Friday

Hardest Hit Housing Market

Worst Market- California Central Valley

12-month change in home values:
Merced: -42.3
Stockton: -40
Salinas: -38.7
Modesto: -37.9
Riverside: -36.8
Vallejo: -34.5

The market hit hardest by the housing bubble is the Central Valley in California, where aggressive development and price hiking has yielded more homes than jobs. Now many homeowners owe more than their house is worth and are being forced into default.

Still, it's not all doom and gloom for the California housing market. The drop in home values has created an affordable market for first-time home buyers. And, on average, monthly sales have almost tripled from last year. Although the Valley has seen the worst of the crash, it may well be one of the first areas to recover.

To your success,

Oliver Graf

Real Estate Expert




*** Make sure you sign up for our FREE mailing list today! ***



--
Real Estate Home Prices
Real Estate News
Real Estate Foreclosures
San Diego Based Real Estate Blog

Thursday

Temporary Halt to Foreclosures and Evictions

Introduction

Fannie Mae is committed to assisting homeowners impacted by the national housing crisis and is taking additional steps aimed at keeping families in their homes. With the anticipated announcement by the Obama Administration of a foreclosure prevention and loan modification program, Fannie Mae is again instituting a temporary halt to all foreclosure sales on occupied single-family properties scheduled to occur from February 17 through March 6, 2009. The temporary foreclosure halt will apply to portfolio mortgages and MBS pool mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and to foreclosures of homes that are already in process. Fannie Mae is also extending its existing temporary halt of all eviction proceedings through March 6, 2009.

Foreclosures

The temporary foreclosure halt applies to all occupied single-family properties secured by conventional mortgage loans that have scheduled foreclosure sale dates between February 17 and March 6, 2009. Mortgages insured or guaranteed by a federal government agency are not eligible for the temporary foreclosure halt. Foreclosure sales may proceed on vacant properties.

This initiative does not affect mortgage loans that have not yet been referred to foreclosure. Servicers and foreclosure attorneys (or trustees) should follow the foreclosure policy guidance contained in the Fannie Mae Servicing Guide for all loans previously referred and for all new referrals as long as such actions do not result in foreclosure sales being scheduled during the halt period.

During this temporary halt period servicers will have additional time to work with borrowers facing foreclosure using Fannie Mae’s available foreclosure prevention options, including the Streamlined Modification Program announced, Introduction of the Streamlined Modification Program on December 12, 2008.

What do you think is the best way to deal with all the foreclosure inventory?

To your success,

Oliver Graf

Real Estate Expert
Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/OliverGraf360



*** Make sure you sign up for our FREE mailing list today! ***



--
Real Estate Foreclosures
Real Estate News
Real Estate Market Update
San Diego Real Estate Blog

Tips for Quick Turning a Property

6 Tips For Quick Turning (Flipping) A House


When flipping a house the first two tips are not about what to fix or change, but rather about time and money. Specifically, they are about how to determine how much to pay for your “quick turn property" in the first place. Read throught the first two with catuion then and make sure that you do this carefully.

1. Know Your Numbers

What price will the house sell for when it is finished? A clear idea of the ARV (after repair value) is necessary to safely make an offer on a property. Do not guess that you’ll sell the home for $20,000 more than what you put into it. You don’t decide what a home is worth - the market does, so get advice if necessary. Then subtract from the ARV all possible costs you will have, including price, buying costs, repair costs, holding costs, and the costs of selling. Now subtract the profit you want, and you have the highest price you should pay. Start with an offer lower than this, of course.

2. Schedule Properly

Countless house-flipping projects have gone wrong due to falling behind schedule. For example, you think you can get the plumber in and out of the house in the first week, but it takes a month, so you can’t close the walls up, and everything else gets behind schedule. Meanwhile your spending $2,500 per month on holding costs like loan payments, utilities, property taxes and insurance. Be sure to check before you finalize the offer, to see how long things like windows, plumbing and dry-walling will take. Also, make completion dates a part of any contracts you sign with contractors.

3. First Things First

On one of those “fliping homes” programs on television the other night, a young couple was running $10,000 over budget on their first fixer-upper investment (and six weeks behind schedule). They ran out of money and put the house on the market with a low quality looking yard and stains visible on the front wall. Of course buyers would see these things first, making a bad impression. You can avoid this by starting with changes that are most important. Then if you run out of money or time, you’ve already done the things that will make the home sell.

4. Figure The ROI Of Improvements

The Return-on-investment(ROI) for each possible improvement should determine what you do to the home. You’ll be guessing at times, but the principle is that you do only those things which increase the value of the home substantially more than what they cost. Such high-ROI improvements vary by area and by type of home, but they typically include painting, carpeting, landscaping, and finishing unfinished space. With a small house, you might get new flowers and bushes, fresh paint, and all new carpeting for less than $7,000, and possibly raise the market value of the home by $14,000.

5. Know Your Buyers

A single story spanish style home in a neighborhood full of retired couples, won’t sell well to the younger crowd. Know what kinds of buyers are likely to want the home (and neighborhood) before you start. Then, after improving it with those buyers in mind, market it appropriately. You or your agent should identify and advertise the benefits that matter to your buyers, whether this includes “close to stores” or “country living.”

6. Price It Right

Selling fast means you save those holding costs. You may also have other projects waiting for that money. To sell fast, price it slightly below market value - and let buyers know it’s a deal. It may seem that if you sell for $3,000 under market, you’re losing $3,000, but you are possibly saving a couple thousand in the holding costs you’ll pay if it takes an extra six weeks to sell at a higher price. Also, if you are a serious investor, flipping a house fast means getting the money into the next project fast. Buy right, and use the other tips here, and there should be plenty of profit left in any case.


To your success,

Oliver Graf

Real Estate Expert
Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/
OliverGraf360



*** Make sure you sign up for our FREE mailing list today! ***



--
Real Estate Buying
Real Estate Fliping
Real Estate Investing
San Diego Real Estate Blog

Top 10 Worst Metro Regions For Foreclosures toward the end of 2008

The foreclosure carnage while not sole contained to Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona, is definitely concentrated there. Of the top 20 metro regions with the worst foreclosure percentage, only Detroit and Atlanta are outside of these 4 states.

22 cities have foreclosure rates over 1 percent, 45 have a foreclosure rate over a half a percent. So looking at the big picture, the foreclosure crisis is contained to a subsection of the country that had their homes priced too high by speculators.

With a 12 percent drop in foreclosures this past month we may have rode the worst of this foreclosure wave out. Now it is important to see how the economy will affect housing inventory. If we go into a bad recession then we may be facing another wave of foreclosure in the near future.


Top 10 Worst Metro Regions For Foreclosures toward the end of 2008

  1. Stockton, CA 3.69% of homes in foreclosure
  2. Las Vegas, NV 3.48%
  3. Riverside / San Bernardino, CA 3.09%
  4. Bakersfield, CA 2.58%
  5. Fort Lauderdale, FL 2.30%
  6. Phoenix / Mesa AZ 2.11%
  7. Sacramento, CA 1.97%
  8. Orlando, FL 1.87%
  9. Fresno, CA 1.68%
  10. Oakland, CA 1.64%



--
Real Estate Market Areas
Real Estate Blog
Real Estate Foreclosures
San Diego Real Estate Blog

Home Inspections are a must in California Real Estate

California Real Estate Home Inspections



Whether you have decided on selling your home or buying a real estate in California, the very first thing that you need to think about is a home inspection. Home inspection is a duly processed method of checking out on the overall status of the property to determine those regions that require both the major and minor repairs and to change anything that has been terribly damaged.

Home inspections must only be done by the licensed home inspector. All over California, home inspection services are widely offered by the credible agencies. When you are into the task of personally looking for a home inspector, be sure to ask for his credentials to speak highly of the trainings that he had undergone. This professional is hence obligated to point out any damaged parts in and out of the property.

All portions of the house need to be checked like the basement, plumbing, roof, air conditioners, and most importantly the electrical wirings around. It is the responsibility of the home inspector to declare the safety or complications of the house. After which, a home inspection report detailing everything has to be issued to the requesting party. If you are the seller, then this will guide you with how you will price the house. Or if you are the buyer, you can be properly enlightened with the negotiation that you should display. Furthermore, you can decide on whether to make a bargain or do some counter offers with the seller.

--
Real Estate Home Inspection
Real Estate Inspection Prices
Real Estate Market News
Real Estate Foreclosures

Median Home Prices Keep Dropping

The median price continues to fall and if the trend holds it should be under $400,000 by year’s end. That will be close to a 40% decline.

From the figures in the MLS the Median price of all homes sold last month (September) comes in at $429,000. That’s down another $11,000 from August.

As of October 4, 2008, there were 4,232 pending sales in Orange County with a median asking price of $399,500. My tracking of pending sales has been an accurate predictor of future prices thus far and it will be interesting to see if the trend holds true.

I have a lot of contacts in the REO business and I’m being told that the number of BPO (broker price opinion) orders are high. Lenders order BPO’s when a property enters foreclosure to get an idea of what the property is worth for when it’s an REO or for a short sale negotiation. These contacts feel that the next wave of foreclosures could be big. Not surprising considering everyone who bought for about a two to three year period is underwater.

Even the house next door to mine is empty and the lawn is brown. It would have sold for more than $800,000 two years ago. I’m told no neighborhood will be immune in the next wave.




--
Real Estate Home Prices
Real Estate News
Real Estate Market Update