“Anybody who could breathe got a loan,” [Realtor Cecily Tippery] said. “They had low entry rates and financed to the max. Everyone was betting the market would continue to increase so they could refinance into a new loan.”
Instead, real estate values sagged in the overbuilt areas. Homeowners could not refinance because they didn’t have equity. The net result was a wave of people unable to make escalating mortgage payments, who wound up in foreclosure. In Contra Costa County, 1,287 homes were lost to foreclosure from January through June of this year. Within Tippery’s six-city territory (Antioch, Pittsburg, Byron, Discovery Bay, Oakley and Brentwood), she said there are 566 foreclosed properties for sale.
The properties also illustrate how quickly prices skyrocketed and then collapsed. One five-bedroom Brentwood home was purchased about three years ago for $850,000 and appraised at $1 million within a year of that. “Now I’m having a hard time getting it sold at $650,000,” she said.”
∙ Realtor specializes in selling foreclosed homes [SFGate]
Good, no one should ever pay $1m for Brentwood.
Wow, down 35% to 2002-2003 prices, and this thing is really just getting started, a few weeks into a downturn.
Entire life’s savings have now been lost in a matter of a few weeks. Think of the lives ruined, marriages shattered, families torn apart.
And it’s going to continue. Every “sold” sign you see for the next few years will be a new candidate for a whole family’s worth of lives ruined. And it was supposed to be such a happy occasion…
“Good, no one should ever pay $1m for Brentwood”
Amen, come to think of it, no one should ever pay over 800k for Brentwood…
“Amen, come to think of it, no one should ever pay over 800k for Brentwood…”
But they were and now they’re underwater if not out of their house. Wonder how many people are thinking no one should ever pay over $600K in Bernal or over $1M in Noe?
As someone who grew up in the Bay Area (who is around 30 year of age) I can say that as far as I was concerned growing up Brentwood was near LA
I had never heard the place referenced above until about 8 years ago. It wasn’t part of the Bay Area to my mind.
i have been in SF for 11 years and heard of brentwood for the 1st time last year. I still have no idea where it is.
I’m with zig. as far as i am concerned, it is in LA
Well, I’m a bit younger than you folks and grew up in the East Bay after living in Chicago.
I also consider Brentwood to be LA (OJ!!) but I knew of this one due to long bus rides to play HS basketball out there.
Anyway, the East Bay IMO should never reach the levels of SF. They don’t deserve to. Certain areas of the Bay Area (especially that far out) should have price ceilings. Brentwood is an example of one.
Good peach farms in Brentwood the SF one, it is actually possible to drive there and pick your own, great june experience. Although increasingly surrounded by McMansions no one now wants…
The problem with Brentwood is access – it’s a 2 lane road for local access to most of the homes in the area and then a 2 lane freeway (Hwy 4) to connect with the rest of the Bay Area. The area was under served by roads prior to the last decade’s building boom and now it’s just ridiculous. Sure, you get a nice big newer home on your own (small) lot but the commute even to the East Bay job centers around Walnut Creek is still torture. And while this is a data point, it doesn’t really have that much bearing on the price of homes in Noe due to the vast number of quasi-generic homes in these deep suburban areas (where the supply is still growing) versus the relatively small number of Noe homes that trade hands per year (where the supply is relatively static).
brentwood is 57 miles from my current home in SF. and only 26 miles from Stockton. this is not the bay area. this is the central valley
I like the cherries over in Brentwood. But not enough to plop down $1 mill. Why not just go further out into Discovery Bay? I know someone who worked in SF and commuted from there – I was impressed.
impressed? I would be disgusted and embarrassed
While you’re at it, you can just go all the way out to the Sacramento fringes, where homes are under $200K. For the difference in price you can buy a small plane and fly into the east bay every morning.
BART is planning an extension through Brentwood. That may help their real estate recovery in 2016.
Right. In the meantime, check this out:
http://ushomeauction.com/
Top right there’s a link that says “HUGE 4 Day Northern CA Foreclosure Auction Event”
500 homes must go. I especially like the comparison of starting bid vs. recently valued.
Interesting about the Auction. Only 1, yes 1 of the “over 500” is in San Francisco (on Noriega Street). However, there are a surprising number just across the bay in Oakland. Yes, it is coming. But it’s not here yet.
curmudgeon don’t count on a big fallout in SF. It’s just not going to happen like it has inland, central valley, sacramento. If you want a good foreclosure property, and plenty to choose from, you need to plan on moving to those areas. They have been, and will continue to be, the hardest hit areas. Just a fact.
here’s 39 properties going to the highest bidder here in sf this month:
120 Dolphin Ct
243 Sargent St
2026 46 Ave
2319 46 Ave
2 Sparta St
458 Athens St
477 Harkness Ave
550 4 St
2690 47 Ave
171 Kenwood Way
2111 Franklin St
409 Ulloa St
485 Tehama St
1610 Wallace Ave
1378 Quesada Ave
159 Gladstone Dr
37 Farallones St
3898 Market St
41 Federal St
936 Hollister Ave
4128 3 St
1600 Innes Ave
224 Harkness Ave
2683 21 Ave
534 Natoma St
368 Bridgeview Dr
5044 Diamond Heights Blvd
839 London St
1204 Alemany Blvd
1257 Alemany Blvd
182 Majestic Ave
31 Ramona Ave
401 Stoneridge Ln
462 Diamond St
456 Los Palmos Dr
925 Mendell St
1539 Ingalls St
199 New Montgomery St
632 Cortland Ave
Thanks Mr. Dude. Like watching the Katrina weather reports. Good thing we are safe here in SF.
James, might I ask where you got that list? A few of those seem like nice blocks.
Would be interesting to see some more details on 41 Federal and 199 New Montgomery, feels like we might have seen these previously on socketsite.
Care to share more James or point plugged in folks in the right direction?
sure, go login to propertyshark, click on the free foreclosure report, drill down to ca, then sf county, then the auctions for here.
[Editor’s Note: Keep in mind that the vast majority of these properties never actually make it to auction.]
I am very interested in foreclosure property at 632 Cortland. I looked up Zillow.com and there is no such address. Several house sold over 1 Million in the past 3 months, over asking price.