FLORENCE, Ore. – Property values are now too low for zero say coastal home owners fearing the ongoing recession will continue to negatively impact beach-front real estate values as this weak economy continues to drag.
A kayak enthusiast named Brad likes to “commute” to and from his coastal front seashore property by way of the now flooded Siuslaw River in Florence, Oregon. Brad, 73, retired back in 1997 when “you could get a real nice beach front home for a few hundred thousand, easily.” Now, Brad says, “my home, even while it’s right here on the river and near the beach, is way under-valued at less than what I paid for it in 1997. Go figure that, and go figure what’s happening to this declining housing market; not only here in Oregon but along the entire West Coast.” In turn, local real estate developer Greg Nash -- whose expertise in both building and selling coastal property down in southern California -- has made him the “go to guy” for wealthy who’ve always enjoyed owing a second or third home at the coast, for either weekend getaways or a summer vacations, says "the recession created a perfect storm that's now negatively impacting all West Coast real estate. I've never seen it this bad."
“Today, we’re looking at million and half-million dollar coastal front property that’s been devalued – due to a wide range of issues – down to the current range of $200,000 to $250,000,” adds Nash who came up to the Oregon coast after a successful real estate career down the coast in California; where he says that “real estate ship has also sailed.”
Real estate crooks impact coastal real estate market
Oregon coastal homeowner Brad was thinking about selling his place along the river and near the beach where he likes to paint nature scenery now that’s he’s retired, but it’s not just the decline of his property’s value – due to years of recession that’s “nearly sunk the coastal housing market along the entire West Coast,” say real estate experts – but “due to crooks,” asserts Brad who produced research he’s gathered on “crooked loan officers” after “one guy tried to rip me off.”
As he stood in front of his beach-front home, Brad reads off a long list of “recent” swindlers who are praying, he says, on the retirees who’ve settled along the Oregon coast and other coastal regions up in nearby Washington State and down in California.
“We had this one loan offer who was just sentenced by a U.S. district court judge for his participation as a ringleader of a nationwide multi-million dollar reverse mortgage fraud scheme,” read Brad from a list of “real estate crooks” that he shares with other retirees who live along the stretch of Oregon coast beach homes.
In turn, with a pulse-pounding certainty that “this recession has helped empty the closets of the worst of the worst real estate crooks that you can imagine,” Brad goes on to read about a West Coast mortgage broker who was recently sentenced for “paying contractors for illegal kickbacks;” while five other so-called real estate experts were “indicted for real estate development conspiracy.”
Brad also noted in a somewhat crankily voice and manner that one Oregon real estate agent “even hosted a seminar on how to purchase coastal real estate cheap, and even spread his message on local TV and radio. I’m happy to report this monkey was sentenced to 5 years in the slammer for his real estate wrongdoing.”
Moreover, others real estate “crooks” on Brad’s hit list included:
-- A prominent bank loan officer who’s heading to prison for defrauding lenders who were “seniors living on retirement pensions.”
-- A lawyer down in California lawyer who got 14 years for a “mortgage bailout scheme.”
-- An Oregon coastal resident who “admitted to make false claims in the settlement of a block of homes he sold to Chinese investors.”
Recession’s impact on West Coast real estate
With much of the West Coast real estate now up for grabs by either real estate agents – who are viewed as not having a conscience or are drawn to the dark side to make a buck off of retirees and seniors – people who want to buy or sell are holding off for right now, say local bank officials who’ve noted a “real drop” in mortgages for coastal property.
In turn, those who are not savvy -- when it comes to the wheeling and dealing of today’s real estate market – are asking leading investors of West Coast real estate both here in Oregon and up and down the West Coast – to call for help from the state and federal government, and even outside experts to help sort out a way to stop the whirred and lagging coastal housing market.
Thus, analytics and business services – from groups such as CoreLogic that helped survey the impact of the recent BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill that negatively impacted property values in the Gulf coast – are now being called in to try and sort out “the future of West Coast real estate.”
For instance, a very nice beach home up the coast in Newport’s trendy Nye Beach area – that boasts “just 100 fee to the ocean, four bedrooms, three baths, 2,600 square feet, with a gas fireplace in both the living and master bedroom, and a kitchen that “faces the Pacific,” was listed to sell for $785K back in January 2011, just three months prior to the Japan earthquake that sent Tsunami waves that slammed both Newport and other West Coast beach front property.
Local real estate developer Greg Nash says this “$785K listing from just a year ago” is now “down to a steal at $369K.” And, with Nash admitting to this “terrible gulf of misunderstanding about true beach front property values in 2012,” he said in a parenthesis “I think this wonderful Nye Beach home will sink to under $300K, and still nobody will want it.”
Image source of a kayak enthusiast named Brad “commuting” to and from his coastal property along the Oregon coast that he wants to sell, but after owning his seaside home since 1997, Brad said “it’s dropped in value to about half of what I paid for it.” Photo by Dave Masko
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