SF Peninsula Real Estate Guru

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an informative and illiminating article Sunday on Bay Area Homes in Foreclosure.

6,557 Bay Area homes and condos were foreclosed on my lenders in the first 9 months of the year.

Of these, nearly 1 and 6 (a little under 1,000) were owned by individuals who lost more than 1 property to foreclosure during this time period. Additional almost another 350 were lost by owners who did not live in the property - i.e they were investment (speculative????) purchases. Based on my experience, I would say many of these other properties lost in foreclosures were in fact investment/speculative purchases. Often times buyers will tell lenders they intend to live in the property as thier primary residence in order to get a more attractive interest rate and terms when in truth they have no intention of living in the property as their residence.

Almost 7 out of 10 properties lost in foreclosure were purchased with no money down. This means all of these owners (about 4,500) lost no money because of the foreclosure. Another 325 owners made a downpayment of less than 5% of the purchase price.

It is interesting to note the geographic distribution of these foreclosures.

There have been few foreclosures in established Peninsula neighborhoods.

Most foreclosures have and are occuring in areas with significant new construction.