Any idea if these are going for more than asking price?[/quote]
If you scroll down the page near the bottom, redfin lists recent sales and active listings. It looks like they sell at about 100-110k for the apartmentish ones, they were listing and selling about 10k lower last year. I’m not sure what they go for right now because those comps might have a little jump due to the tax credit which is now expired. Logic says that some buyers had an extra 10k back then, but I’ll bet most buyers are investors. A 10% rise isn’t too crazy from last year, I personally think last year was an overcorrection in this area at that price level. The problem is, like sdr mention, they are all sold. In the 150k place, only 3 are listed and all 3 are pending. In six months, more than a dozen sold, but right now, there aren’t any to buy and there’s no tsuinami coming since all the bubble bought ones have already all been foreclosed on and been sold. We are two years ahead of SD up here as far as foreclosures go and most of it got taken back before the intervention. Regarding the cheaper building, there is only one 1br that is not pending or not a short sale (It’s hard to tell if shorts have offers, they rarely change the status) and that comples is three times the size but no 2 or 3 br that you can actually buy and that place already churned through most of it’s distress last year. So the boat has sailed but it hasn’t sailed far, you can still swim to it. Not sure for how long, sub 100x rent multipliers are a bit of an anomoly.
People of true retirement age might be buying those, many can muster the 100k in cash and have just a few hundred a month total housing costs. I know when I retire, I’m not leaving if my family is all here. I may want to go low maintenance, have no mortgage and I’ll need less stuff (maybe). I know when I rented in the 150k townhomes, I think half the place was young, solo, retirees in their 50’s and 60’s. They get 1650 sq ft and a two car garage, a small backyard, it’s not vegas or pheonix hot for only 150k. Lots of middle aged gals walking their little dogs seemed to be there and most were owners (I was the only renter at parties). The cheaper ones is a younger crowd, not sure I’d want to retire there. When I evaluate rentals I look at how they pencil out and I also like to make sure that, in a pinch, I could live there too. It’s a nice backup plan to sell your primary home and retire into your prop 13 low tax rental. Something to think about when shopping for a potential rental property, is who does the property appeal to. In the 150k ones, 1/3 of the units had a downstairs master bedroom, the older people seemed to gobble those up, I never saw one for rent in 2 years, cause if they rented, they tend to stay. In the 100k ones, they have no elevator, three story building, all stairs, I imagine the ground floor is at a premium for some people adn the turnover would be higher.
