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The Central Coast Regional MLS spans multiple counties. It is mostly San Luis Obispo County and Northern Santa Barbara County. The nearest MLS to our south is Santa Barbara. The nearest MLS to our north is MLS Listings which spans Monterey to San Francisco.
The data below is a current snapshot of all homes in the CCRMLS region. Not just homes for sale, but every property on the tax roles. The data is calculated using something called an Automated Valuation Model or AVM. AVMs have been developed as tools that Mortgage companies (Banks) use to understand the default risk in their portfolio. There is no way that they can have an appraisal done on every home on a regular basis, so they use complex mathematics to create estimates. The AVM is a very important number for both home buyers and home sellers. Frankly, if there is a mortgage involved in the purchase, the AVM is the first tool used to evaluate the potential loan. Secondly, the bank will review the appraisal. This protects the bank from lending too much on a home and the buyer from paying too much. Sellers need to think about this in pricing a home. Even if you do get the highest possible offer from a buyer, the offer price may be too high to qualify for a loan. It happens a lot.
According to a report from Property Radar, in September, nearly one in four, or 1.5 million (22 percent) of California’s 6.8 million homeowners were underwater while more than 420,000 (6 percent) were barely above water (less than 10 percent equity in their homes).
This chart shows that in CCRMLS, the number is more like 2/3 of the properties are underwater, but most are not underwater by very much. 22% of the homes are on the bubble of + or – 10%. Given the accuracy of AVMs being what they are, you can be assured that there are an equal amount in the range of 10% above or below even equity that could go either way.
21% of the property is between -10% and -40%. This is the area of the market that qualifies for something we call a Short Sale. In most cases, the bank recognizes that both the home owner and the bank have a problem. Typically, a Century 21 Hometown REALTOR® can work with those sellers to get the bank to agree to market the property at current market values. 100% of the proceeds of the sale go to the bank and the homeowner walks away without owing any more on the home. There are some tax consequences that our Century 21 Hometown agents can explain.
That last group of properties that are more than 40% underwater is 4% of the market. That is what we usually consider the Foreclosure market. It does not mean that those properties are in Foreclosure, it just means that they probably should be. There are plenty of homeowners who pay back underwater loans.
If you do not know where your property value ranks in comparison to market value, contact any Century 21 Hometown agent. We can provide you with the AVM for your property, or we can do a full analysis by visiting your home. In today’s market, there are more buyers than sellers, so property values are going up. It is a great time to list your home for sale with Century 21 Hometown.