For my story today on foreclosures around the county, I spoke with a few local Realtors who sell homes that have been repossessed by lenders.
My interview with Gary Kent, one such Realtor, didn’t make it in the story. I asked him how business is going.
“For me, it’s great,” he said. “I don’t take pleasure in people’s misfortune, but for me, business is doing well.”
His anecdotal sense of where the market is faring worst — Oceanside, Spring Valley, Chula Vista — matched the ZIP code chart we posted today.
And Kristian Peter, the other bank-owned specialist we spoke to, said all of the foreclosures in Chula Vista will mean two to three more years of price declines. He forecasted five to 10 more years before prices turn up again.
“[Lenders and owners of] bank-owned properties and short sales really don’t care what price they sell at as long as they sell,” he said. “It might sell for 10, 20, 40 percent less.”
And despite some of the trouble we found on Little Lake Street, Peter’s sense is that we haven’t seen “huge price reductions” yet.
“When do consumers feel it’s worth it to me to buy a home?” he said. “We’ve got 30 percent [price decline] at least, especially in the Chula Vista area, before we hit that.”
(For more on the Realtors who sell bank-owned properties, check out our story on foreclosures as the family business.)