The foreclosure crisis has meant some spectacular deals for those with the ability to buy, local real estate observers say.
When the residential housing market crested in the second half of 2005, there were dozens of million-dollar homes in the Rogue Valley. Today, you can acquire someone else's dream home for a fraction of the cost.We're seeing a lot of the million-dollar homes on the market for 30 to 50 percent of their original value," says Ron Galbreath, an agent with Keller Williams Realty in Medford. "It's amazing, if you've got the money today, what you can buy."
Across Jackson County's housing market, buyers hold the trump cards. According to the latest Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service figures, foreclosures and short sales account for three out of every five transactions.
"We are in a price-conditioned market," says Bill Clark, an agent with Windermere Van Vleet & Associates. "If you want to sell, you have to have activity, and the way to get activity is by price."
The median price for an existing single-family home has tumbled 47 percent, from $275,000 in fall 2005 to $145,000 last month, and two-thirds of the deals closing within the past six months have been for less than $200,000, says Randy Unger of Sierra Real Estate in Medford.
"When you add the $200,000 to $300,000 range, that's under 20 percent, so 87 percent of all the sales closed are under $300,000," Unger says. "So the majority of the best buys are in the lowest price range."
The low-end is not only accessible to a great number of buyers, but attracts the key investor/first-time buyer demographic as well. The supply of houses listed below $100,000 is short enough to create its own market, Unger says.
"The opportunity is for investors because there are properties requiring lender repairs, which eliminates most buyers that need financing," he says. "There is a small investor pool and cash is king in this market."
Still, of the 46 homes Unger has closed this year, the majority are owner-occupied.
The Eagle Point Golf Course, where stratospheric prices crashed under economic gravity forces, is among the best areas to find such bargains.
"There are some great buys out there," Clark says. "There are houses selling for 50 percent of what they were in 2005."
A 3,100-square-foot house on Patricia Lane that sold for $579,900 in October 2005 is listed today at $298,000. On Pumpkin Ridge Drive, a 2,780-square-foot home selling for $554,900 in March 2006 is listed now at $359,900.
The downside is, those distressed property deals have squeezed the value out of existing homes and have sidelined most of the region's builders who can't come close to replicating those houses for the same price.
Michael Schwindle, a Musician's Friend executive who moved to Medford from Atlanta in 2008 with his wife and six children, acquired his home for $330,000 in a short sale. The two-story, four-bedroom house on Park Ridge Drive in the Vista Pointe neighborhood had been advertised at $524,900 at the height of the real estate boom.
The Schwindles quietly put the 2,811-square-foot house up for sale last year, but there were no takers as a steady stream of distressed properties en route to foreclosure stole away interest. Now with a career move on the horizon for Michael Schwindle, there is more urgency.
The asking price a year ago was $369,900, but now the expectation is it will sell for something lower.
With a neighboring house in default and headed for a short sale, the Schwindles had little choice but to price theirs accordingly.
"We had the advantage of buying ours in a short sale, but the downside is that we are still competing with those guys," Michael Schwindle said. "The (house) next to me is actively for sale and it's a short sale. So you have two houses priced close to one another and one is a short sale and one is a straight-up sale."
The flood of distressed properties has choked off new construction as well. Contractors simply can't build a house for anywhere near present prices.
"We just can't compete with the foreclosure market," says Larry Denn, a veteran Rogue Valley home builder. "I would like to give you a tale about how I could, but in the long run I couldn't."
In 1993, Denn built a two-story, 2,928-square-foot house on a triangular lot in east Medford where Highcrest and Angel Crest split. In November 2005, the original owners put the property up for sale. They used Remco Center Real Estate, a company that often worked with owners showing their own homes, and the list price was $575,000. Two months later, the property was pulled off the market.
In February 2007, it was relisted for $425,000 with Coldwell Banker Pro West Real Estate and county property records show it sold in August of that year for that price.
In February 2010, the house went back on the market for $265,000, entered into the foreclosure process in October and signed over to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Co., better known as Freddie Mac, in March.
Originally repriced at $234,900 three months ago, the house is now listed at $210,000.
"I couldn't duplicate that house for that price," conceded Denn. "That's why we're not working, like most of the other builders in town; that's a whale of a buy."
Denn says labor costs doubled between the time the Highcrest house was built and the height of the building boom.
"If a guy was working for $15 an hour 20 years ago, he was making $30 to $35 three years ago if he was a framer," Denn says. "It may be down to about $22 an hour now."
Drywall and lumber costs are about the same, he says, but plywood and laminated panel are escalating along with anything with plastic content because of higher petroleum prices.
"Paint is outrageous," Denn says. "We paid $92 for five gallons of interior paint the other day; back then it was between $32 and $42."
Blue Grass Downs in east Central Point, among the final areas of building activity before the market crumbled, has appeal for its recent construction. One house, listed for $425,000 a couple of years ago, was picked up for $236,000 in a December short sale.
"Talent and Ashland are holding their prices, there are no bargains there," Galbreath says. "The same with Jacksonville, where people are holding their homes and not lowering their prices as much. They don't seem to have to make the price adjustments as the other areas."
With the dollar struggling to hold its value against other currencies and certificate of deposit interest rates mired in the 2 percent range, dramatically reduced real estate becomes more attractive.
"A lot of people are pulling money out of their CDs and putting it into real estate," says Doug Morse, an agent with John L. Scott Real Estate in Medford. "Some are buying and flipping. If they can buy at $100,000 and sell for $145,000 they won't (net) a lot of money, but they can make $10,000 or $15,000. If they are doing five or six of those a year, they'd rather do that than trying to make money down the road in something else."
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