Many homeowners have been waiting for the right time to sell their home, especially here in Santa Clarita. The market has rebounded and prices are trending up, interest rates have never been lower, and inventory is down. The stars have aligned, we are now in a sellers market making now the perfect time to sell your home in Santa Clarita!!!!
You heard us right…Real estate has become a seller’s market
Houses are selling here in Santa Clarita, and in many cases selling quickly and with multiple offers. This is also causing some homes to get over asking price. Buyers have been hearing the media talk about low interest rates and bottom of the market pricing for quite some time and they have responded by jumping in the market. If you couple this with the fact that inventory is down, then we have a recipe for a buyer’s feeding frenzy on available homes for sale. We typically have around 1200 active homes for sale and we currently have less than 400!!!! That is less than one third of normal levels. This phenomenon has created a seller’s market where the homeowner is king (or queen).
Who is thinking about selling their home?
Many people who may need a lifestyle change are thinking about selling their house.
- Family has expanded? sell your smaller home and upgrade into more square footage or additional bedrooms
- Family Downsized? Kids went off to college? Sell your larger home and downsize into something easier to maintain with a lower payment
- Just want more bang for your buck? Many people who purchased in the past are simply taking advantage of the market and can upgrade into a larger home, but with today’s rates could have an equal or lessor mortgage payment than they had previously.
Is it a good time to short sale a home?
It is a great time to take advantage of programs that were put in place to protect if you had to sell your home “short” of the money owed on your loan. In fact some of these programs have expiration dates quickly approaching, so time is running out
- Anti Efficiency Law is still in effect- This keeps the creditors from coming after you following the short sale. The debt is wiped away
- The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act and Debt of 2007 is set to Expire December 31st 2012– This forgives the taxable income on the amount “short”, meaning if you sell next year you will have to pay taxes on the deficit.
- And most important reason now is a good time to short sale your home … Many banks are paying Santa Clarita homeowners up to $30,000 to complete a short sale!
This may sound strange, but in California banks have to go through the court system to foreclose on a property. This system can cost the bank as much as $50,000 to navigate. So to alleviate that , some banks have implemented a relocation program where they offer financial assistance to the homeowner for them to complete the short sale and afford to move.
Cherrie Brown & Zach McReynolds
If you or someone you know has been thinking about selling, let us assist you in a creating a game plan for getting maximum dollar in the shortest amount of time. Please fill out the form below and we’ll contact you soon
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