2581 ANNAPOLIS St East Palo Alto, CA 94303 – This is how you use your house as an ATM
2581 ANNAPOLIS St East Palo Alto, CA 94303
| Beds: | 4 |
| Baths: | 1 |
| Sq. Ft.: | 1,070 |
| $/Sq. Ft.: | $169 |
| Lot Size: | 5,500 Sq. Ft. |
Last sale: Jun 16, 2009 Sold $573,732 (This is a bank take back)
Last REAL sale: Nov 10, 1999 Sold $270,000
I found the mortgage history of this home on PropertyShark, and it is quite interesting. First the homedebtor bought the house in 1999 with two loans from Bank of America:
| Lender #1 | Bank Of America | ||
| Loan amount #1 | $215,000 | ||
| Loan type #1 | Conventional | ||
| Rate type #1 | Fixed | ||
| Loan amount #2 | $55,000 |
Notice that the two loans add up to the purchase price. So great, this guy is buying the home for 0 down, but at least it is a fixed loan. Now he lived in it for a bit over 3 years before doing another refi. This time it is a cash out refinance because the amount borrowed is $300k. This time it is from Indymac:
| Lender #1 | Indymac Bank FSB | ||
| Loan amount #1 | $300,000 | ||
| Loan type #1 | Conventional | ||
| Rate type #1 | Variable |
Notice that now it is an adjustable loan. A year and a half later there was another cash out refi in June 2004:
| Lender #1 | New Century Mortgage | ||
| Loan amount #1 | $330,000 | ||
| Loan type #1 | Conventional | ||
| Rate type #1 | Variable |
So basically he took another $30k out, but wait, it’s not over! Another 16 months later, he did another HUGE cash out refinance:
| Lender #1 | Option One Mortgage Corp | ||
| Loan amount #1 | $572,000 | ||
| Rate type #1 | Variable |
Yup, in this final refinance he took out another $242k. Then finally the home was foreclosed this year. So at least he enjoyed the house atm for almost 10 years and took out over $300k. Here is the funny part, all the banks he dealt with are dead except for Bank of America. I guess it sort of makes sense, too. I don’t think this guy lost much since the money he took out was tax free and he didn’t really have any equity in the house anyway. The last bank definitely lost the most on this series of refinances, but I guess they have ” imploded”.
2330 University Ave #110 East Palo Alto, CA 94303
| Beds: | 2 |
| Baths: | 2 |
| Sq. Ft.: | - |
| Lot Size: | - |
| Property Type: | Luxury, Condominium |
| View: | City Lights, Downtown, Woods |
| Year Built: | 2006 |
Last sale: Feb 22, 2006 Sold $445,000
Loss if sold for asking: $246,000 or 55%
I don’t know about you but these listing photos just make me somewhat dizzy. You can sort of make out some chairs in the first one, but the second one seems like the realtor took it while he/she was drunk and fumbled around. Anyway, I suspect the cut down price is to elicit more bids, or the realtor was really drunk?
It’s not easy landlording in San Mateo
It seems that commercial properties are not doing well in the current climate because many commercial loans are quite short term and developers and property owners often have to refinance their loans to pay off older loans. One large property owner in East Palo Alto is Page Mill Properties, and they own around 1700 units in the city. The latest news is that they have not paid Wells Fargo a $50 million balloon payment. Additionally, the city of East Palo Alto has been suing the company for raising rents and evicting tenants.
Could this mean that many more apartments will come up for sale soon?
800 WEEKS St East Palo Alto, CA 94303 – This seller thinks the bottom has been reached
800 WEEKS St East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Price: $848,000
| Beds: | 3 |
| Baths: | 1.5 |
| Sq. Ft.: | 1,780 |
| $/Sq. Ft.: | $476 |
| Lot Size: | 7,386 Sq. Ft. |
| Property Type: | Detached Single Family |
| Stories: | 2 |
| View: | Neighborhood |
| Year Built: | 1930 |
Last sale: Apr 02, 2004 Sold $780,000
I have to say that this is a fairly nice looking house for East Palo Alto, but what is truly interesting is the past listing prices. Here it is:
Apr 09, 2009 Price Changed $848,000 — MLSListings #80840024
Feb 03, 2009 Price Changed $388,000 – MLSListings #80840024
Jan 26, 2009 Price Changed $445,000 – MLSListings #80840024
Oct 15, 2008 Listed $495,000 – MLSListings #80840024
Basically, the price on this house was lowered all the way down to $388k at one point, and in April the seller decided to jack the price up $460k. I guess they really believe that the bottom has been reached. In actuality this home is listing for twice the price per squarefoot as other EPA homes. All I can say is good luck.
Menlo Park plans to artificially prop up home prices
Apparently, city officials in Menlo Park are planning to spend $1 million to prop up prices in East Menlo Park. The basic deal is that they will find delinquent homeowners and help them negotiate a refinance with a local bank. The city will pitch in 30% of the loan amount, and the homeowner has to pay the mortgage on the remaining 70%. When the home sells the city will split the appreciation with the homeowner 50/50. Supposedly East Palo Alto is considering something similar.
I personally go to East Menlo Park a lot for this restaurant called Back A Yard Grill . They really have the best jerked chicken, but that neighborhood is not somewhere you want to be after dark. The houses there are definitely not worth the 600k to 700k they sold for in the peak, and using public funds to keep prices that high seems pretty ridiculous. What do you think?
Three San Mateo County cities amongst Bay Area’s most discounted
Redfin just posted a good data crunching post here about the Bay Area cities with the most discounts. Guess which ones are in the top ten? Burlingame, Redwood City, and Foster City all made the list. This is not surprising because these areas are very overpriced for what they are, and the people that live in these cities tend to think their homes are worth a lot.
Interestingly enough, East Palo Alto and Daly City actually made the list for least discounted. That is probably because most of the listings in these cities are bank owned and so the starting price tend to be very low. The report mentioned that East Palo Alto actually had homes sell for above asking, and I’m not really surprised because there are decent single family ranchers selling for under $200,000 now in East Palo Alto. I’ve been to that city many many times, and some areas are not that scary looking.
So the lesson to sellers here is that they should not overprice their homes. If they don’t hold on to unrealistic expectations of what their home is worth then they might sell their homes quicker.
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