inland empire foreclosures

The news is out from Dataquick (and has been posted by C.A.R.) that foreclosures are up. Not surprisingly, the Inland Empire leads the rest of the state in foreclosures. The fast increase in values over the past 2 years made it very tempting for borrowers to get that extra, unearned equity out of their houses. The good news is that they didn't increase their taxes, but the bad news is that they're now making similar mortgage payments to people who bought more recently.

People are always asking me to find them foreclosures on the MLS, but not much luck there. Sellers generally don't like to appear desperate at the start since they don't want lowball offers.

Foreclosure houses are generally not great deals right now. Unfortunately, people who are going into foreclosure have often borrowed a lot, sometimes as much as possible. If the loan was for 90% of the market value 6 months ago, and the market in that particular area has been flat since then, it's unlikely that the lender is going to allow that house to sell for 50%. You also have to take into account that there'll be brokerage fees, etc, even though commissions will be reduced on a short sale.
(See the numbers at http://www.dqnews.com/RRFor0206.shtm)