Author: SavedbyGrace
May 19, 2008
3137 Center St.
Arcadia, CA 91006
| Asking Price | $459,900 | ::: | Sq-ft | 1,987 |
| Purchased Price | $900,000 | ::: | Lot Size | 10,202sf |
| Purchased Date | 10/23/2006 | ::: | Beds | 4 |
| Days on Redfin | 10 | ::: | Baths | 2 |
| $/Sq-ft | $231 | ::: | Year Built | 1947 |
| 20% Downpayment | $91,800 | ::: | Area | Bordering El Monte |
| Income Required | $114,750 | ::: | Type | SFR |
| Est. Payment* | $2,320/month | ::: | MLS# | A08068868 |
*Estimated monthly payment assume 20% down, 30-yr fixed @ 6.50%
This is an REO currently listing for 50% off its 2006 asking price! From the only photo they uploaded, the property has been neglected for some time as you can see from the overgrown grass. It’s not in the greatest part of town, but it’s still Arcadia and I couldn’t pass up sharing a 50% off listing. Pretty soon we’ll be seeing large discounts even in the better neighborhoods.
The property is another example of how stupidity and greed is a lethal combination. This house was purchased in 2006 with 100% financing and now the bank is left holding the bag. There was a $750,000 first and a $150,000 second mortgage on this distressed property. The banks paid $900k for something that, in my opinion, is worth less than the current asking price of $459,900. Think about that for a moment. The second loan suffers a total loss of $150k and the primary mortgage holder could lose $317,694 after 6% commission. The grand total depreciation of this property is $467,694 — if they get their current asking price.
Who are the losers here? The homedebtors who were actually flippers that came into the market at the wrong time? The banks who got greedy and lent out more money than was reasonable? They’re both losers, but the ones that have to live with it and breathe it day in & day out are the neighbors. Sure the property was never worth that much to begin with, but nothing screams neighborhood comp killer like a property at half off the previous transaction just 19 months ago.
Neglected homes not only bring down the neighborhood comp prices, but also its hopes and emotions for any summer rebound of the market. Banks don’t have emotions. They have numbers, record books, shareholders and investors. This REO will make it tough for any other comparable properties in the area to sell for much more than $230/sqft.
That address looks like it is part of the El Monte school district. Very poor district, you might as well send your kids to LAUSD. Let’s face it, the reason houses are expensive in Arcadia is because of the schools. Take away the Arcadia Unified District schools and you might as well live in Monrovia or Azusa. I can’t believe anyone would pay $750K to live in a bad neighborhood and El Monte schools.
Keep these coming, with the lastest tomfoolery in FHA, etc. I love reading about the local market.
Yes, Puckhead, it is in the El Monte school district. Rio Hondo Elementary (just on the other side of the flood control wash), Arroyo High School (next to the flood-control basin spillway a mile to the SW). I know this because I grew up only 500 feet from there, on Lynd Ave. I know the entire area well from years of riding my bicycle around that tract in the mid-Sixties.
At the time (1958-1975) it was a mixed working/middle-class neighborhood, originally 1940s-vintage 900sqft/2BR/1BA single-story tract homes, many of which were being remodeled and expanded into 1400sqft/3BR/2BA with pools in the ample backyards. (Our back yard was well over 100 feet deep, butting up against the flooded-out quarry to the SE.) Not a bad neighborhood back then, just not ritzy like “Real Arcadia” to the north.
But 2000 SQFT/4BR/2BA? With a front treatment — windows, entry, arrangement — that doesn’t match anything I remember? Was this a “Santa Monica Remodel” (i.e. rebuild with just enough left intact to qualify as a remodel) into a McMansion? What you see of the house next door (the two-story stucco wall) DOES look like a McMansion.
With a PURCHASE PRICE OF JUST SHY OF A MILLION?
What good I remember of my childhood neighborhood has just been gang-reamed up the ass.
DIE.
YUPPIE.
SCUM.
Is this Mike
Given the location of this house, the person who purchased this house for 900K should be sterilized for pure stupidity. Or maybe use that 900K for, I don’t know, a brain transplant? I hate knowing that I’d be paying for their stupidity. On the other hand though, it’s good to see such a huge correction.
I’ve got an open question to those who may know. I’ve been looking up some properties on propertyshark.com and many of the houses do not list 1st, 2nd or 3rd mortgages eventhough the house
has been sold for more than 6 months but less than 12 months – I highly doubt these homeowners paid cash for the houses. Is it simply because the site doesn’t provide complete data?
Why on earth would anyone buy a property in this area for $900K? Looks like the seller in 2005 was able to legally rob the bank by getting a buyer to buy into the inflated price. I suspect maybe the seller and buyer simply split the $$$ after pocketing the ridiculous gain from the bank, then just turn around and let the bank eat the loss! These unfathomable transactions during the recent boom years simply wreak of FRAUD! You see it again and again in the foreclosure listings-properties burdened with mortgage debt easily 3-4 times or even higher than the actual value. Were the loan officers on drugs when they signed off on these loan documents? what about the Feds who were supposed to be regulating bank lending practices? Let’s hope the proposed housing bailout will not make the rest of us reimburse the bank for losses caused by this type of reckless lending!
Democrats-Make housing available to the working poor and minorities.
Christopher Dodd types-benefit from corruption.
Carl Rove-Look the other way, poor become homeowners and vote republican.
Republican Caucus-afraid of being called “racist”.
Solution: Let FNMA, FHLMC ect FAIL! Once they go down, they will take those responsible in Congress with them as they rat Barney Frank out. Anything else is throwing money down a rat hole.