San Diego Homeowners Self-Sabotaging by Not Listing Homes for Sale

Have you been dragging your feet on putting your San Diego home up for sale?

Many San Diego property owners have been stalling when it comes to listing their homes for sale, whether it is because they don't believe they have enough equity, lenders have turned down previous short sale requests or they are holding out for home prices to rise. Unfortunately many of these homeowners are doing themselves a major disservice and are going to be kicking themselves big time in a couple of months. Here's why…

All San Diego Housing Stats Up, But…

For those who haven't been wired in, the latest San Diego real estate trends show:

• San Diego home prices hitting a 4 year high
• San Diego home sales volume hitting a 6 year high
• Foreclosure notices falling to 1 in 550 versus 1 in 340 for state of California in August
• Local average price per square foot up 7.5% year-over-year according to Trulia
• Median home sales price up 11.1% y-o-y to $350,000 according to Trulia

However, one chief housing economist recently warned local San Diego real estate agents that a lack of housing inventory was an increasing concern. The worry is fewer homes available to sell could hold back further large home price increases in the near future. This doesn't mean they won't go up, just a little more slowly. Plus of course banks will continue to release more distressed properties as REOs as they sell.

Yet, homeowners have an even bigger danger looming which threatens to eat away any benefits in waiting to list their properties…

The Short Sale Deadline is No Joke

Sadly many local homeowners are seriously underestimating the ramifications of delaying listing their homes. Not only are the deadlines for getting cash back from mortgage lenders like Bank of America for those who complete short sales looming at the end of 2012, so is the tax benefit for contracting for a short sale before 2013.

Without getting too deep into the math, those who do not contract for a short sale by the end of the year will have to count any mortgage forgiveness by their lender as regular income. For a homeowner receiving $250,000 in principal debt forgiveness that automatically kicks them into at least the 33% tax bracket, resulting in an $82,500 tax bill, not counting any other income or deductions. Clearly most won't see their homes rise in value that much in the next 6 months to justify waiting.

Clearly there isn't time to waste. With only about 12 weeks left to go and the last weeks of the year a dead zone, with industry professionals swamped with end of year closings and potential buyers too distracted and wrapped up in holiday shopping and entertaining there is actually a very short window of time to list a property and make a deal.

Find out more about your options from San Diego's short sale specialist now.

Your Home May Have More Equity Than You Think!

Thanks to quickly rising home prices in San Diego County and lenders under new pressure to slash balances and approve short sales under the new mortgage settlement it could be a lot easier for some to sell right now than they think.

Even for those who have been turned down for short sales before or that can't get answers from their lenders anymore a Realtor makes a great third party helper that can open communication lines and force them to shape up.

Recently Wells Fargo announced almost a third of all the borrowers it is helping are in California and one Bank of America customer recently had their entire balance on a $570,000 second mortgage completely forgiven.

It's All Good News for Home Buyers too…

With plenty of room for home values to go up over the next few years and rock bottom interest rates (at least for the minute) there hasn't been a better time to buy a home in San Diego either.

Wait! Before you start on about how tough mortgages are to get these days, you may not have been tuned into some recent developments. New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan system changes, increased demand for mortgage securities and a surge in private jumbo home loan lending are all signs that mortgages are getting slightly easier to get and banks are interested in making good loans. In fact Citi just announced they are giving a $2,500 gift for new account clients who take out a mortgage with them by the end of November. That's at least enough to cover a reasonably nice gift for your special someone or add some of their favorite touches to your new bedroom.

Still have any doubts about selling your San Diego home right now or have questions on the looming deadlines ahead? Enter your comments below…