On a recent Sunday afternoon, Realtor Joyce Zangmeister was hosting an open house in central Thousand Oaks.
Two other houses just down the street were also on the market, both distressed sales.
It’s a scenario not uncommon throughout Ventura County as default notices rise and median home prices drop to the lowest levels in two years.
Despite this, Zangmeister says sellers continue to have unrealistic expectations about what their homes are worth.
“Buyers determine value by comparison shopping,” said Zangmeister, who works for Troop Real Estate and also has listings in Oxnard and Somis.
“The market will bear what the market will bear,” she said. “So many buyers want to steal the deal and you’ve got to be realistic in your list price. If you’re not, you might be on the market but not in the market.”
Kelly and Megan Goebel popped in to take a look at Zangmeister’s listing. The couple, who have an 11-month-old baby, own a two-bedroom condo, but because they plan to have another child soon, they’re looking for a family home with a yard.
“If you can buy, this is absolutely the right time. You can’t lose,” said Kelly, who’s a contractor.
They are in the fortunate position of not having to sell their condo to be able to buy and plan to take their time and make sure they get a good deal.
“The priority for us is really the right fit for what our family needs and we have a very specific set of criteria for what we want in a home. But if we can find that, especially in this market, then I think we would really win,” said Megan, who works at Amgen.
According to information released this month by the California Association of Realtors, house prices continue to depreciate in Ventura County.
The median sales price for a single family detached home in October was $399,160, down from $415,220 in September, a drop of 3.9 percent.
It marks a 6.5 percent, or $28,000, decline from a year ago, when the median sales price was $426,980.
The median price is the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less.
The median price for all homes on the market in Ventura County, including existing and new single-family homes and condos, was $335,000 in October, according to latest figures from DataQuick Information Systems. That’s the lowest median price since 2008.
“While October’s sales were on track with expectations, the month-to-month drop in the median price was larger than usual for this time of year,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, C.A.R. vice president and chief economist.
Fred Evans of Re/Max Gold Coast Realtors said falling prices are leading to a lot of activity for properties listed below $400,000, many of which are short sales.
“Inventory at the bottom end is selling now because of the combination of low prices and low interest rates,” he said.
About one-third of his current listings in the west county, including Oxnard, Ventura and Camarillo, are distressed sales.
“Banks are doing short sales instead of foreclosures,” he said. “They are encouraging sellers to contact a Realtor and bring them an offer. I am amazed at how low they are willing to go in some cases.”
Rich and Jan McMillen, Realtors with Century 21 Rolling Oaks, said distressed properties continue to drag down the prices of non-distressed properties and harm appraisal figures.
“There’s a house on one side of the street that’s a foreclosure and a house on the other side of the street that’s a standard sale. The seller with the one in foreclosure will sell their property for whatever price they can and the same with short sales and then the property on the other side of the street is affected by that and will have to lower their price,” Rich McMillen said.
Many of those who are listing their homes for sale despite the drop in prices are, real estate agents say, baby boomers looking to downsize, older folks looking to relocate to be closer to grandchildren or other family members, and those who are in two-story homes and for medical reasons now need a single-story home.
When it comes to finding buyers for those homes, though, there are fewer first-time buyers than a year ago, now that government incentives have expired, and fewer people able or willing to trade up the property ladder.
So while the lower end of the market is seeing activity, there are almost no buyers for properties listed in the $600,000 to $700,000 range, Evans said.
“What I am finding at the high end is a really strong indication that prices are going to continue to drop. There are not a lot of people who can qualify for large loans anymore and that’s what’s hurting us,” Evans said. “Homes in Spanish Hills and hillside areas are almost half the price of what they were in 2007.”
Like others in his industry, Richard Quinn, who recently retired after running Century 21 America Realty in Thousand Oaks for almost 30 years, points the finger of blame at lenders and a culture of acquisitiveness.
“A lot of the problems come from legislation that put people into homes who shouldn’t have been without verification,” Quinn said.
“The American dream was to get a job, get married and own a home. But the market went crazy. It was like going to Vegas to play. People were treating houses like a stock; it wasn’t an investment,” he said.
Jan McMillen says consumer confidence is the biggest stumbling block to overall recovery right now and that with interest rates and prices as low as they are, buyers should be more confident and less afraid.
“They’re afraid they’re not getting a deal. They’re afraid that the price might go down a little bit. I don’t know how much more prices can go down,” she said.
“There was a time when people wanted a place to raise their family and have stability and a home wasn’t a bank, it was a cradle. Now people need to go back to that mentality.”
“It’s going to get better but the time frame for it getting better is very difficult to tell,” Rich McMillen said.
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