Sacramento Foreclosures up 76% in August

September 16, 2011
Last night on the evening news it was reported that Sacramento real estate foreclosures were up 76% over August's rate. The news  anchor speculated that the reason was largely due to Bank of America's financial troubles. Apparently the bank has more to gain from foreclosing than refinancing.  According to the news anchor, speculators have entered the market big time, buying up foreclosed properties at the low prices and then renting them.  The reasoning is that people who are foreclosed on still need a place to live.

I am not sure this is true.  My studies while working in urban planning showed that during hard times when people lost their jobs, there was a lot of doubling up in living arrangements. Children moved back in with their parents. Sometimes relatives moved in with family members, etc.  Also, a lot of people leave town when they cannot get a job.

I currently live in an apartment, and they are offering a discount on rent for their occupants to  refer their friends to them.  Also, I see people at street intersections waving signs advertising apartments for rent.  All these signs suggest that there is actually a lack of demand for rentals, brobably caused by a mass flight of unemployed persons from the area. We will see how it all comes out in the wash,

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Meanwhile, I left a message on Steve Streng's website on Monday afternoon.  He apparently replied within a bout an hour and wanted to set up an appointment for Tuesday morning.  But, because of computer problems and using a new email program, I did not see his message until Tuesday night.  He mentioned that he had house guests coming in from Hawaii and was going to be going to Las Vegas on Friday.  So I called and left a message to get together next week.

In the interim, I checked out a house that he mentioned in his email that I was unaware of. From the street, it looks like a very good buy.  It is the same style as the one in the first picture I posted on my opening page, "What is this all about?". . So I am waiting breathlessly.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Last Friday, I got a letter from the VA Hospital setting me up for an appointment at the Thoracic Surgery Clinic.I may as well have been dropped from the tenth floor. Thoracic surgery is almost always lung cancer and I had smoked for 28 years before stopping in 1981. The appointment was prompted by something that showed up on a recent CAT scan.  So I left a message for Steve Streng explaining the situation and saying I would have to put off any further house-hunting until I see how things sort.

Today, I showed up fully expecting to begin making arrangements for admission to the hospital. But it turned out that the Thoracic surgeon is also one of the general surgeon's who evaluate for other conditions.  Fortunately, it was for another much less alarming condition and not one in particular need of treatment at this time. So I can now proceed as planned to start looking seriously at the River City Commons homes on the market.

My situation is not too different from other  people who had chosen not to buy homes during the bubble. CBS had a story on the evening news this evening about the housing crash in Chicago. It featured a guy who thought he would never be able to afford a home and now finds that he can buy the home of his dreams for a mortgage  payment less than his current rent. That is exactly the situation with me.  I hate to think, however, that my own good fortune comes on the back of other's bad fortune.  But that is just part of the vicissitudes of life and shifting fortune. vThis is certainly the time for people who have secure jobs to be buying.