Friday, March 14, 2008

Million-Dollar Foreclosures

Forbes reports, "In Detroit and Southern California, foreclosure opportunists are going after cheap homes in downtrodden neighborhoods, which are selling in the five-figure range."

"But there are plenty of million dollar-plus homes out there, in good neighborhoods, which have fallen into foreclosure as the result of shoddy lending practices, speculative buyers and homeowners walking away from a negative equity situation."

"Foreclosures have always been present in the top end of the market, but what best accounts for the increase are negative equity situations. For homes around the million-dollar mark, especially those derided as McMansions, it's a case of the home no longer matching the value of the loan. Many of the million dollar-plus homes listed as foreclosures and REOs were built in the last five years and are now worth significantly less than the inflated prices the owners originally paid. But it's not necessarily that buyers didn't put down enough money or had a piggyback loan; the owners may have owed more on the house than it was worth, sinking them into a negative equity situation."

"But foreclosures are not all bad news for the high-end real estate market. Nelson Gonzalez, a broker with Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell, specializing in Miami Beach, says that the rash of foreclosures in Florida, which has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, has driven interest from out-of-town and foreign buyers looking to snag a deal. 'They think that every house in Florida is in foreclosure,' he says. 'The offers we're getting are fairly decent, but the sellers are not coming down yet.'"

As you can see, the Realtors® are still claiming that waves of rich, foreign investors are coming in droves to South Florida with suitcases full of cash to snatch up local bargains. If these rich foreigners really existed, why would we still be seeing record low sales?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The buyers are here, but they're not stupid. Sellers are going to have to move on their price, and readjust to historic appreciation levels.

Cayo Dave said...

Speaking of million dollar foreclosures, here in Key West the most expensive neighborhoods are now seeing increasing numbers of foreclosures.
I posted a map from RealtyTrac that shows hundreds of very expensive Key West properties in either foreclosure, preforeclosure, or at auction.
This certainly does not look like the end of the crash.

Anonymous said...

What I can't believe is why people just don't Stop Foreclosure before it starts. What amazes me is so many people just give up on their home when they could save it. The problem is people dont know about places like Loan Resuce Programs and just figure they are in a hole. I know until I ran into them I didnt have a clue services like this existed either.

Anonymous said...

Why save a house thats a fools gold?

Anyone who thinks that second/third/fourth home buyers are going to buy another home when their primary residence is declining in value is a fool. All of the major W.European real estate markets are down, esp the UK.

Anonymous said...

I am in a real mess I think. I was planning on retiring to the Georgia mountains. Now I cant. My property isnt worth as much anymore. I cant retire on what I was hoping to retire on. I have some properties that have gone down in value along with some stocks that are 8,000 dollars down. I know I should feel grateful that I have these things but now I cant retire. It is very depressing to me.

Anonymous said...

Where are all those million dollar foreclosures? I live in Miami and would like to find a million dollar oceanfront condo for sale in a new building, but so far haven't seen any!!! I'd like to get a foreclosure condo in Jade Miami, or Trump Miami, but there are none! The problem is that the foreclosure condos are there, but you just can't find it. I've been using this site to find foreclosure condos Miami, but all the new condos do not have any...

M3reo group said...

Short sale foreclosure deals can also be made. Here the lender directly negotiates and agrees to accept less money.Foreclosure real estatepledges huge profit.