Friday, May 28, 2010

Appreciating Investors And Investment In California Foreclosures In The Coming Years

By Jill Spanter

While it's certainly the case that California is undergoing a stiff crisis due to the nature of foreclosures, it might actually be the case that there might be investment potential in CA foreclosures in the years ahead. Certainly, it's going to be important for anyone thinking of investing in real estate out in California to understand what caused the rate to go up if only to avoid the problem in the future.

Anybody who's thinking on investing and what sort of potential might actually show itself out in California might look at the rate of CA foreclosures and think that there probably isn't too much that can be done. Many real estate experts chalk up what went on out in the Golden State to a fair amount of real estate speculation that occurred even among normal folks selling or buying homes.

In effect, many of these buyers and sellers were speculating that they could get into and out of their homes well before any correction in the real estate markets would occur, and often with a significant profit in their pockets. This means that many also took on much more leveraged debt than they reasonably could afford under almost any circumstance.

All of this activity is exactly like leveraging in any other market where that is taken on to acquire something that investors hope will appreciate enough in value to eventually pull a nice rate of return out of it. For homes and sellers and buyers, it meant taking on a mortgage that sooner or later was going to be unaffordable if they were still attached to these homes and hadn't sold them in time.

This went on all the time out in California, where even the drive through clerk at the local fast food restaurant was getting into a home way over his market level. This was due to extremely easy lending and cheap money, for one. Exotic loans were put together and became practically normal. They allowed for "interest only" loans that eventually would turn into regular loans.

Much of this was fine during the previous decade when the economy was running on all eight cylinders, but those who expected to keep buying $500,000 homes and then pulling a 30% profit from them a year later soon found themselves with properties that were worth 30% less due to the market crashing around her ears. They now have homes that are worth far less than they owe in many cases.

For an investor these days who's thinking of maybe putting a toe back into the real estate market out in the Golden State, understanding that it's going to take fortitude and an ability to accept higher risk than normal might be required. He or she will need cash reserves and a lot of patience to find the right properties that can be improved and sold in the short amount of time, for one.

Lately, many experts are seeing signs that the rate of CA foreclosures might have actually stabilized or even dropped slightly, though nobody is saying that California will recover easily from the heavy blow it was dealt over the past couple of years. The state didn't help itself in some instances due to the way it collected tax revenues from properties. Still, a smart investor can succeed in almost any market, even one as Rocky as California's.

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