9-23-10

By Samantha Rohn

Much like in the rest of California, the Sacramento real estate market is continuing to feel the effects of the current economy. The Sacramento Bee reports that according to a report published by market researcher MDA DataQuick, 83,261 default notices were issued in California, with 8,341 of those being served to homeowners in the greater Sacramento area.

Default notices are the first step in any foreclosure process, and the third quarter foreclosure rates are higher than in the previous cycle. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the housing market is dipping, as the reasons for the rise in default notices are unclear. However, this does mean that now could be a great time to perform a Sacramento real estate search to find bank-owned homes or distressed homes available at huge discounts over their market value.

There are many properties available that are now banked-owned thanks to the epic collapse of the housing market in recent years. Banks don’t consider these homes to be houses but assets that need to be sold in order to recoup losses, giving potential homeowners the possibility of finding great discounts when shopping West Sacramento homes for sale. Banks will either hire real estate agents in the market to sell homes or put them up for auction in an attempt to recover some of the unpaid balance of the loan.

While the number of default notices were up from the previous quarter, 2010 Q3 numbers weren’t nearly as bad as during the same time last year. Many experts believe that next quarter is a “wild card” which is fairly unpredictable in terms of the housing market, especially in determining if the refinancing options that many homeowners undertook to help them save their homes have worked.