Santa Cruz County Home & Community Information

Santa Cruz Foreclosure Sales - Market Report 2011

We hear alot about foreclosures and bank owned sales all over the country.  But how many foreclosure sales are there in Santa Cruz county?  What percentage of all homes sales are foreclosures in Santa Cruz county?

Looking back at 2011, there were a total of 434 foreclosure sales in Santa Cruz county.  These are single family homes sold through the  MLS (multiple listing service) by banks are REOs or foreclosures.  In  2011, there were a total of 1821 single family homes sold in Santa Cruz.  This means that Santa Cruz county foreclosure sales made up almost 24% of our real estate market.

I am always asked by buyers about how to get a great deal on a foreclosure and if you can really low ball a bank when making an offer.  My answer is, it depends.  If you are an all cash buyer, you do have a better chance of getting a great deal on a Santa Cruz foreclosure.  If the home has a lot of issues, we can sometimes use that to get a big discount.  If there are multiple offers and the bank has underpriced the home in order to sell it quickly, I don't recommend making a low ball offer.

The median price of all Santa Cruz county foreclosures sold in 2011 was $330,000.  The median price of 'regular sales' (not foreclosures or short sales) in Santa Cruz county in 2011 was $565,000.  So you can see that Santa Cruz foreclosure sales are selling for less than regular sales.

I expect to see Santa Cruz foreclosure sales continuing in 2012 and beyond, but with a trend to more short sales than foreclosures or REOs.

Looking to buy a foreclosure?  Go here to see a current list of Santa Cruz County foreclosures for sale