The real estate market in the West of the United States has certainly seen its share of troubles over the past 18 months.
Foreclosures and short sales are rampant in California, the veritable epicenter of the mortgage meltdown.
Website DQNews.com reports lenders sent 81,550 default notices to California residents during the October-to-December period of 2007.
That was up by 12.4 percent from 72,571 the previous quarter, and up 114.6 percent from 37,994 for fourth-quarter 2006.
Most of the loans that went into default last quarter were originated between August 2005 and October 2006, at the height of the real estate bubble.
And now home prices for the state are plummeting. The median price paid for a California home peaked at $484,000 one year ago, DQNews says, and declined to $402,000 by the end of 2007.
And California isn't the only western state being hit hard by this real estate market; according to realtytrac.com, Arizona and Nevada are also among the top ten states for foreclosure filings.
So with all this catastrophic news for the western States, lets see how some of the actual agents in the west are faring.
One of our market experts in Nevada, Judy Henkins, says that the 30 to 40 percent drop in prices is starting to bring buyers back into the market.
And while the home market has definitely seen a drop in activity, she says the commercial real estate has not been hurt as much.
California agents report a similar trend of short sales and foreclosures creating an incredible buyers market.
Grace Alvarez says it's such a hot buyers market right now that she's seeing the lowest asking prices in over 10 years. “Due to the huge numbers of short sales and foreclosures in our marketplace, prices have been trending downward. Homes are much more affordable than they have been in years, creating a great opportunity for buyers!”
And Deni Royer reports that, due to the huge numbers of short sales and foreclosures in her area, prices are continuing to trend downward, creating a great opportunity for buyers.
These agents reports seem to reveal that the mortgage meltdown in the western US has the upside of providing the lowest prices in years to qualified buyers.
Of course the key word there is: Qualified. With lending standards tightened in response to the slowing economy, fewer buyers are able to enter the market.
But for those that can get credit in California, Arizona or Nevada, there is a wealth of cheap homes to choose from.
