Anyone who wants to buy a foreclosure in Downtown San Diego better act fast or you might end up with nothing. Foreclosures are put back on the market and they are often selling in a week – sometimes in less.
Downtown San Diego Condo and Loft buyers are facing a trend where agents have one or two foreclosure listings now, compared with 15 to 20 a year ago. As a result of less inventory and higher demand, there is almost no negotiating with the banks…no back and forth or counter offers. This is not to say that banks will not make deals, but due to the fact that there are competing offers on the same property. The seller is pretty much asking for the highest and best price…and cash is king.
For example, we just put an offer in for an investor client of ours on a bank owned unit (2bed,2bath,2parking) located in the Columbia District. One of the offers was at full price all cash, the second over asking all cash, and finally the third $15,000 over asking price but financed. In fact…in the second quarter of sales for Downtown San Diego Condos, 109 units or 37% of the total sales were all cash purchases.
Please refer to the following graph where you can see Downtown units sold, Financing vs. Cash the second quarter of 2009. Financing is leading the way with 186 units sold or 63% and Cash has 109 units sold or 37%.
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