Foreclosures were down in September in the Coachella Valley. That is according to the Desert Sun, Oct. 14, 2011. click here to view article . This is a very interesting article. I wonder if the foreclosures are down because more people are doing short sales, and perhaps those are not included in the number? I will say that last season in La Quinta we sold many homes, in all price ranges, due to the pricing decline. The sales decreased the inventory substantially. During the summer months (which are always slow in the desert) the inventory was not built back up. People don’t want to put their homes on the market during the summer months if they don’t have to because it is so hot and it is believed (whether right or wrong) that the buyers that come in the summer are “bottom feeders”, out to negotiate lower than the market values. Now that the Golf Courses are being reseeded and the flowers are being planted and the winter snowbirds are returning, the inventory is slowly beginning to build again—-and at those same low prices. Regardless of whether we see more or less foreclosures than in prior years, my feeling is that we will continue to see the buyers in the desert because the prices are so incredibly in the buyers favor. The only problem may be that there will not be the number of homes available that there were in the past. I would say to any “would be buyer” that now is definitely the time to buy! Don’t wait too much longer or you may have waited yourself out of good inventory!
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