Southern California real estate statistics show that since early 2007, the housing market has been in the hands of the property buyers. Since then, Southern California real estate prices have fallen, and along with those prices, interest rates have dropped as well. This has prompted more people to buy property in 2008 compared to 2007. Sixty nine percent of Southern California real estate buyers claimed that lower prices encouraged them to buy, and 31% cited the low interest rates as their main motivation to make a move.

What some of the causes were for the downturn in the Southern California real estate market were poor underwriting of contracts, leaving buyers unaware and unprepared for fluctuating interest and mortgage rates, which lead to an increase in foreclosures and lender owned properties. Drastically increasing food and gas prices also were devastating to many buyers who had then come to no choice but to foreclose on their home. The increase in costs of living also made potential buyers unable to buy a home or postponing purchasing a home. These trends together resulted in a large increase of empty, available homes and people who could not afford to buy them.

Since there has been such an increase in the number of homes available for purchase in the Southern California real estate market, this has led to a wide array of choices and variety of homes for buyers to choose from. Buyers in 2008 spent much more time searching for a home than they have in previous years. In 2007, buyers spent an average of about 5 weeks looking for a home, while this year, the average amount of time browsing the market is about 8 weeks. In 2006, Southern California buyers had only spent an average of 2 and a half weeks searching for property. Traditional buyers, those not doing searches and virtual tours online to find a home, also visited twice as many homes before they purchased one this year.

Because of the large variety of choices and the uncertainty of what direction the housing market will be moving in, potential homeowners are also taking more time to purchase a home than they have in years past, and they are more cautious about the process as well. In conclusion, Internet buyers also spent more time searching through homes before contacting an agent in 2008, averaging 8 weeks, as opposed to traditional buyers, who searched the old fashioned way for 3 1/2 weeks before having a realtor step in. This year, 19% of Southern California real estate buyers were first time homeowners. They spent an average of almost 10 weeks with their realtor before buying a house, and in 2007, first time homeowners had only spent about 6 weeks searching before choosing one.

California is one of those states where you find all kinds of properties and where the climatic conditions vary hugely from place to place. You have places with moderate temperatures and you have places which experience all four seasons in their full glory. Traffic Jams, beaches and mild earthquakes are all characteristics of California. So there are a number of things to consider before you actually go for investing in California real estate.

The first thing to consider for investing in California real estate is to select the place/area for your California real estate investment. This is more applicable to people who are looking at California real estate more as an option for leading their life (rather than an investment option). That said, even if you have chosen the region for investing in California real estate, you need to be careful with selecting the location in that region i.e. the California real estate piece that will fetch you good profit. Generally, growth of business (e.g. big companies acquiring land for establishing their offices) is an indicator of appreciation in real estate (whether California real estate or any other). That is the consideration with regards to new developments in California real estate or with respect to significant changes in the economic situation of a particular place in California. However, there are always opportunities and they are there everywhere. You just have to hunt those opportunities in order to profitably invest in California real estate. Post cards, phone call, public auctions, foreclosures etc are all possible opportunities/ways of getting a good deal for California real estate investment. You could also partner with the local attorneys in the region i.e. attorneys who handle property matters in case of death, divorce, defaults etc. These people can give you good leads on California real estate investments. In such cases, whoever gets the information first gets the advantage. You can really lay your hands on some good California real estate deals in this way.

Yes, that does take effort and if you were to think that money can be earned without putting-in even that much effort, I would tend to disagree with you. A small amount of effort can really make a difference of thousands of dollars in terms of the California real estate deal that you get. Another good idea is to inform your friends in California that you are looking to buy a piece of California real estate and, in fact, let everyone know that you are looking for a piece of California real estate. A very good California real estate deal might come to you through one of your contacts, you never know.

So with the California real estate prices rising (as always), investing in California real estate does seem like a great idea.

Stockton, California reported the highest foreclosure rate among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas from Jan to Jun 2007, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure sales. Detroit and Las Vegas documented the next highest foreclosure rates. RealtyTrac’s 2007 Midyear Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report showed the foreclosure activity in the top 100 metro areas for the first half of 2007. As foreclosure rates continue to rise, 82 out of 100 metro areas recorded year-over-year increases in foreclosures.

Stockton reported one foreclosure filing for every 27 households with a total of 8,169 foreclosure fillings on 4,239 properties. The rate of foreclosure has increased exponentially to three times more than the number reported last year, for the same period.

Detroit, with one in 29 households going for foreclosure, recorded the second highest foreclosure rate. A total of 28,705 foreclosure filings were made on 20,231 properties, which is almost double the number reported from Jan-June 2006.

Las Vegas documented one foreclosure filing for every 31 households, making it the third highest in foreclosure activity among the 100 metro areas. It reported 22,928 foreclosure filings on 13,028 properties, double the number reported during the first half of 2006.

Six of the top 20 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates were in California and four in Ohio.

The following are the top 20 U.S. housing foreclosure markets from Jan to Jun 2007, the total number of foreclosure filings and households per foreclosure filing.

1. Stockton, California: 8,169 foreclosure filings; one foreclosure filing for every 27 households.

2. Detroit/Livonia/Dearborn, Michigan: 28,705 foreclosure filings; one filing per 29 households.

3. Las Vegas/Paradise, Nevada: 22,928 foreclosure filings; one filing per 31 households.

4. Riverside/San Bernardino, California: 41,351 foreclosure filings; one filing per 33 households.

5. Sacramento, California: 20,516 foreclosure filings; one filing per 36 households.

6. Denver/Aurora, Colorado: 23,842 foreclosure filings; one filing per 42 households.

7. Miami, Florida: 20,275 foreclosure filings; one filing per 46 households.

8. Bakersfield, California: 5,365 foreclosure filings; one filing per 47 households.

9. Memphis, Tennessee: 10,800 foreclosure filings; one filing per 49 households.

10. Cleveland/Lorain/Elyria/Mentor, Ohio: 8,844 foreclosure filings; one filing per 50 households.

11. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: 15,720 foreclosure filings; one filing per 50 households.

12. Atlanta/Sandy Springs/Marietta, Georgia: 36,502 foreclosure filings; one filing per 54 households.

13. Fort Worth/Arlington, Texas: 13,221 foreclosure filings; one filing per 57 households.

14. Fresno, California: 4,867 foreclosure filings; one filing per 60 households.

15. Indianapolis, Indiana: 11,677 foreclosure filings; one filing per 62 households.

16. Dayton, Ohio: 5,966 foreclosure filings; one filing per 63 households.

17. Dallas, Texas: 23,284 foreclosure filings; one filing per 65 households.

18. Akron, Ohio: 4,378 foreclosure filings; one filing per 70 households.

19. Oakland, California: 13,482 foreclosure filings; one filing per 70 households.

20. Columbus, Ohio: 10,706 foreclosure filings; one filing per 70 households.