In Southern California, foreclosure opportunists are going after cheap homes in downtrodden neighborhoods, 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.Many of those in the high-end foreclosure market were traditionally good borrowers with strong credit scores, unlike the profile of the typical subprime borrower. Still, the same gaffes occurred on the lending approval side, as people were given excessively high loans, based on the presumption that housing prices would continue upward.
Foreclosures have always been present in the top end of the market, but what best accounts for the increase are negative equity situations. For Pasadena homes around the million-dollar mark, it's a case of the home no longer matching the value of the loan. Many of the million dollar-plus Pasadena 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. Banks are often reluctant to list foreclosures for less than the loan's outstanding value because they don't want to take a loss. In addition, they're usually paying a brokerage firm to list the house, as banks aren't in the business of owning and selling property.
Brokerages take foreclosed home listings on a case-by-case basis.
Despite the previous owners not being able to, or not wanting to, make payments, there's nothing wrong with the houses. The best way to find such homes is through a local Pasadena Real Estate Agent that knows the foreclosure inventory. View Pasadena Foreclosure Homes and Pasadena Luxury Homes for sale.
Foreclosures are not all bad news for the high-end real estate market. In fact many buyers see the current market as a financial opportunity. The increase in foreclosures has driven interest from investors, out-of-town and foreign buyers looking to snag a deal in sunny California.
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