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Posted Mon Apr 20 08:13AM

Hello everyone!

I hope this message reaches everyone doing well. A lot has changed in the Santana Row market, along with the market everywhere. More and more short sales and REO's are poping up. What I'm seeing a lot of is people upside down paying for a $600k mortgage when their place is worth $100-200k less than that...I don't get why anyone would do that unless they're in a buisness where it would effect them to the point of $100's of thousands of dollars if their credit was temporarilly effected. If it wouldn't, it seems the best option is to do a short sale, let the bank take that few hundred thousand dollar loss, rent for a few years and buy back in at a much lower price, have lower payments, build equity for your self rather than the bank over the course of the next 10 years, or however long it would take for your property value to come back up to what you paid for it. Don't people realize that the next $100-200k of equity they build is going straight to the bank, and they're paying a premium for that (a mortgage that's higher than the value of the property). This isn't going to be a quick fix in pricing, it'll take 10 or so years. I hate seeing these owners paying on a mortgage that's more than their property's worth to try and 'wait out this market' before they sell...it just doesn't make sense. Please respond and let me know your thoughts/questions on this?

As far as the pricing is going now, they've unfortunetly dropped a lot. The one bedroom studios on the bottom floor of the Margo are listed as low as $365k, and that's for facing Santana Row, they sell for less facing the mountains, but none are for sale currently. The 2-story lofts are selling in the low $400k's facing the mountains and around $500k facing Santana Row. It's hard to say what the 2 bedrooms are worth at this point since none have sold in over 6 months, but there's one on the market for $829k...the last one sold for $1,045,000, although it was a different floorplan. There hasn't been a 3 bedroom loft sale in a long time, sohard to say what they'd sell for, but the most recent Villa sale was a 3 bedroom for $1.3M.

Now some of you have requested pricing quotes on here, but understand that this does automated values to you and isn't going to be very accurate...please contact me, respond to this, email me, call me, to get a market analysis or accurate quote on the value of your home.

Bottom line is it's a great time to buy because there are great deals out there, and it's a great time to sell if you're upside down and the bank's are willing to take your loss off your plate.

Thanks and have a great day...looking forward to feedback, questions, comments!!!

Gerald

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