A review of current pending foreclosures for Los Alamitos reveals more homes facing foreclosure than homes on the market. This article reports on detached single family residential real estate for Los Alamitos, and offers some comparisons to the real estate market in Rossmoor. Since Rossmoor and Los Alamitos share a common zip code, these two different markets are often reported as one market. In this article we consider these areas separately.
As of yesterday, there were 12 homes on the market in Los Alamitos, with an average listing price of $736,566. This listing price equates to $381.64 per square foot, SF, and is very similar to the mean selling price/SF of around $385.00 for Rossmoor. The Los Alamitos properties have been on the market for an average of 53 days.
Not included in the May 9 active listings are 9 Los Al homes which are headed for a trustee sale by the end of June and another 5 homes which are in notice of default. Thus, there are 14 homes which are headed for the foreclosure market—two more homes than the total currently on the market in Los Al. Of the homes already listed, one is a bank owned property, one is a short sale, and another one is also headed for a trustee sale in the next 60 days.
According to Glenn Gaspar, REALTOR® with First American Team Realty, Inc., a trustee sale means “The subject property has reached the final stage of the foreclosure process. Twenty-one days prior to the sale the bank records a document with the county which states that on a specific date, time and location the bank will perform what is known as a trustee sale. The trustee sale is the bank’s last attempt to find a buyer who will purchase the home for cash at a target bid amount. Should no one make an offer or make a high enough offer the bank then will take back the home and it officially becomes a bank owned property.”
Gaspar continued “A property is called ‘in notice of default’ when the bank has taken the first official step in the foreclosure process. This means the bank has recorded a ‘Notice of Default’ with the county in which the home resides. The document states that the homeowner has defaulted on their promissory note for the stated property, and that the bank is taking their legal steps to remedy the issue.”
In our report two weeks ago, we noted a similar situation with regards to distressed homes potentially coming to the market in Rossmoor (see related article below). For Rossmoor, as of April 23, 2010, there were 31 homes on the market that were not distressed sales. There were also an additional 33 homes in some phase of the foreclosure process and not in the active listings. Thus, for both Rossmoor and Los Alamitos, there are slightly more homes heading for foreclosure than there are homes on the market.
We asked Gaspar if this approximately one for one ratio of unlisted approaching foreclosure sales and current active listings was normal. He told www.OC180NEWS.com “Unfortunately nothing is normal about our present day real estate market. To answer your question…I do not believe so. When we take a picture of our last down market in the late 1990′s. The number of bank owned homes or short sales that ended up selling come no where close to what is occurring today. What is consistent between then and now are the number of units sold and days on market per month for Los Alamitos. The one positive note that we can take from this is that since the inventory of homes is being filtered into the market place, it will help stabilize prices for us where we should see an up turn in values for homes when the second quarter numbers come out.”
So far this year, no clear price trend is apparent for the closed sales in los Alamitos. The number of transactions in Los Alamitos is pretty small for averages to be meaningful. Through the end of April 2010, there were only 10 closed sales in Los Alamitos. The monthly average selling prices were as follows:
Month Average Selling Price Average Selling price/SF
Jan. $669,500 $355.17
Feb. $680,000 $319.05
Mar. $541,666 $330.61
April $551,333 $311.37
Going back into last year, the selling prices/SF for Los Alamitos vary about as much as they do for Rossmoor. During 2009, the highest selling price/SF in Los Alamitos was $508.80 (August) and the lowest was $262.17 (December). The mid-point was $322.
This wide range of prices is also reflected in the asking prices for current listings. The highest Los Alamitos listing price/SF is also the home with the overall lowest price. This home appears priced primarily for its land value. Located at 11062 Lexington Drive, The house has only 779 SF, two bedrooms, and one bathroom. The property was first listed at $490,000, but has been reduced to $450,000. At this price, the owners are asking a whopping $577.66/SF—higher than the highest asking price/SF in Rossmoor—which as of our last article was listed at $503.60/SF.
The Rossmoor house is much larger, so the total price is $1,259,000. But, the lot sizes are almost exactly the same—7,770SF for the Los Alamitos house and 7700SF for the Rossmoor property. The Los Alamitos house has been on the market for 87 days.
At the other end of the price/SF spectrum in Los Alamitos is the property located at 10371 Lassen St. This four bedroom/three bedroom house is listed at $760,000, or $270.66SF. The house, with 2,808 SF, is much larger than the highest priced/SF home, but the lot for the Lassen house, at only 6,194 SF is much smaller than the Lexington property.
The property with the overall highest asking price in Los Alamitos is located at 3862 Green Ave. The home, listed at $1,450,000, has four bedrooms and four baths. With a house size of 3,300 SF, on a lot of 13,265SF, it is the largest house on the largest lot of any home on the market in Los Alamitos. This property is priced at $439.39SF.
Just like Los Alamitos, in Rossmoor, there are also very few transactions—only 10 sales through the end of March. Average selling prices so far this year for Rossmoor are as follows:
Month Average Selling Price Average Selling Price/SF
Jan. $882,100 $385.86
Feb. $782,000 $429.56
March $754,666 $381.30
All of the data in this article was supplied by Glenn Gaspar, REALTOR® with First American Team Realty, Inc.
Return to www.OC180NEWS.com next Monday for our continuing biweekly series on countywide residential real estate supply and demand trends.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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