Is work picking up in California

[Mystery man3]

I am in the So cal area.

I seem to be a tad busier in July.

Thinking appraisers must be going out of business. Anyone else see work pick up a little?

 

[Lloyd Bonafide]

I was kind of busy for 2-3 weeks, but now it died again.

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

It is as though the market where the farmer sells the eggs is not open for business.

Busy busy busy with REO's during the Spring but now that prices are lower the volume of mortgage work is virtually nil. (So much for the concept of 'pent up demand.")

The coercion implicit with virtually every mortgage assignment is becoming more and more blatant.

Several of my long term realtor and broker clients indicate that they are doing all their work through C.W., which selects the appraisers; and that appraisal panel has been closed to new 'vendors' for several years as far as I am aware.

I think the term is "paradigm change." However, the lady who owns the car wash has virtually no business, the bartender at the corner joint lost his maintenance job with the County, the Shell station auto mechanics say that nobody can afford to fix their cars, and an aquaintance who is a public service wellness doc says that lots of patients can no longer afford to visit his office for group educational seminars.

Down, down, down...

 

[Ken Youngkrantz]

Has been relatively steady in Bakersfield. More purchases, mostly FHA, and less refinanced. About 60% of my work is FHA right now. Sales activity has jumped up in the last couple of months. The lower end stuff $150,000 to $180,000 is affordable for the average person. Seeing more investors getting back into the market. We are about equal to 2004 prices right now.

 

[CCAAMO]

I am in the So cal area.

I seem to be a tad busier in July.

Thinking appraisers must be going out of business. Anyone else see work pick up a little?

Even in a slow market, a lot of appraiser's take some time off in the summer. It is never good to judge by one or two months, but I hope you are right.

 

[Flygirl 152]

My business picked up substantially in June and July, and I was wondering also if it is a result of appraisers moving into other fields. I suppose when my kids go back to school things will slow down again. : - ( I wouldn't mind being slow in the summer when they are off school, and busy during the time they are in school. But it always seems like I get the busiest during summer and during their holiday breaks.

 

[LA Woman]

I've seen an increase in work in the past 2 weeks. I think it is mostly due to prices in my area being so low, the big time investors are scooping them up as they cash flow.

I think there may be a little more work due to appraisers going out of business, but we have soo many here in CA that I think it will take several years before we would see any significant impact.

But with all that is going on with Fannie/Freddit, et.al. I think that all bets are off for the time being.

Hang on to your hats, its gonna be a bumpy ride.

 

[Wolfe54]

I am in the SoCal jungle of LA (La La Land). I have seen a bit of an increase in the past 10 days or so, almost all purchases, and value is close to (!) what it should be. Almost all are REO's. My big surprise is the condition is average as I would expect REO's to be beat up. Without my wife working, however, we would not make it on what I am bringing in. I still think the ride will be bumpy for quite a while.

 

[Mike Boyd]

I am in the So cal area.

I seem to be a tad busier in July.

Thinking appraisers must be going out of business. Anyone else see work pick up a little?

I would think it should be, Jeffrey. It's harvest season in the valley. Lots of work pickin' tomatoes, squash, green onions.....

Oh, you mean appraisal work. Well.................NO!

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

I did a job today and doubled my July volume.

Thank goodness for the sake of the regional appraisal industry that I did not get any assignments based upon the last 100 comp checks I performed, each of which revealed apparent market values way too low for any deals successfully to have been conducted.

Imagine how the Public Trust in our industry would have declined if 100 potential borrowers would have paid for 100 appraisals just gathering dust...