"How could she get a Sunset Park lot essentially $300,000 under market?"

I last featured 1328 Hill back in October 2010 right after it sold via short sale for a suspiciously low $575,000.

Well, my sharp eyed readers have noticed that it is back on market...the lot has been readied and you can now buy it with plans for the bargain price of $950,000.

From greengroovymom: Gaby Schkud, the realtor who lives next door to 1328 Hill bought the house after seeing it slowly fall into the banks hands. I think it is a little suspect. I think she had inside information, and was able to broker a deal at that price....something doesn't quite seem like that was a regular sale on the open market. She must have known the banker's agent and had other 'ins' with the bank....kinda sucks for us regular folk looking for a deal too.

Is this type of thing not regulated? How could she get a Sunset Park lot essentially $300,000 under market?
Remember, it SOLD on 10/14/10 for $575,000 when it was listed as a short sale for $999,000. It was on the market for just 8 days before going into escrow and selling for 40% less than asking.

Property Shark shows that on 10/14/10 the Schkud family trust was listed as the "seller" who deeded over the property to a "buyer" listed as Bruce Mitchell/The 1328 Hill Street LLC. This raises flags for me and I don't understand exactly what happened. Remember, Bruce Mitchell is a real estate agent in the same office as Schkud and he was the original owner who bought this place back in 2007 for $1.05mm and supposedly short saled it here. So why is he (and the Hill St LLC) listed as the most recent "buyer"? Maybe Schkud family was an investor in it with Bruce originally and they deeded over their interest (seen here) just prior to the short sale going through? And maybe the current owner isn't listed on Property Shark? I don't have enough access to records to figure it out. I would very much like to know who the current owner is. If it is either of these parties then I wonder how they would be able to explain buying this via short sale essentially from themselves at half the price? Maybe they cut a deal with a second lien holder or something...I don't know. There are possible explanations but something doesn't look right here. Maybe a smarter more plugged in reader can help out.

Aside from all this, the current listing is overpriced. Too much airplane noise there for the empty lot to be worth north of $900k.

Full Circle -- Veteran Housing Blogger Buys Home

I was first introduced to the housing bubble idea by a guy named Rich Toscano. He was a self proclaimed data nerd who made an extremely powerful and eye opening powerpoint presentation to a group of us taking a mortgage finance extension class back in late 2005/early 2006. He started a website, piggington.com, where he laid out his case for the upcoming housing bust. He tracked the San Diego bubble throughout the bust and always had a bunch of nicely put together graphs looking at inventory, price history, and various relationships (price/rent, etc).

His graphs and commentary became more positive over the past year as prices had fallen and various affordability and price/rent relationships all showed signs of bottoming. So it didn't come as a huge shock to learn that he recently bought a house after renting throughout the downturn. I recommend readers here check out his graphs which I find helpful when thinking about my own situation. I don't necessarily share all his views and future predictions when it comes to macro topics, but I think his rationale for buying is interesting to read through. Rich seems to actually be somewhat late to the party as many of his informed, wise readers have posted stories about their own housing purchases over the past few years. But I think it really says something and it goes back to my point about the market getting healthier as we see financially conservative, educated buyers picking up properties based on their need and desire for shelter (rather than speculation as was often the case in the past). Rich admittedly is not trying call a full bottom, but he has made it clear through his excellent graphs and his personal actions (and those of many of his readers), that buying has become a very compelling proposition.

As an aside, I found myself smiling when I read the following discussion about the lack of inventory in San Diego (and LA and Orange County). Lots of people frustrated with the current situation and hoping for an increase. I see it as bullish since clearly there is pent up demand and the market should be able to absorb a good amount of inventory without a big negative impact to pricing. Remember, they (and I) are looking at year over year inventory so seasonality is not the cause. Also note the discussion on what some of the housing related stocks have been doing recently...

Market Update -- Health From The Bottom

Let's start with the 90405 as our "lower end" single family zip code and examine the current state of the market. Looking at the most entry level portion of this zip code (which I will define as properties with asking prices of under $1mm), we see that there are 14 properties on the MLS. Of these 14 properties, 11 are in escrow. That means that 79% of the inventory below $1mm is currently in escrow in 90405. Even more amazing is that the 8 lowest priced properties are ALL in escrow.

To me this means that there is a clear lack of supply and that there really is healthy demand out there. I'm even seeing some of the "location discount" properties go into escrow as the lack of supply combined with low interest rates and a healthier economy is pushing buyers to absorb even subpar inventory due to a lack of alternatives and the sheer "cheapness" of this low end supply. You can call me crazy, but next time a decently located, properly priced property comes onto the market in 90405 I challenge you to go to the open house. Observe the serious buyers all excitedly looking over the property and then get ready for multiple offers to come in.

Next, let's switch gears and head up to 90402 (both NoM and Canyon). There are 16 properties on the MLS in the entry level price area (which I will define as under $2.5mm). Of these 16 properties, 10 are in escrow. This equates to 63% which is no doubt lower than the 79% we observe in the lower end 90405 but it is still quite respectable.

Again, to me this all adds up to a lack of supply and a clear demand for more supply by buyers. This is keeping prices pretty stable. The low rates and growing economy are helping as well. Inventory is of course seasonal, and there will no doubt likely be a healthy increase as we get into spring, but I think it is unlikely we will see enough of an increase to overwhelm the clearly pent up demand and cause prices to deteriorate by a meaningful margin.

This inventory situation is playing out in many other places across the country. This recent Calculated Risk post shows that existing home inventory is now at its lowest since early 2005 and is back to a healthy 6 months of supply at the current (low) sales rate. Those sitting around hoping for a flood of properties to hit the market and push prices down seem more and more likely to be disappointed. I am not calling this an especially strong market, nor do I see prices rising materially, but I am a lot more encouraged by what I see going on than I have been in some time.

Clean This Up Already! *Update 3*

I last featured 310 22nd back in November 2011.

This is a REO that has been sitting on JPM's balance sheet for well over a year. They re-listed it a while back (but I didn't do an update at the time) for the same price as they had it listed previously. That is an asinine course of action. Banks should not be in the business of carrying stuff like this for so long. Keep cutting until you find the market price and let it go.

JP Morgan foreclosed on 7/13/10 for $3mm. This was a case of the borrower refinancing themselves into a pickle once in 2005 and again in 2006. They bought this place in August 2003 for $2.65mm.

Old listing: 9/19/11 - $3,360,000
Reduced down to - $3,259,000

New listing: 12/4/11 - $3,259,000