Well, I can’t comment on the REO’s, but have you considered that perhaps not all those MLS listings need to sell? Perhaps they’re just fishing.
My neighborhood (Morgan Hill) has been the target of posts for brown lawns and to an extent it is true…but mostly with the younger families. I am representative of my street…empty nesters that could pay off our houses tomorrow if necessary…just transfer some funds. (NO, I did not inherit from my parents, they are still alive and 80, and the last time I visited, their WAMU statement with >$1,000,000 was sitting out, but that’s another problem if WAMU goes down, and yes, the most combined money they ever made was < 70 K annually, they just didn't spend money buying crap). We're here because of family (younger generation) that purchased in the IE due to affordability issues and although we hate the values downturn and we feel like losers because we put down substantial amounts or even paid cash, and paid for builder and other upgrades with cash cash, we're planted here for now and will not sell until the upturn, even if that is ten years from now. Why? Because we don't need to, and we like living by our families.
We (my street's empty nesters) as a group live below our means, drive older paid-for cars, don't take expensive vacations on credit cards, buy clothes on sale, don't eat out very often, hold significant investment portfolios, and wouldn't dream of spending > $2 for a Starbucks drink. (I personally carry filtered water from my house everywhere I go). I recently went to Promenade Mall, was starving, got in line at both Wetzel’s and Auntie Annies, and walked away from both lines…I couldn’t bring myself to spend $2.69 for a few cents worth of dough. I went to Trader Joes’s, bought a bag of Honey Whole Wheat pretzels, ate some, and took the rest of the large bag home.
Perhaps we’re a statistically insignificant microcosm of Temecula stratification, but we do represent the majority on my street.
When we bought this house the McMillan sales agent I had know since our first meeting in 1997 told me she was shocked by all the younger people buying with 100% financing suicide loans. We must have sounded like old biddies; she and I knew that the chickens would come home to roost and it would be 1992 again here in the IE.
P.S. for temeculaguy and everyone else on that post about Chick’s…one of the first things I did upon hitting Temecula was to dye my hair brown, drinks lots of red wine and coffee, have the implants removed, gain 25 pounds, and buy a Subaru :))
