First, the good. Home sales are on the rise in Stockton, California. Coldwell Banker Grupe-TrendGraphix reports that in June, 493 homes sold in Stockton (mostly foreclosures), compared to 141 a year ago.
And for San Joaquin County, sales hit a six-year high, 921, up 200 percent from a year ago.
Now, the bad. Much of the buildable land in the area remains about as attractive to investors as buying in Sadr City.
I'm told IndyMac has been trying to raise some cash by selling its land there, so has Keybank, and it hasn't been easy. According to a source, IndyMac offered almost 100 loans it had on land valued at $630 million, while Keybank offered even more loans on land valued close to $1 billion (mostly in California).
Both sales "were deemed unsuccessful." I'm told some bidders were only willing to pay 23 cents on the dollar for IndyMac's entire portfolio. Apparently now IndyMac is trying to split the portfolio and sell individual loans--but they couldn't get the deal done in time to stave off the FDIC.
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