Real Estate Problems in California

(EMAILWIRE.COM, July 16, 2007 ) SACRAMENTO, CA - “Buy my house,” is the plaintive cry many homeowners in the Sacramento region are repeating as high levels of single family home inventories are unable to sell fast. In the second quarter of 2007 sales were down more than 40% and the median price of a home fell 13%.Some of the reasons are a large number of home sellers such as individuals and homebuilding companies are putting more and more homes on the market all the time priced to sell. This brings the prices down, but many prospective home buyers, especially first-time homebuyers, are still feeling like prices are too high for them to buy a home. Coupling this phenomenon with the increasing mortgage underwriting standards and it’s no surprise that houses don’t sell as fast as they used to during the boom years of 2001 to 2005.Some companies that buy houses such as The Home Buying Center.com (www.thehomebuyingcenter.com) are doing a brisk business helping people sell a home fast to real estate investors nationwide, but report that because of a number of problems in California, and the Central Valley’s real estate market, much of their business in coming more heavily in other states. In Sacramento, foreclosure activity has caused The Home Buying Center.com to focus on the short-sale market. “We do help a number of homeowners negotiate short sales with their lenders so they can sell their house quick to an investor or first-time homebuyer,” said Patrick McGilvray, the company’s president.Sacramento’s market saw a lot of speculation in terms of house appreciation in the early years of this decade. This drove up the prices of homes in the region artificially and, coupled with a very free-wheeling attitude about credit standards, created a market devoid of rationality. It was only a matter of time, some experts said, before prices would need to stabilize.Resale prices in Sacramento dropped about 10% from a year ago to $339,00 according to Dataquick Information Systems of La Jolla, CA (http://www.dataquick.com). The median price for new houses in the area was $400,400.Contact:Patrick McGilvray, J.D.Tel: 916-920-3278 ext 2www.thehomebuyingcenter.com###This press release was issued through GroupWeb EmailWire.Com. For more information on press release distribution, go to http://www.emailwire.com.

Patrick McGilvray, J.D.

patrick@thehomebuyingcenter.com