Surprise real estate (sale, foreclosures, loan)

[johnpatrick1]

Hello Arizona


My wife and I are looking to purchase a ranch with 3br 2ba house with a small pool. We see some beautiful homes around the 95-105K range. I understand there was a huge downturn in the market but are these prices for real? Nice area? Worth the price or are these priced this way because bad element has moved in?

Seems these prices are a steal. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks


John

[Wyoming Darrell]

Hi John, Sorry to burst the bubble, but I was just in Surprise trying to buy a 3br 2 ba ranch. I was looking at a little higher priced home, but actually the lower priced homes are even harder to buy right now. To give you a couple examples, I looked at two different homes priced at 189k and 192k. The offers on them within 4 days were around 250k. You can still find a bargain if you look hard, but they no longer give them away. Good house in a good neighborhood = good price. Shabby house or in a shabby neighborhood = lower price.

[johnpatrick1]

Thank you for the reply.

That does stink. Guess we missed out.

[Jamieazexpat]

Hi John,

You may still be able to find something. There is a trend at the moment of listing agents underpricing homes to create bidding wars, but those deals do exist. A lot will depend on exactly where you want to be Moderator cut: not allowed Thanks
Jamie

[azjack]

There are plenty of houses in Surprise selling for significantly less than $189,000 in tidy subdivisions built in the last ten years. There are also plenty of foreclosures in the pipeline, which one can learn about by looking at county recorder data.

Anecdotally, I overheard two different people over this past weekend in Surprise discussing their decision to walk away from their house debt in the coming weeks. One was a cashier at Fry's, the other was a nurse stopping by a coffee shop for a jolt before work. It is becoming the most acceptable thing in the world. A relative in a neighboring suburb has a Trustee Sale scheduled for this week. His income has dropped, but he could still easily afford the loan. He simply has joined this trend. Any social pressure to avoid default is evaporating. Heck, if you are underwater at all, you may feel like a sucker for sticking with the loan when all is said and done. Interesting phenomenon.