The news from the housing market is suddenly looking bleak. Again. Of course, that isn't news here. The Central Valley is ground zero in the housing crash.
When we were looking at homes six months ago I was stunned at the number of foreclosures, most of them selling for a third or quarter what people paid for them at the height of the market. And the news is even worse for new construction.
To say Bakersfield was "builder friendly" would be a gross understatement. At the peak of the market new subdivisions were sprouting almost weekly out in the farmland that surrounds the city. And now hundreds, maybe thousands, of brand new homes sit rotting out in the fields. The homebuilders are so desperate to cut their losses the've been drastically slashing prices for over a year. If you were unfortunate enough to have bought one a year or two ago, you may be looking at an identical house across the street selling for half what you paid.
Assuming there's a house there at all. When the economy tanked the builders pulled the plug on everything leaving many of the housing tracts half built. Your neighbors for the foreseeable future may be nothing but concrete slabs. And those parks and playgrounds and rec centers and pools that were going to be part of "Phase Two"? Well, yeah.... that's not gonna happen. Sorry.
Things here are so bad you can't even give a house away. Seriously.
We're right in the midst of the "St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway". Every year they raffle off a brand new home. Tickets are $100 and the proceeds go to the St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. Last year I remember it was a huge deal where they raffled off a $200K home in a dodgy neighborhood in a live, televised extravaganza.
This year they raised the stakes and the "Dream Home" is valued at $400K and it's located in a nicer neighborhood. Tickets went on sale back in March and evidently things aren't going so well. It would appear that even to the locals, homes in Bakersfield are overpriced at $100.
The first sign of trouble came about a month after the tickets went on sale. Suddenly the prize became "a brand new custom home valued at $400,000... OR $200,000 IN CASH!"
Several weeks later the ads on TV were tweaked and the prize was now "$200,000 IN CASH! (or a brand new custom home valued at $400,000).
And ever since they've been adding new inducements, each time bumping the actual house down to the bottom of the list. The last time I checked it was "$200,000 IN CASH! A $5000 FURNITURE SHOPPING SPREE! $3000 IN GROCERIES! (or a brand new custom home valued at $400,000)."
The actual drawing is on Father's Day, June 19th. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. If someone chooses the $3000 FoodMax gift certificate over a home in Bakersfield I think it will be a very bad omen.
Then again, not all the housing news is bad. The boyfriend, out of curiosity, punched our address into Zillow and discovered the estimated price of our home has actually risen 10% since we moved in. Now... I'm not one to draw conclusions, but the only thing that's changed is there are now more gays in the neighborhood. I think it's fairly obvious we work wonders on home values.
