Homebuyers gain an edge with Internet searches
By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2067432.html
In the colorful, centuries-long history of house hunting, when have so many buyers come to the table knowing so much about prices, neighborhoods and school test scores?
Probably never. Credit an average 16 weeks spent browsing the Internet before buyers contact a real estate agent to get serious. Fifteen years into the World Wide Web, home searches once defined by riding around in agents' sport-utility vehicles – a process in which agents knew all and a buyer knew little – have been thoroughly recast.
Buyers – 84 percent of whom use the Internet for house hunting, according to a California Association of Realtors study – have taken on much of the information gathering formerly done by agents, who occupy the middle of a transaction and typically get a commission of 6 percent of the sales price, 3 percent for the seller's agent and 3 percent for the buyer's agent.
A variety of mostly similar Web sites now enable buyers to browse homes for sale, probe a home's transaction history, gauge its tax bite, compare area values and even see, via aerial photos, whether the neighbors have planted grass in the backyard.
This maturing of real estate Web sites has raised questions about where 519,000 California agents and brokers fit in and opened some debate about the size of their commissions. At least one online brokerage is trying to redefine the agent pay structure to gain business by making it cheaper to buy and sell.
Still, buyers and agents alike say the sheer complexity of buying and selling homes is keeping the current system largely intact. House buying as a click-here and do-it-yourself job is still much in the realm of fiction. Today, only about 5 percent of real estate sales occur solely between a buyer and seller, said Glenn Kelman, chief executive officer of Seattle's Redfin, an online brokerage aiming to simplify home buying.
Even the most Web-savvy buyers balk at trying to close a deal without an agent.
"I can buy $100,000 worth of stock with the click of a mouse. But I can't buy a $100,000 house without going through a ton of paperwork," said Adam Bradley, an Elk Grove information technology staffer. Early this year, he found an attractive listing online and went so far as to make an offer without actually seeing the house.
"We submitted an offer based on the pictures and the Google map showing me an overhead and a street view, and then we went out and saw it that weekend," he said.
But Bradley turned to an agent to navigate the daunting process of buying the house and closing escrow in May.
Many agents, especially younger ones, say the Web is enhancing, not damaging their careers.
"Last year I had 26 transactions and 14 came from the Internet," said Erin Attardi, 30, of Lyon Real Estate. Agents traditionally have gotten clients from referrals or from doing open houses.
"Most of my business comes from the Internet," said Attardi, of Sacramento. "It comes by way of my blog. I get a lot of business from Trulia. I get a little business from Zillow. But mainly it's my blog. People follow me on Twitter or find my Facebook page."
Said Attardi, "I got my license at the end of the housing boom. I knew I wasn't going to be getting any referrals. This was my strategy from the beginning."
Even as the Internet lessens buyer dependence on real estate agents, it's also making it easier for them. A 2009 Home Buyer Survey conducted by the California Association of Realtors showed that buyers who used the Internet, on average, visited 13 homes with an agent. Buyers who didn't use the Internet needed an average of 25 visits before deciding.
Chris Saizan, 26, a Keller Williams agent in Elk Grove, said he's established a relationship with a Bay Area real estate search site, movoto.com, that brings "four or five phone calls" daily. Among clients closing escrow this month are a couple from Fiji who searched the Sacramento housing market from thousands of miles away.
Saizan pays Movoto 30 percent of commissions from clients it sends his way. But that's just one site among many where his listings appear.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Best Deal On Home Refinancing
Find The Best Deal On Home Refinancing
http://www.kcra.com/family/19402420/detail.html
(ARA) - Like so many Americans, you may have a balloon mortgage that is coming due or you've had an unexpected financial hit such as a large hospital bill or a job loss that has made your current mortgage payments unreasonable. If so, refinancing your mortgage can be a great way to save money every month.Refinancing your mortgage also lets you consolidate other debt, such as credit card balances, into one low-interest loan. You may also want to consider converting some of the equity in your home to cash to use for large expenses such as college tuition or home improvement.Online services like Bills.com make it easier than ever to find the best deal on refinancing your home. With a couple clicks of the mouse, you'll receive quotes from up to four lenders so you can choose the best deal for your situation.Before you refinance, ask yourself the following questions:
How long will I be in my house? If you're planning to move soon, it may not make sense to refinance. Calculate how much you would save monthly, and then compare that number to the costs of refinancing to make your decision. You can find a number of refinance calculators on the Internet, including at Bills.com.
Can I afford to cash out equity in my home? Paying college tuition is a good use of your home equity. Taking the value out of your home to take the family to Disney World may be fun, but in the long run, not wise. Just remember how long it took you to build up that equity.
Can I change my habits? Using a home refinancing to consolidate debt can be a good idea -- but only if you don't revert to your old behavior. Clearing your credit card debt and then starting the cycle of maxing them out again means you'll end up back at the same spot. If you are consolidating debt, cut up your credit cards or resolve to pay them off in full each month.When you're ready to refinance, Bills.com makes it simple. Just fill out the short information form on the Web site, hit submit and up to four lenders will make you an offer. The site only asks for non-sensitive information such as the current value of your home, whether you're employed, if you've ever declared bankruptcy. You will not be required to supply personal information such as a Social Security number until you get further into the process.How can you find the best deals in home refinancing? Check out Visit Bills.com to get bids from up to four lenders.
http://www.kcra.com/family/19402420/detail.html
(ARA) - Like so many Americans, you may have a balloon mortgage that is coming due or you've had an unexpected financial hit such as a large hospital bill or a job loss that has made your current mortgage payments unreasonable. If so, refinancing your mortgage can be a great way to save money every month.Refinancing your mortgage also lets you consolidate other debt, such as credit card balances, into one low-interest loan. You may also want to consider converting some of the equity in your home to cash to use for large expenses such as college tuition or home improvement.Online services like Bills.com make it easier than ever to find the best deal on refinancing your home. With a couple clicks of the mouse, you'll receive quotes from up to four lenders so you can choose the best deal for your situation.Before you refinance, ask yourself the following questions:
How long will I be in my house? If you're planning to move soon, it may not make sense to refinance. Calculate how much you would save monthly, and then compare that number to the costs of refinancing to make your decision. You can find a number of refinance calculators on the Internet, including at Bills.com.
Can I afford to cash out equity in my home? Paying college tuition is a good use of your home equity. Taking the value out of your home to take the family to Disney World may be fun, but in the long run, not wise. Just remember how long it took you to build up that equity.
Can I change my habits? Using a home refinancing to consolidate debt can be a good idea -- but only if you don't revert to your old behavior. Clearing your credit card debt and then starting the cycle of maxing them out again means you'll end up back at the same spot. If you are consolidating debt, cut up your credit cards or resolve to pay them off in full each month.When you're ready to refinance, Bills.com makes it simple. Just fill out the short information form on the Web site, hit submit and up to four lenders will make you an offer. The site only asks for non-sensitive information such as the current value of your home, whether you're employed, if you've ever declared bankruptcy. You will not be required to supply personal information such as a Social Security number until you get further into the process.How can you find the best deals in home refinancing? Check out Visit Bills.com to get bids from up to four lenders.
Monday, July 27, 2009
US Home Sales Have the Smallest Decline in 10 months
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices had the smallest annual drop in 10 months, signaling the free fall of property values is abating in the three-year housing slump at the center of a global recession.
Prices declined 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier and rose 0.9 from April, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said today. Economists expected a 0.2 percent drop for the month, according to the median of 16 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
“We saw a rebound of home prices in some parts of the country in part because the share of distressed sales dipped,” said Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist who’s an independent consultant in Leesburg, Virginia. “That’s not any solace to anyone losing his shirt.”
Five U.S. regions showed price increases in May from April, the FHFA said. Job losses and record foreclosures have deterred buyers and slashed U.S. home prices 33 percent since the July 2006 peak, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The highest unemployment since 1983 and the biggest foreclosure rate on record thwarted government efforts to revive real estate demand.
The area that includes California had the biggest one-month gain from April, at 2.7 percent. The South Atlantic region that includes Florida saw a 1.4 percent increase in May. Prices in New England fell 2 percent and in the region that includes New York and New Jersey dropped 0.1 percent.
Regional Prices
Every region of the U.S. saw price declines in May from a year earlier, the FHFA said. California dropped the most, at 14 percent. The South Atlantic slid 6.6 percent and the New York and New Jersey region was down 4.3 percent.
“The distress in the housing market was not caused by unemployment, but now we are seeing a wave of delinquencies and foreclosures by people who, if they had kept their jobs, would be unlikely to default,” Lawler said.
The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, the highest since 1983, bringing the total number of lost jobs to about 6.5 million since the recession started in December 2007, the Labor Department said. Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped 18.1 percent in April from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.
Federal Efforts
The Federal Reserve is trying to keep rates low and spark a housing recovery by purchasing as much as $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities to free up funding for home loans.
Home-loan rates fell to a record low twice in April, helped by the Fed’s program. Rates started climbing in May along with Treasury yields on investor concern that a greater supply of debt being sold to fund government spending will fuel inflation. In June the average 30-year rate reached a 2009 high of 5.59 percent, according to Freddie Mac.
Last week the rate was 5.14 percent, down from 5.2 percent a week earlier, according to the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer.
President Barack Obama has pledged to spend $275 billion to help keep as many as 9 million Americans in their homes. The government is offering incentives to servicers, the companies that administer loans, to modify terms for delinquent borrowers or refinance mortgages that exceed the value of homes.
Late Payments
Those efforts may not be able to keep up with the number of Americans falling behind on loan payments. The U.S. delinquency rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 9.12 percent in the first quarter and the share of loans entering foreclosure rose to 1.37 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a May 28 report. Both figures were the highest in records going back to 1972.
One in every eight Americans is now late on a home-loan payment or already in foreclosure, according to Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Washington-based bankers’ group.
U.S. foreclosure filings -- notices of default, auction or bank seizure -- rose to a record in 2009’s first half, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data. More than 1.5 million properties, one in every 84 U.S. households, received a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said in a July 16 report. That was a 15 percent increase from a year earlier.
The FHFA index tracks price changes for properties financed with mortgages owned or securitized by government-controlled Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage buyer, and Freddie Mac, which is No. 2. It excludes foreclosed properties bought with cash or financed with so-called FHA loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: July 22, 2009 10:57 EDT
Prices declined 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier and rose 0.9 from April, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said today. Economists expected a 0.2 percent drop for the month, according to the median of 16 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
“We saw a rebound of home prices in some parts of the country in part because the share of distressed sales dipped,” said Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist who’s an independent consultant in Leesburg, Virginia. “That’s not any solace to anyone losing his shirt.”
Five U.S. regions showed price increases in May from April, the FHFA said. Job losses and record foreclosures have deterred buyers and slashed U.S. home prices 33 percent since the July 2006 peak, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The highest unemployment since 1983 and the biggest foreclosure rate on record thwarted government efforts to revive real estate demand.
The area that includes California had the biggest one-month gain from April, at 2.7 percent. The South Atlantic region that includes Florida saw a 1.4 percent increase in May. Prices in New England fell 2 percent and in the region that includes New York and New Jersey dropped 0.1 percent.
Regional Prices
Every region of the U.S. saw price declines in May from a year earlier, the FHFA said. California dropped the most, at 14 percent. The South Atlantic slid 6.6 percent and the New York and New Jersey region was down 4.3 percent.
“The distress in the housing market was not caused by unemployment, but now we are seeing a wave of delinquencies and foreclosures by people who, if they had kept their jobs, would be unlikely to default,” Lawler said.
The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, the highest since 1983, bringing the total number of lost jobs to about 6.5 million since the recession started in December 2007, the Labor Department said. Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped 18.1 percent in April from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.
Federal Efforts
The Federal Reserve is trying to keep rates low and spark a housing recovery by purchasing as much as $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities to free up funding for home loans.
Home-loan rates fell to a record low twice in April, helped by the Fed’s program. Rates started climbing in May along with Treasury yields on investor concern that a greater supply of debt being sold to fund government spending will fuel inflation. In June the average 30-year rate reached a 2009 high of 5.59 percent, according to Freddie Mac.
Last week the rate was 5.14 percent, down from 5.2 percent a week earlier, according to the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer.
President Barack Obama has pledged to spend $275 billion to help keep as many as 9 million Americans in their homes. The government is offering incentives to servicers, the companies that administer loans, to modify terms for delinquent borrowers or refinance mortgages that exceed the value of homes.
Late Payments
Those efforts may not be able to keep up with the number of Americans falling behind on loan payments. The U.S. delinquency rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 9.12 percent in the first quarter and the share of loans entering foreclosure rose to 1.37 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a May 28 report. Both figures were the highest in records going back to 1972.
One in every eight Americans is now late on a home-loan payment or already in foreclosure, according to Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Washington-based bankers’ group.
U.S. foreclosure filings -- notices of default, auction or bank seizure -- rose to a record in 2009’s first half, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data. More than 1.5 million properties, one in every 84 U.S. households, received a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said in a July 16 report. That was a 15 percent increase from a year earlier.
The FHFA index tracks price changes for properties financed with mortgages owned or securitized by government-controlled Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage buyer, and Freddie Mac, which is No. 2. It excludes foreclosed properties bought with cash or financed with so-called FHA loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: July 22, 2009 10:57 EDT
Friday, July 24, 2009
Real Estate Sales
Real Estate Sales
Posted: Friday, Jul 24, 2009 - 05:11:08 pm PDTEmail this story Printer friendly version
http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2009/07/24/real_estate/1-real-estate-sales.txt
By Press staff andThe Associated Press
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press In this July 21 photo, a home for sale is shown in San Francisco. A real estate group's report said Thursday, July 23, sales of previously occupied homes rose 3.6 percent from May to June, the third consecutive monthly increase and a sign that a housing recovery is under way in much of the country.
COEUR d'ALENE - Homebuyers across the Western U.S., many convinced home prices are close to the bottom, helped fuel a 15 percent annual increase in the region's home sales in June, according to two reports released Thursday.
And while it's not likely to mean another huge surge in out-of-state buyers flush with excess cash to drive North Idaho prices higher, it could mean another trickle of transplants."We are getting back to the way it was eight years ago, before the boom," said Michael Threadgill at Keller Williams Realty in Coeur d'Alene. That means a mix of people coming into the area, and others leaving.Fire-sale prices on foreclosures and other distressed properties lured many buyers, particularly in California, Nevada and Phoenix. Those sales also dragged down the median home sales price in the 13-state region. It tumbled nearly 25 percent from June of last year to $214,800, the National Association of Realtors said.That was the biggest median price decline in any region and helped pull the national median down about 15 percent from year-ago levels to $181,800. Nationally, sales rose 4 percent, without adjusting for seasonal factors. But more importantly, sales posted their third monthly increase, indicating the housing market has turned the corner and is recovering.Leonard Baron, a real estate professor at San Diego State University, said for homes in the lower end of the market at least, where many properties are getting multiple bids, "we've hit a floor." But the same is not true of homes above the median price."For higher-dollar properties, it's harder to tell," Baron said. Threadgill said Kootenai County is similar, with good activity on homes less than $200,000."There is a healthy amount of demand," he said.The turnaround in the West, has also been geographically uneven. Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Boise were the only major metros in the West to register an increase in home sales last month, according to The Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, released Thursday.
= 1234764000) && (nAdsysTime
"Interest rates are very favorable, so I've had a lot of people looking and getting off the fence," said Laura Zajdman, a ZipRealty agent in Los Angeles.Elsewhere in the West, home sales fell last month in Anchorage, Alaska, Denver, Albuquerque, N.M., Billings, Mont., Honolulu, Portland, Ore., and Seattle, according to the report, which tallies all home sales in the metropolitan statistical area by all real estate agents, regardless of company affiliation.The demand for bargain-priced properties has created a traffic jam of buyers for lenders trying to unload homes. Often, banks are fielding multiple offers for a single property and buyers are finding themselves forced to put in bids higher than asking price - a market dynamic not seen since the heady days of the housing boom."There's an extreme amount of multiple offers on those (bank-owned) properties," said Mike West, broker-owner of Century 21 MoneyWorld in Las Vegas. "A decent property, within days on the market, could literally have 10 to 20 offers.""That happens here, too," Threadgill said, and in some cases is driving prices up. A bank selling a home worth about $200,000 may offer it at $150,000, but multiple offers can drive bidding to $180,000 - still a short-sale price for the buyer, but netting the bank more of its investment."The worst may be over," Threadgill said. "It is going to take a while to sort through all the repercussions."
Posted: Friday, Jul 24, 2009 - 05:11:08 pm PDTEmail this story Printer friendly version
http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2009/07/24/real_estate/1-real-estate-sales.txt
By Press staff andThe Associated Press
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press In this July 21 photo, a home for sale is shown in San Francisco. A real estate group's report said Thursday, July 23, sales of previously occupied homes rose 3.6 percent from May to June, the third consecutive monthly increase and a sign that a housing recovery is under way in much of the country.
COEUR d'ALENE - Homebuyers across the Western U.S., many convinced home prices are close to the bottom, helped fuel a 15 percent annual increase in the region's home sales in June, according to two reports released Thursday.
And while it's not likely to mean another huge surge in out-of-state buyers flush with excess cash to drive North Idaho prices higher, it could mean another trickle of transplants."We are getting back to the way it was eight years ago, before the boom," said Michael Threadgill at Keller Williams Realty in Coeur d'Alene. That means a mix of people coming into the area, and others leaving.Fire-sale prices on foreclosures and other distressed properties lured many buyers, particularly in California, Nevada and Phoenix. Those sales also dragged down the median home sales price in the 13-state region. It tumbled nearly 25 percent from June of last year to $214,800, the National Association of Realtors said.That was the biggest median price decline in any region and helped pull the national median down about 15 percent from year-ago levels to $181,800. Nationally, sales rose 4 percent, without adjusting for seasonal factors. But more importantly, sales posted their third monthly increase, indicating the housing market has turned the corner and is recovering.Leonard Baron, a real estate professor at San Diego State University, said for homes in the lower end of the market at least, where many properties are getting multiple bids, "we've hit a floor." But the same is not true of homes above the median price."For higher-dollar properties, it's harder to tell," Baron said. Threadgill said Kootenai County is similar, with good activity on homes less than $200,000."There is a healthy amount of demand," he said.The turnaround in the West, has also been geographically uneven. Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Boise were the only major metros in the West to register an increase in home sales last month, according to The Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, released Thursday.
= 1234764000) && (nAdsysTime
"Interest rates are very favorable, so I've had a lot of people looking and getting off the fence," said Laura Zajdman, a ZipRealty agent in Los Angeles.Elsewhere in the West, home sales fell last month in Anchorage, Alaska, Denver, Albuquerque, N.M., Billings, Mont., Honolulu, Portland, Ore., and Seattle, according to the report, which tallies all home sales in the metropolitan statistical area by all real estate agents, regardless of company affiliation.The demand for bargain-priced properties has created a traffic jam of buyers for lenders trying to unload homes. Often, banks are fielding multiple offers for a single property and buyers are finding themselves forced to put in bids higher than asking price - a market dynamic not seen since the heady days of the housing boom."There's an extreme amount of multiple offers on those (bank-owned) properties," said Mike West, broker-owner of Century 21 MoneyWorld in Las Vegas. "A decent property, within days on the market, could literally have 10 to 20 offers.""That happens here, too," Threadgill said, and in some cases is driving prices up. A bank selling a home worth about $200,000 may offer it at $150,000, but multiple offers can drive bidding to $180,000 - still a short-sale price for the buyer, but netting the bank more of its investment."The worst may be over," Threadgill said. "It is going to take a while to sort through all the repercussions."
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Capital-area foreclosures keep climbing in second quarter
Capital-area foreclosures keep climbing in second quarter
By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2047112.html
The capital-area foreclosure crisis raged on in April, May and June, with lenders repossessing another 4,448 homes and filing notices of default against 10,682 more households late on their payments.
The newest statistics from La Jolla-based researcher MDA DataQuick brought the foreclosure total to 41,903 households since the start of 2007 in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.
That's 10.2 percent of California's 410,744 foreclosures in the same time period. Statewide, 45,677 households surrendered keys to banks during the second quarter - and 124,562 received notices of default, DataQuick reported. Those are the formal foreclosure warnings issued when homeowners fall three months or more behind on payments.
As the state's foreclosure crisis has grown and caused the economy to wobble and unemployment to rise to 11.6 percent statewide and the same in the capital region, the percentage of borrowers able to find their way out of trouble has steadily declined, DataQuick has reported.
The foreclosure tally rose both statewide and in the eight-county capital region from the first quarter, while the number of loan defaults fell slightly.
Regional highlights:
• Amador County: 29 foreclosures and 85 defaults.
• El Dorado County: 202 foreclosures and 632 defaults.
• Nevada County: 98 foreclosures and 286 defaults.
• Placer County: 515 foreclosures and 1,570 notices of default.
• Sacramento County: 3,019 foreclosures and 6,862 defaults.
• Sutter County: 154 foreclosures and 355 notices of default.
• Yolo County: 216 foreclosures, 541 defaults.
• Yuba County: 215 foreclosures and 351 defaults.
DataQuick predicted foreclosure numbers will go higher in the third quarter as lenders boost hiring to deal with a large backlog of delinquencies.
The firm said half the loans that defaulted during the quarter were made before July 2006, and half afterward. The lenders that originated the most troubled loans were Washington Mutual, a failed thrift taken over late last year by JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Countrywide, the failed lender taken over by Bank of America in mid-2008.
By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2047112.html
The capital-area foreclosure crisis raged on in April, May and June, with lenders repossessing another 4,448 homes and filing notices of default against 10,682 more households late on their payments.
The newest statistics from La Jolla-based researcher MDA DataQuick brought the foreclosure total to 41,903 households since the start of 2007 in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.
That's 10.2 percent of California's 410,744 foreclosures in the same time period. Statewide, 45,677 households surrendered keys to banks during the second quarter - and 124,562 received notices of default, DataQuick reported. Those are the formal foreclosure warnings issued when homeowners fall three months or more behind on payments.
As the state's foreclosure crisis has grown and caused the economy to wobble and unemployment to rise to 11.6 percent statewide and the same in the capital region, the percentage of borrowers able to find their way out of trouble has steadily declined, DataQuick has reported.
The foreclosure tally rose both statewide and in the eight-county capital region from the first quarter, while the number of loan defaults fell slightly.
Regional highlights:
• Amador County: 29 foreclosures and 85 defaults.
• El Dorado County: 202 foreclosures and 632 defaults.
• Nevada County: 98 foreclosures and 286 defaults.
• Placer County: 515 foreclosures and 1,570 notices of default.
• Sacramento County: 3,019 foreclosures and 6,862 defaults.
• Sutter County: 154 foreclosures and 355 notices of default.
• Yolo County: 216 foreclosures, 541 defaults.
• Yuba County: 215 foreclosures and 351 defaults.
DataQuick predicted foreclosure numbers will go higher in the third quarter as lenders boost hiring to deal with a large backlog of delinquencies.
The firm said half the loans that defaulted during the quarter were made before July 2006, and half afterward. The lenders that originated the most troubled loans were Washington Mutual, a failed thrift taken over late last year by JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Countrywide, the failed lender taken over by Bank of America in mid-2008.
Monday, July 20, 2009
California foreclosure deals are bittersweet for novice investors
California foreclosure deals are bittersweet for novice investors
By Nicole Williams nwilliams@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2038862.html
Many Californians saw their dreams go up in smoke when the housing market burned up as a result of heavy job losses, bankruptcies and balloon mortgage payments, but others are rising from the ashes and forging new investment endeavors.
All the bathroom mirrors are missing, there's dog urine in the air-conditioning unit and holes in the walls, but the foreclosed house Sacramento resident Sherie Coelho purchased for $115,000 just a few doors down from her own home is "a blessing and a gift," she said.
It was originally listed for $319,000, but because of its status as a former marijuana grow house, real estate agents couldn't get rid of it, Coelho said.
So, backed with $30,000 she received from her late mother, Coelho just secured her first rental property and hopes she will be able to save for her retirement.
"Almost overnight I've become an investor, and it wasn't necessarily intentional," she said.
Coelho isn't the only one who bought a foreclosed home on her south Sacramento block – a neighbor did so earlier this month. But there's something that makes Coelho different from most rental property investors in today's market – she lost her home in 1997.
The foreclosure was one of the most painful periods in Coelho's life, and it took three years to build back her credit.
"I felt like, 'Am I stupid? I'm an English teacher, I should know how to read these documents,' " she said. "It was like I should have understood."
Coelho, who teaches at Cosumnes River College, said going through a foreclosure has made her "more conscious of the human factor of the rise and fall of the housing market."
For Citrus Heights resident Doug Boethin – who purchased his first rental property last year when foreclosures flooded the market – securing the investment he had wanted for years was bittersweet.
"It isn't until you're actually out there (looking for properties) that you see the anger of the people who lost their homes," he said. "To actually witness that, was something to be had."
More foreclosures means more people are looking for rentals, making property investment an attractive business.
But first-time landlords often underestimate the legal requirements, time commitment and ongoing expenses involved in running a rental property, according to the Rental Housing Association.
There could be problems for renters and landlords if the new owners don't comply with laws and standards, including fair housing legislation and property maintenance, said Cory Koehler, RHA deputy director of government affairs.
Coelho and Boethin attended the RHA's new investors educational event Saturday to get schooled on the ins and outs of property management.
Coelho is prepared to invest anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to repair the cosmetic damage in her rental and has learned through experience that having a financial cushion is essential when you own a property.
At first, a $1,000 mortgage each month seems like a small price to pay for your dream investment, she said. But after a few months, "The house eventually owns you."
But losing a home doesn't mean all is lost, Coelho said. And she thinks she's a great example of that. Her foreclosure taught her to buy within her means, and now she thinks she'll have her rental property completely paid off in seven years.
"As far as a lesson learned," she said, "there is always hope."
By Nicole Williams nwilliams@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2038862.html
Many Californians saw their dreams go up in smoke when the housing market burned up as a result of heavy job losses, bankruptcies and balloon mortgage payments, but others are rising from the ashes and forging new investment endeavors.
All the bathroom mirrors are missing, there's dog urine in the air-conditioning unit and holes in the walls, but the foreclosed house Sacramento resident Sherie Coelho purchased for $115,000 just a few doors down from her own home is "a blessing and a gift," she said.
It was originally listed for $319,000, but because of its status as a former marijuana grow house, real estate agents couldn't get rid of it, Coelho said.
So, backed with $30,000 she received from her late mother, Coelho just secured her first rental property and hopes she will be able to save for her retirement.
"Almost overnight I've become an investor, and it wasn't necessarily intentional," she said.
Coelho isn't the only one who bought a foreclosed home on her south Sacramento block – a neighbor did so earlier this month. But there's something that makes Coelho different from most rental property investors in today's market – she lost her home in 1997.
The foreclosure was one of the most painful periods in Coelho's life, and it took three years to build back her credit.
"I felt like, 'Am I stupid? I'm an English teacher, I should know how to read these documents,' " she said. "It was like I should have understood."
Coelho, who teaches at Cosumnes River College, said going through a foreclosure has made her "more conscious of the human factor of the rise and fall of the housing market."
For Citrus Heights resident Doug Boethin – who purchased his first rental property last year when foreclosures flooded the market – securing the investment he had wanted for years was bittersweet.
"It isn't until you're actually out there (looking for properties) that you see the anger of the people who lost their homes," he said. "To actually witness that, was something to be had."
More foreclosures means more people are looking for rentals, making property investment an attractive business.
But first-time landlords often underestimate the legal requirements, time commitment and ongoing expenses involved in running a rental property, according to the Rental Housing Association.
There could be problems for renters and landlords if the new owners don't comply with laws and standards, including fair housing legislation and property maintenance, said Cory Koehler, RHA deputy director of government affairs.
Coelho and Boethin attended the RHA's new investors educational event Saturday to get schooled on the ins and outs of property management.
Coelho is prepared to invest anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to repair the cosmetic damage in her rental and has learned through experience that having a financial cushion is essential when you own a property.
At first, a $1,000 mortgage each month seems like a small price to pay for your dream investment, she said. But after a few months, "The house eventually owns you."
But losing a home doesn't mean all is lost, Coelho said. And she thinks she's a great example of that. Her foreclosure taught her to buy within her means, and now she thinks she'll have her rental property completely paid off in seven years.
"As far as a lesson learned," she said, "there is always hope."
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sacramento-area home sales fall for 1st time since April 2008
Sacramento-area home sales fall for 1st time since April 2008
By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2033127.html
The 14-month streak is over.
Sacramento-area home sales reached their highest monthly count yet this year in June. But with fewer bank repos on the market, they failed to beat the numbers from June 2008, according to new statistics released Thursday from researcher MDA DataQuick.
It was the first time since April 2008 – when year-over-year figures turned positive after three years of declines – that sales failed to beat the previous year. That's the clearest indicator yet, said area market watchers, of the waning influence of repos – which last year ignited an explosion of sales among first-time buyers and investors.
"It's tough to beat (last year) when you don't have so many foreclosures out there to attract buyers," said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage.
As banks hold repossessed properties off the market and contend with government foreclosure moratoriums, the market's lower end has shifted from abundance to scarcity, agents and buyers say.
The competition for increasingly hard-to-find deals in the repo market is leaving some potential buyers frustrated.
"It's impossible for us to get a foreclosure," said Karin DeFoe of Rocklin. "Since March we've lost three houses."
DeFoe described a scene now familiar to many buyers: initially low repo prices that stir a frenzy of multiple bids. Buyers are asked to bid higher; then the best offers are often rejected in favor of investor buyers with cash.
"They're bidding lower than I am, but they've got cash," said DeFoe, who is trying to buy a house for her college-age son to rent.
Sacramento researcher TrendGraphix reported 6,705 real estate listings in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties as June ended. That's the lowest number of homes for sale in the region in four years. Repos accounted for just 14.2 percent of the for-sale signs, compared with almost 28 percent late last year.
"The inventory isn't hitting the market soon enough. I don't think there's enough for the demand out there," said Erin Attardi, a Sacramento agent with Lyon Real Estate.
DataQuick counted 3,758 closed escrows in June for new and existing homes in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. Repos accounted for 53.3 percent of Sacramento County's 2,284 sales, the firm said. New homes were just 9.3 percent of sales.
Median prices, meanwhile, remained stable at $175,000 in Sacramento County, the largest sector of the region's real estate market. That's the same as last month. But it's up from a low of $160,000 in February, when 25.3 percent of homes were priced below $100,000.
In June, just 18.2 percent of sales prices dipped below $100,000, DataQuick reported. The firm has credited rising median prices across much of metropolitan California to a rising share of higher-priced homes in the sales mix.
Attardi agreed, saying, "I think it's a combination of short sales penetrating that higher market where they weren't prevalent before."
Short sales – in which lenders accept less than owed to avoid higher costs of foreclosing and reselling in a falling market – are, indeed, rising as repos lose market share. The Sacramento Association of Realtors said this week that short sales accounted for 16.6 percent of transactions in Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento in June, up from 14.5 percent in May.
"It's a complete shift," said Mike Toste, a Roseville real estate agent who has built a new team to ride the wave. Toste, of Coldwell Banker Sun Ridge, said many lenders, especially the Wells Fargo subsidiary Wachovia, are finally making short sales easier. Lender response times that formerly frustrated agents with 90-day waits have been halved, he said.
"Wachovia is responding in seven to 10 days," he said. Toste, Attardi and others say more than half the for-sale signs in the region now are short sales.
By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2033127.html
The 14-month streak is over.
Sacramento-area home sales reached their highest monthly count yet this year in June. But with fewer bank repos on the market, they failed to beat the numbers from June 2008, according to new statistics released Thursday from researcher MDA DataQuick.
It was the first time since April 2008 – when year-over-year figures turned positive after three years of declines – that sales failed to beat the previous year. That's the clearest indicator yet, said area market watchers, of the waning influence of repos – which last year ignited an explosion of sales among first-time buyers and investors.
"It's tough to beat (last year) when you don't have so many foreclosures out there to attract buyers," said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage.
As banks hold repossessed properties off the market and contend with government foreclosure moratoriums, the market's lower end has shifted from abundance to scarcity, agents and buyers say.
The competition for increasingly hard-to-find deals in the repo market is leaving some potential buyers frustrated.
"It's impossible for us to get a foreclosure," said Karin DeFoe of Rocklin. "Since March we've lost three houses."
DeFoe described a scene now familiar to many buyers: initially low repo prices that stir a frenzy of multiple bids. Buyers are asked to bid higher; then the best offers are often rejected in favor of investor buyers with cash.
"They're bidding lower than I am, but they've got cash," said DeFoe, who is trying to buy a house for her college-age son to rent.
Sacramento researcher TrendGraphix reported 6,705 real estate listings in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties as June ended. That's the lowest number of homes for sale in the region in four years. Repos accounted for just 14.2 percent of the for-sale signs, compared with almost 28 percent late last year.
"The inventory isn't hitting the market soon enough. I don't think there's enough for the demand out there," said Erin Attardi, a Sacramento agent with Lyon Real Estate.
DataQuick counted 3,758 closed escrows in June for new and existing homes in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. Repos accounted for 53.3 percent of Sacramento County's 2,284 sales, the firm said. New homes were just 9.3 percent of sales.
Median prices, meanwhile, remained stable at $175,000 in Sacramento County, the largest sector of the region's real estate market. That's the same as last month. But it's up from a low of $160,000 in February, when 25.3 percent of homes were priced below $100,000.
In June, just 18.2 percent of sales prices dipped below $100,000, DataQuick reported. The firm has credited rising median prices across much of metropolitan California to a rising share of higher-priced homes in the sales mix.
Attardi agreed, saying, "I think it's a combination of short sales penetrating that higher market where they weren't prevalent before."
Short sales – in which lenders accept less than owed to avoid higher costs of foreclosing and reselling in a falling market – are, indeed, rising as repos lose market share. The Sacramento Association of Realtors said this week that short sales accounted for 16.6 percent of transactions in Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento in June, up from 14.5 percent in May.
"It's a complete shift," said Mike Toste, a Roseville real estate agent who has built a new team to ride the wave. Toste, of Coldwell Banker Sun Ridge, said many lenders, especially the Wells Fargo subsidiary Wachovia, are finally making short sales easier. Lender response times that formerly frustrated agents with 90-day waits have been halved, he said.
"Wachovia is responding in seven to 10 days," he said. Toste, Attardi and others say more than half the for-sale signs in the region now are short sales.
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