Investors are snapping up foreclosed home list properties in Stockton as prices continue to decline to levels unseen in California in nearly 4 decades.
Across San Joaquin County, foreclosed home list prices range from $15,900 to $50,000, even below the 1970s price levels when homes were priced between $23,000 and $84,000.
These bargain price levels are far below the peak price level of $425,000 in 2005.
In the first months of this year, the median price in San Joaquin dropped below $200,000.
Many of these bargain-priced foreclosed homes are expected to be purchased in bulk by investors with cash. But individual investors and first-time buyers can still make their own foreclosed home list search to find a house that they can occupy or rent out.
In the case of first-time investors, they need to take caution in making their purchases. Jack Mossman, a real estate agent working for Stockton-based Keller Williams Realty, said investors should know as much as they can about real estate. He advised them to learn how to hire contractors and how to estimate investment costs and returns.
Buyers who plan to occupy their units and who have engaged in do-it-yourself home projects in the past can benefit from their know-how. These buyers can choose from among the lowest-priced foreclosed houses and turn them into comfortable dwellings.
According to Imran Poladi, another Keller Williams agent, the lowest in Stockton’s foreclosed home list is a house measuring 1,300 square feet listed at $15,900, an overwhelming drop of 92 percent from its selling price of $180,000 in August 2005.
Poladi says that the average price in his foreclosed home list is around $49,900, the list price of a three-bedroom home along Pershing Avenue. In the housing boom in 2006, the last owner was able to sell it at $288,000 because of its manicured lawn and a wide backyard.
Norbert Huston, founder of property management firm Huston Associates, said he is seeing an increase in investors buying foreclosed properties, improving them and then renting them out. He related that one of his clients has been buying homes at Weston Ranch at bargain prices and then renting them out. He added that the rent income from the properties is enough to cover his client’s debts.
Stockton became known nationwide as the symbol of the foreclosure avalanche. But for many investors, the city’s foreclosed home list properties mean unanticipated opportunities to earn income.
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