Down and Out in Lake Forest

This Lake Forest property was once sold for almost $700,000. Now, it's a vacant REO that's seen better days. The street name is fairly appropriate for this one considering its sorry state....

22271 Cripple Creek, 92630
Asking price: $440,550
Previous sales price: $675,000
Previous sales date: 12/6/05

Beds:	4
Baths:	1.75
Sq. Ft.:	1,674
$/Sq. Ft.:	$263
Lot Size:	6,600 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Residential, Single Family
Style:	One Level, Ranch
Year Built:	1979
Community:	Lake Forest North
County:	Orange
MLS#:	S595068
Source:	CARETS
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	3 days

From listing: Great Value! End of the cul-de-sac, single level home with four bedrooms. Kitchen has a breakfast area. The living and dining rooms are combined. Two car garage with a driveway. The house needs someone to come in and bring it back to its former glory.

As you can see, this house previously sold for $675,000. If you were to put 20% down in 2005 (chuckle), and you got a 5% interest rate with a 30-year fixed-rate loan (chuckle again), your monthly mortgage payment would have been $2,899. There's also the little matter of having $135,000 laying around as a 20% downpayment.

Currently, if you were to put 20% down and got an interest rate of 5%, your mortgage payment would be about $1,892 per month. You would "only" have to come up with $88,110 for a downpayment. Chump change!

Assuming the property sells for the current asking price, it represents a 35% decline in value in about 4 years. A few years ago, that would have seemed unfathomable. Today, it's not too surprising.