So what happened to the real estate recession?

What happened is that the real estate recession is temporarily over.

Consider the following:

In the area where my office is (eastern San Diego County), the ratio of properties under contract to listed properties is about 2-1. In other words, there are twice as many properties that are in some sense “off market” (not including the “sold” properties) as there are properties for sale.

I don’t do loan modifications, so let that be a disclaimer.  I am, instead, an interested 3rd party who watches all these things, and here’s what I’ve found:

Modifications generally do not work. They don’t work because lenders have no motivation to modify loans.  Here’s why (not all these reasons apply in every case):

Everyone discusses this, and some people like the idea of renting–no responsibility, rental prices usually trail buying prices, and so on.  But if there were ever a case for buying in the San Diego area, it can be made today.

Consider the following:

I keep hearing buyers tell me that the real estate market is “full of good deals…” it is, but not at the pricing most of the buyers appear to want. The BEST deals disappeared in November of 2008; the merely good deals are still with us, and buyers must act aggressively to get the property they want.  That is the current status. We have had too many predictions from the “gurus” that the real estate market is dying, and that people in Southern California had better get ready for a permanent real estate recession.  For some reason, almost nobody seems to be listening to the agents who actually are doing transactions today, while the market outpaces buyers who could have bought property earlier in the year.