The South Tahoe Realty Blog

These days many homeowners are defaulting on their loans and risking losing their homes. To save themselves from foreclosure, short sales have become very popular. This evening I found 38 listings in the South Lake Tahoe MLS that are possible short sales. If you are unfamiliar with short sales, here is a great article that was printed in a publication I received from the Nevada Real Estate Division.

Short Sales
By Bruce Alitt, Chief Investigator

A short sale situation occurs when the owner of a property owes more than the market value of the property and has financial hardships that require the owner’s lender or lenders to approve a sale in which the lender(s) will actually receive less than the amount that is owed.

The approval by the lender(s) is required because the loans are liens against the property that must be satisfied in order for clear title to pass from the seller to the buyer. That means that the lender(s) must accept getting less than the amount owed and agreeing that the lien(s) is satisfied and can be cleared.

Even though there must be lender approval in a short sale situation, the owner/seller still must be presented with and accept the offer. That is the critical first step in the short sale process. The owner must accept the offer contingent on approval by the lender. The contingency is critical because the owner cannot perform on the transaction without either the approval of the lender(s) or a cash out of pocket situation, which is usually not feasible. Once the owner has accepted the offer contingent on lender approval, the offer must be submitted to the lender with any other documentation required by the lender. This documentation varies from lender to lender. At this point the transaction is out of the control of the licensees and owner, who must wait on lender approval, counter offer or rejection. Due to the current number of foreclosures and short sales, this can take several months. Both the seller and buyer should be made aware, in advance, of this unknown time factor.

During this “lender approval” time period, the house should stay on the market, however licensees should be made aware of its contingent status.

The seller must be made aware that if the lender does agree to the short sale, there could be a deficiency judgment, credit consequences or the amount forgiven may be considered as income for tax purposes. Every seller should be advised to get professional advice from an attorney, certified public accountant and/or a tax consultant.

As predicted, the median sale price for single-family residences in South Lake Tahoe dropped dramatically in June, down to $365,000. The market is certainly suffering. However, I’m becoming skeptical of the statistical barometers we continue to rely upon. Perhaps the steep decline in median sale price doesn’t quite reflect what’s happened to home values here in South Lake Tahoe. Perhaps the decline in median sale price is due in large part to increased activity in the lower price bands. Given how tight the lending market has been with jumbo loans, this is a valid hypothesis. I’ll dig through some data in the next few days to see if I can find numbers to support.

The foreclosure market was active in June with 6 foreclosure escrows of the 37 homes that went into escrow for the month. There were also 3 short sale properties that went into escrow. As of today, there are 9 foreclosure single-family residences on the market.

Lot sales and condo sales were few and far between in June. Five condos sold and 4 went into escrow. Six lots sold and 5 went into escrow in June.

Activity has increased in the 1 to 2 million dollar price band. This price band has averaged 1.75 sales per month over the last year. However, 4 sold in June, and right now there are 5 homes in escrow that were listed between 1 and 2 million dollars.