Increase in Alameda Foreclosures

Since the Fourth of July several new distressed properties were placed on the Alameda Real Estate market. In this one week period, foreclosures increased 43-percent with banked owned properties increasing from eight to fourteen.

In terms of the total inventory, foreclosures make up eight percent of the housing stock currently for sale on the Multiple Listing Service.

Adding to the distressed market was the addition of one more short sale. The three bedroom home at 1542 Sherman is now listed at $525,000. According to Zillow the home estimated value is $559,000 and is valued between $458,380-$609,310. The property has lost $3,000 in value the last 30 days.

Since the beginning of the year Alameda has recorded the sale of 47 properties that were in the distressed category. Of the 195 properties that have changed hands foreclosures account for 17 percent and short sales 7 percent of the total sales. That is nearly a quarter of all homes are in the distressed category.

Alameda foreclosure sales in 2009 represent nearly $15 Million in sales. The median sale price for an Alameda Foreclosure is $462,500 and the banks are getting roughly 98 percent of the asking price. The home that garnered the highest sale price at foreclosure was 601 Fortress Isle that sold for $738,000. The least expensive property was a condominium at the Park Webster that sold for $150,000.

Five properties sold for under $200,000; all were condominiums. Sixteen properties sold between $200,000 and $500,000 and 12 properties sold for over $500,000.

Short sales accounted for just over $6 Million in sales. The median sale price was $465,000. All thirteen properties sold between $330,000 and $680,000.

There appears to be more distressed properties heading to the market. RealtyTrac lists 71 properties that are Banked Owned, 60 that are a Trustee Sale (Auction) and a whopping 104 properties in pre-foreclosure.

With this type of data this week it looks like the Alameda market will need some time to clear out inventory.

Inventory Data for the Week

. 7/12/2009 . Total 175 . 94501 141 . 94502 34 . SFR 106 . Condo 40 . Multi-Family 27 . Short Sale 11 . Foreclosure 14 . Price Reductions 58 . High List 2488905 . Low List 215000 .

Alameda Snapshot: Encinal Students and Cars 1955

This Alameda Snapshot is a classic photo from Encinal High School in 1955 as students stand by their cars. At the time Encinal was a brand new campus. Photo is courtesy of Vivian Young-Mc Donald.

Enjoy the weekend.

To Open Door You Need A Wad

Now that I have been a homeowner for nearly nine years the one question I continually ask is: “How can anyone afford a home in Alameda on a modest income?”

With 181 sales in Alameda for the first half of 2009 and average sale price of $555,911 it takes a hefty wad of cash just to open the door to homeownership.

At the average price of $555,911 to finance the deal in today’s market you need to save $111,182 for a twenty percent down payment. And once you beg, borrowed and saved for the down payment, you are looking at nearly $2,600 in monthly payments in just principal and interest plus another $7,000 in taxes and assessments and then home owners insurance.

Based on the above scenario you will need about $42,000 annually or $3,500 a month to cover monthly payments, taxes and insurance. To keep this cost at 30-percent of your take home pay the family income would need to $140,000 after taxes or over $11,000 per month. It looks like you need about $182,000 in earnings to buy the average home.

Your family would need to make over $90 an hour based on 251 work days at eight hours a day.

Boy that was a lot of math to get to “You need to make a lot of coin to buy a house in Alameda”

To see what I could buy based on a monthly payment I went over to the ZipRealty website to use their search tool. The reason is ZipRealty site allows to switch between list price of the home and search by monthly payment. The tool allow you change assumptions, because saving is tough I used 10-pecent down and 6-pecent loan.

So for monthly payment of $2,000 per month or less there were 17 properties. Fifteen of the seventeen were condominiums or townhomes. A three bedroom, two bathroom home at 1918 Chestnut were part of the results. The home is listed for $338,500 and based on the assumptions would be a monthly payment of $1,826.

I did a second search with just single family residences and booted the monthly payment to $2,500. This netted fourteen additional properties. Eight of the properties were 2 bedrooms and one was a 1 bedroom. The range of list prices was from $375,000 to $449,500.

A quick check on Craig’s List shows that based on 100 rentals of two bedrooms or larger Alameda is paying on Average $1,661. In fact I found 12 three bedrooms for under $2,000 per month.

I guess it was another long way to say that it takes a lot of cash to buy in Alameda and if you buy on the Island you are doing it for more than just a place to live.

P.S. If you are looking for homes it appears to be a big open house weekend. The Alameda Sun has 42 properties listed for showing, with several open Saturday and Sunday.