" ... "Bank is serious so make an offer!"  It's a 3-bedroom, 1-bath with a one-bedroom "guest unit" that "may not have permit." It needs some cosmetic repairs and is on a busy, noisy street. The hard-pan back yard was decorated Sunday with a Bud Light can.

Our take: What shows up as an April 2007 sale is probably the foreclosure. If the home sells for the current listing price -- a big stretch -- the decline in price from the 2006 peak would be 27% in 16 months. That's steep. And that's assuming it sells at the listing price, which is unlikely.

Thoughts? Comments? Insights? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.

Micromarket Snapshot: Reseda

More from our buzz through Reseda yesterday:

From Realtor Mary Burak: "It's a terrible market. I've been doing this for 25 years, so I've been selling -- I have referrals. But the newer agents are going out of business. ... I don't even work off of comps any more. I base it on what's for sale in the area."  The market, she says, is still sprinkled with OPTs -- "overpriced turkeys."  On losing a potential short sale because the lender, Countrywide Financial, failed to approve the sale quickly, and then the buyer's lender -- also Countrywide -- yanked the purchase loan. "Countrywide shot themselves in the foot twice. I'm so angry with them. Unfortunately, they don't know how to set up their loss mitigation group."  On buyers right now: "They're so picky that they don't know when they're getting a deal."

From Realtor Alan Rosenberg: "The market is slowing down. There's a lot of buyers out there, but they're concerned about commiting. But interest rates are fantastic and prices are really good." He says the foreclosure problem is worst in the East Valley, but is slowly moving west through the Valley.

From Realtor Charles Henry: "We won't know we've hit the bottom until we hit it." (We're not sure what that means). In a neighborhood where listings under $500,000 were rare a year ago, he said, listings are now common at under $400,000.  "Houses sell pretty quickly when they get into the high-$300,000s."

Your thoughts? Comments? Insights? E-mail story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
Photo Credit: www.caseysstation.com

Open House: Reseda

We snuck out to five Open Houses in Reseda today. Headline: Thin traffic. In those five homes, we saw exactly one possible buyer. Houses, notes, and local flavor:

6900 Jamieson Avenue (pictured). 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,785 SF, remodeled, reduced; was $550,000, now $525,000.

6921 Lindley Avenue. "You Better Act Fast," reads the flyer for this scruffy (no grass, Bud Light can in the back yard) bank foreclosure. 3 bed, 1 bath plus a 1 bed/1 bath "guest unit." Was $457,900, reduced to $379,900. Suggested financing in hand-out: 35-year fixed, 100%, (interest only) under CAlHFA first-time homebuyer program, works out to $2057/month.

6856 Zelzah Avenue. 3-bedroom, 1 bath, 1,017 SF, flyer reads, "Price negotiable just reduced from $585,000 to $500,000." We thought that was a big price cut for 2 1/2 months on the market, so we asked the agent sitting house, "Why the big reduction?"  His four-word response: "Foreclosure on the corner."

18101 Gault Street. This one will be a short sale if and when it happens. Listing reads, "Reduced again! Seller wants to see all offers." 4-bedroom, 2 bath, 1,712 SF on a busy street; Reduced from $470,000 to $420,000. Was in escrow, in a previous short sale, but fell out of escrow while the lender (Countrywide) considered whether to accept the short sale offer.

6920 Garden Grove Avenue. 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,756 SF, tidy, well-kept, carpeted, nice lawn. On the market for a month, listed at $519,000, but the agent says, "They have a little room."

Comments? Thoughts? Insights?