Walking Trails at RiverbedThe Santa Maria Sun reports that local officials have secured an additional $6.7 million to repair the Santa Maria levee. Without repair, Santa Maria homeowners are faced with having to buy flood insurance. In its current state, the levee would not hold fast against a “once in a hundred years” severe flood and homes are at risk. This is great news as it brings santa Maria a step closer to repairing the levee and removing the threat of mandatory flood insurance on homeonwers. Flood insurance would greatly increase the cost of homeownership — edging monthly costs up as much as $160 at a time when budgets are already tight. Prior to securing these funds, I watched an interview with Mayor Lavagnino in which he speculated that the imposition of flood insurance might push even more homeowners in Santa Maria into foreclosure. Santa Maria has already been hard hit in by the housing boom and bust. If the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act is approved, the Army Core of Engineers will conduct the repair.
If you would like information or a list of available home foreclosures, condos, or short sales in the Santa Maria – Orcutt CA area, send an email to me at tni@mintprop.com. You can also search for properties on my websites: www.iLoveSantaMaria.com, www.SantaMariaRealEstateSearch.com, & www.BuySantaMariaForeclosures.com (map based search). If you have questions about a specific property, or would like to set up an appointment to consult about a possible short sale of your property, I can be reached at (805) 878-9879.
*Based on the information from the Central Coast Regional MLS. Neither the Association, the Multiple Listing Service, or Mint Properties guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.
When I searched the MLS for active properties this morning, I came up with 158 single family homes or condos for sale. 29 of those listings are short sales, and 35 are active REO listings. There are 234 contingent listings, and 222 of them are short sales. In the last 30 days, 131 homes have sold, with an average price of about $250,000, average price per square foot of $150, and averaging about 75 days on market. 28 of those sold homes were closed short sales, and 61 were REO (bank owned property) sales. Average days on market for short sales were about 120 days (this reflects the time period to obtain bank approval), and average days on market for REO listings was about 53 (this includes the time it takes to get the contract finalized by the bank).
Cash Offers. Banks love cash offers. Why? Because they can close quickly and without any requests for repairs from a buyer. What is the down side to a cash offer from a bank’s point of view? Cash offers tend to be lower than financed offers.
