The number of foreclosures in Santa Clara County jumped by
nearly 150 percent between 2006 and 2007, and the number of
single-family homes sold in Gilroy fell last month by more than 50
percent compared to December 2006.
The number of foreclosures in Santa Clara County jumped by nearly 150 percent between 2006 and 2007, and the number of single-family homes sold in Gilroy fell last month by more than 50 percent compared to December 2006.
As over-extended investors clamor to recoup their losses, local real estate agents and brokers have stepped up to the plate, recognizing that a buyer’s market intensifies competition.
That is why Len Lindstrom parked a new Honda Civic sedan outside a home he has listed on Dowdy Street for just less than $600,000. Buy the house, get the car, he said.
That’s the idea, at least.
Other seasoned brokers and agents say Lindstrom’s “gimmick” is a natural salesman’s reaction to a sour market: National home prices dropped precipitously in 2007, breaking the record 6.1 percent annual decline in 1991, according to Standard & Poor’s house price index.
*It’s just like a car dealership giving away a trip to Hawaii or something, a handfull of agents said at the Holiday Inn Thursday morning, where the South County Association of Realtors gathered for its weekly meetings.
The nonprofit’s membership has dropped from more than 600 members last year to porbably about 450 this year, according to SCAR President Julian Mancias, a broker with Coyote Creek Realtly. Mancias said with home inventory high and prices and interest rates low, it makes sense to buy now, and before long cagey homebuyers might wish they had bought property sooner than later.
Lindstrom hopes the Civic will mean sooner for him.
More information on ways agents are handling the housing downturn will be posted online throughout the day and published in Friday’s Dispatch.
