ESCONDIDO: Home buyers find bargains at auction
Bank sells 14 new luxury properties
By JULIE PENDRAY - For the North County Times | ∞
DEL MAR ---- There were smiles and greetings of "Welcome to the neighborhood" among buyers of 14 new luxury Escondido homes Saturday at an auction held by the developer.
The four- and five-bedroom homes are in the hills east of East Valley Parkway near the convergence of Bear Valley Parkway.
About 85 prospective buyers turned out for the event at the San Diego Marriot Del Mar hotel; about 25 of them bid.
Sales totals were more than $6.5 million, according to Marty Clouser, spokesman for Kennedy Wilson, the Beverly Hills auction company that sold the properties.
The homes were taken back by the lender, Bank of America, after the original builder ran out of money, Clouser said.
Los Angeles-based National Security Construction then bought the homes, finished them, and put them up for auction.
The original asking prices were from $825,000 to about $1.2 million.
"But that was in a different market," Clouser said.
The published minimum bids at the auction were between $385,000 and $575,000.
"An auction in this market generates a lot of interest," said Richard Winchell, president of Kennedy Wilson.
The company offered published minimum bids, so prospective buyers knew that if they qualified for financing and bid the minimum price, they would get the home if no one offered a higher price.
Jerzy Cebula, an engineer, and his wife, Marzena, a registered nurse, made an offer on one of the homes about a year ago, but it didn't go through because the bank took over the homes.
On Saturday, the couple said they had saved "a lot of money" by waiting for the auction.
The Cebulas moved to North County from New York about a year ago and have lived in an apartment, waiting for just the right home.
"We have driven our real estate agent crazy because we have been so picky," Marzena Cebula said.
Among the bidders were people who had moved to North County fairly recently from Connecticut and Ohio.
A Connecticut man, a successful bidder, called his wife back East to help choose carpet for their new home.
The developer had brought carpet samples to the auction because carpets had not been installed a few of the houses.
"How's that going to work?" asked a passer-by, realizing that the woman would have a hard time visualizing the sample.
"Probably not very well," was the buyer's response.
Countrywide did the approval of prospective buyers prior to the auction.
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Lokal Yokal wrote on Oct 12, 2008 4:05 PM:OK, Julie, I give up. How much did these homes actually go for?
Al wrote on Oct 12, 2008 6:24 PM:These auction prices is all these homes are really worth. Homes in So Cal are WAAAAAAAAAAY overpriced.
Joe wrote on Oct 13, 2008 5:57 AM:Thanks al. Now pack your bags and head on back home!
robert wrote on Oct 13, 2008 12:01 PM:the transit system sucks.
everythings expensive.
schools suck.
and our roads are crowded.
when you factor these very big negitives about so-cal into the equation, one must to the conclusion that house prices must drop another 45%.
so, lets pray that prices keep gettin lower. i will celebrate when the median price reaches 250 grand.
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