Hillsborough, Burlingame Luxury Homes Real Estate

I am asked quite often about buying Short Sales and houses in foreclosure.  I really don't like to work on short sales because there are too many things out of any one's control within the deal since ultimately the bank being shorted has the absolute final say on whether or not the sale goes through.  Foreclosed houses are another thing.  They really can be good buys.  But San Mateo County, and specifically the communities we focus on, Millbrae  south to San Carlos has not seen many of these. Yet.  This may change but then again, it may not.

Take a look at this great heat map showing where the houses that are in default from Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont and San Carlos.  What the heat map shows is interesting.The number of houses going into foreclosure are minimal in our little corner of the world.   Who would of thunk with all the news stories screaming at us about the high number of houses being lost today.

Last month, 105 single family homes and 47 condos or townhouses were sold from Millbrae down to San Carlos.  There were a total of 430 houses for sale in March and 213 condos or townhouses for sale.  Both numbers were up from February.  This isn't unusual since the spring housing market begins in February and gains momentum as we progress through the calendar.

What does the heat map tell you?  Yellow is 1 in 1200 foreclosures and that's most of our area.  The orange color, which is effecting the eastern and southern parts of San Mateo  and Millbrae, are 1 in 600 houses in default.  The light red is 1 in 300 houses and this is where San Mateo is suffering the most.   It's not the worst, and certainly better than many communities in the east bay, but still it is enough to present some issues for people who want to buy a home in foreclosure because the banks want more from the buyer there. 

This really is a great time for a first time buyer to find a house for what you might have bought a condo for just a short while ago, but you need to have skin in the game and that means more moola.  You can find 100% loans, but you'd better be like gold with your FICO.  If you are human, like most of us, and don't have an 800 FICO score, you will need some cash to put down and that might be as much as 20%, but then again, it might also be much less.  There are some good programs out there for first time buyers from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, CalFHA, ACORN and the like. 

People ask how to find houses that have gone into foreclosure and I suggest they get to know a good Realtor since we are the ones who can find them, and often before they hit the MLS.  Once they are listed you, a general consumer looking at the MLS through any one of the many sites out there, usually can't figure it out although sometimes there are clues.  But we knowand we can help.

This isn't the time to try to do it alone.  Buying a bank owned property takes stamina, patience and fearlessness.  If you posses those characteristics, you have a good chance at buying a home to live in that someone else had bought at the top of the market.  Don't try to hit the bottom of the real estate market because you can't time it.  If you hit it, it's by pure chance. We may very well have already passed it by and could be moving back upward, I can't say, it's too early to know.  All I know is that there are some good buys out there, especially in some parts of San Mateo.  If you are willing to look a little farther from here, Daly City and South San Francisco are where you can really hit pay dirt.