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Evidence of the infamous shadow inventory


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2012 May 1, 12:20pm   2,499 views  6 comments

by EconPete   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

6 months ago I went to an open house that just so happened to be empty. Both myself and the person I went with thought the price was 30% too high. I never thought much about the house until yesterday when I just happened to ride my bike past and noticed the “for sale” sign was gone. I thought to myself “Well look at that, I’m glad someone bought it!” But then I noticed the key lock box around the handle of the front door…. I thought, “If this house was sold and waiting to be moved into there would be SOLD signs all over from the realtors showing how great a job they did in hopes of getting more customers.”

So, I went home and checked all the real estate websites I could, including zillow, and could not find the home anywhere. What is going on with this house? I would have went past and not thought twice if I didn’t go to the open house 6 months prior. I wonder how many other homes are sitting empty in my city that I drive past every day that are in limbo.

Does anybody have any personal knowledge of homes intentionally being kept off the market? Did one of your friends file bankruptcy, get divorced, or foreclose and they are squatting in the house rent free and it is still not on the market? Did they move out and the bank still has not decided what to do with the property? There is too much hidden information. I am interested in actual cases where people know the property is part of the shadow inventory.

#housing

Comments 1 - 6 of 6        Search these comments

1   David9   2012 May 1, 12:38pm  

EconPete says

There is too much hidden information.

LOL APOCALYPSEFUCK

Try www.propertyshark.com for a clue. You get 5 free searches as too who owns the property.

2   rufita11   2012 May 1, 2:05pm  

Yes. I know of a condo in Santa Cruz that is still not up for sale after being abandoned by the owners about 8 months ago. They stopped paying the mortgage about 2 years ago. They paid 425K in 2004, made about 50K worth of improvements. Others in that complex are selling for around 300K now.

3   seaside   2012 May 1, 2:31pm  

I noticed that back in early 2010. Talking about those homes that had that big green lock at the door, but cannot be found in any website, or those homes that were on the sites for years but recently dropped out w/o a trace as if no listing was there. I completely forgot this till today. So I dig up county database for couple homes, and that gave me minutes of nice WTF moments.

4   BayArea   2012 May 1, 2:52pm  

With the banks sand-bagging the inventory like this, never has it been a better time to stop paying your underwater mortgage and live for free.

5   Goran_K   2012 May 1, 3:30pm  

There are literally three on my block where I'm renting a house. All of them owned by Chase (coincidentally). They all have the "Chase Owns blah blah" on the garage door, but I cannot find them on Redfin. These houses are literally vacant and rotting away by the day. This is ridiculous.

6   Goran_K   2012 May 1, 3:39pm  

Yeah it must be my imagination. All the 900+ API schools in my city must be my imagination too. Rich people don't get foreclosed on. Sorry for the mistake.

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