Ted Golshanara Real Estate Group News

Another Green Article- Solar

2009-11-13T17:58:00.001-08:00

Another Green Article- Solar

This is a great article about a huge solar project in Sacramento. Enjoy.

The roof of a North Sacramento plastics factory will host the biggest West Coast installation of a new type of solar panel.
The technology, built by Fremont's Solyndra Inc., uses racks of solar cells roughly the size and shape of long fluorescent light tubes. The shape allows the panels to harvest sunlight from any angle, including what's reflected from the white rooftops common on large commercial buildings.
The technology promises to cut the cost of solar power.
In March, Solyndra gained a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to greatly increase its Fremont-based manufacturing operations. According to news reports, the company has contracts for orders worth more than $2 billion.
The 208-kilowatt system atop Sacramento's Plastic Package Inc. will supply about one-third of the factory's annual electricity needs, according to company Chairman Jim Kaye.
Plastic Package has been in Sacramento since 1984 and makes mostly food containers and trays. About a quarter of the raw material used in the plant is post-consumer recycled plastic, Kaye said.
The $1.3 million system was supported by a 30 percent subsidy from a federal renewable-energy program.
In addition, for five years SMUD will pay 30 cents for every kilowatt-hour of energy the project produces. That subsidy rate is set to decrease for future solar projects.
The SMUD subsidy is drawn from a fund created under a 2006 state law that promotes solar power. SMUD customers now pay 2 cents into the fund for every 100 kilowatt-hours billed.
Starting Jan. 1, ratepayers' contribution will rise to 9 cents per 100 kilowatt-hours, according to Jim Barnett, who oversees some of SMUD's solar programs.
Plastic Package's Kaye said he expects his solar system to pay for itself in five to six years. After that, power generated by the panels is virtually free.
A ribbon-cutting for the installation with Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, is scheduled for today.
Articles above have been provided by the listed author immediately following the article. For additional resources and information to the authors, please visit the following sites.Resource Links:
http://www.gmacrealestate.com
Bill Fields All Star Coaching Program: http://www.AllStarCoaching.netGreatWest GMAC Search all MLS Listings: http://www.LocalHomeLink.comGreatWest GMAC Consumer Buyer/Seller Blog: http://www.GreatWestBlog.comT. Sami Siddiqui (Broker/ Owner) Buzz About Sacramento Blog: http://www.samisiddiquiblog.comBrodie Stephens (Executive Vice President) One Stop Blog: http://www.brodiestephensblog.comGreatWest Podcasts- Weekly Updates on new REO, Short Sale, Bank Owned Foreclosure Listings: http://www.HouseTalkOnline.comGreatWest Videos: http://www.youtube.com/brodiestephensFacebook Brodie Stephens Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/brodiestephensFacebook GreatWest Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/searchmlshomesforsaleMySpace Brodie Stephens Blog: http://www.myspace.com/brodiestephensMySpace GreatWest Blog: http://www.myspace.com/greatwestPicasa Web Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/brodiestephensGreatWest Real Estate Careers- GMAC is looking for Professional Realtors to Join Us: http://www.CareersWithUs.comGlobal Employee Relocation: http://www.employeerelocation.blogspot.comApply for a Loan: http://www.choice1funding.com
ActiveRain Blog Brodie http://activerain.com/blogs/brodiestephens
ActiveRain Blog Company http://activerain.com/blogs/greatwestgmac
Sacbee http://www.sacbee.com
Company WordPress Site http://www.thehomeholders.com
Real Living http://www.realliving.com

GMAC Real Estate Merges with Real Living

2009-11-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

GMAC Real Estate Merges with Real Living

Date: November 11, 2009
To: GMAC Real Estate Sales Associates
From: Graham Badun, Managing Partner & CEO, Brookfield Residential Property Services
Re: GMAC Real Estate to be Re-branded ‘Real Living’
I am very pleased to let you know that Brookfield Residential Property Services has acquired Real Living Network Services, and as a result will now rebrand GMAC Real Estate as Real Living.
Real Living is a national, award winning company known for its innovation, customer service and track record of attracting results-driven brokers and sales professionals, along with a culture of partnership and collaboration. It brings a suite of innovative marketing tools, relevant training and a technology platform that when brought together with key GMAC Real Estate services like Premier Service, will position us for success for many years to come.
I am also excited to let you know that as a result of this acquisition, we are welcoming an additional 2,000 Real Living brokers and sales associates into our North American real estate network of almost 30,000 real estate professionals. By merging GMAC Real Estate and Real Living, under the Real Living brand, we are creating a very solid real estate brand that will become the foundation for future growth opportunities across the U.S. and into new markets internationally.
The Real Living acquisition is the culmination of several months work and satisfies all that we were looking for through the rebranding process. We considered many options including developing a brand from scratch and the Brand and Transition Councils were instrumental in guiding our thinking and reflecting the broad interests of our entire company. As well, our research pointed us toward creating a company that has great services to help you be more successful and a differentiated culture and brand promise that positions us to stand out from, and above, the competition. With this acquisition, we can take the best from what we have in our existing business, such as Premier Service, and combine it with the best that Real Living has to offer; allowing us to take advantage of the opportunity identified in our research and deliver a brand that meets your needs.
I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Real Living’s Harley Rouda, Jr., a long-time real estate industry broker, owner, operator and franchisor, as President of the newly combined operations. We believe that under Harley’s leadership, and with our solid, combined management team, the guidance of our Advisory Board which is chaired by Dick Schlott, and strong, successful brokers and sales professionals on the frontlines delivering exceptional customer service, we have a winning team with a proven track record for success.
We realize that you may have a number of questions about the new brand and transition, and we want to make it easy for you to get the answers you need. Accordingly, we are making available in the News > Transition News section of gmacmembers.com, a number of informational pieces including the Press Release, Sales Associate Q&A, Talking Points, Real Living Fact Sheet and a biography on Harley Rouda. Also included will be materials, such as a new video, and client and vendor letter templates, that will help you to communicate this great news to your clients, prospects and vendors. If this information does not provide answers to all of your questions, please speak to your broker or manager, or alternatively, contact the Real Living Help Desk at 866-208-6050. And, as always, we will continue to communicate with you on a regular basis.
Kindly direct all media enquiries to Hugh Siler, Siler & Company PR at 949-646-6966 or hugh@silerpr.com.
On a final note, it has been my pleasure to serve you as Interim President of GMAC Real Estate over the last few months, and to get to know many of you personally. I will return to my role as CEO of Brookfield Residential Property Services (the parent company to our real estate and relocation operations) and will remain closely involved throughout the transition and integration of Real Living. Thank you all for your commitment to GMAC Real Estate and your untiring service to our industry and clients. I hope you join in my excitement about our future, as we begin this great, new chapter for our company.
Graham Badun,
Managing Partner & CEO
Brookfield Residential Property Services
Articles above have been provided by the listed author immediately following the article. For additional resources and information to the authors, please visit the following sites.Resource Links:
http://www.gmacrealestate.com
Bill Fields All Star Coaching Program: http://www.AllStarCoaching.netGreatWest GMAC Search all MLS Listings: http://www.LocalHomeLink.comGreatWest GMAC Consumer Buyer/Seller Blog: http://www.GreatWestBlog.comT. Sami Siddiqui (Broker/ Owner) Buzz About Sacramento Blog: http://www.samisiddiquiblog.comBrodie Stephens (Executive Vice President) One Stop Blog: http://www.brodiestephensblog.comGreatWest Podcasts- Weekly Updates on new REO, Short Sale, Bank Owned Foreclosure Listings: http://www.HouseTalkOnline.comGreatWest Videos: http://www.youtube.com/brodiestephensFacebook Brodie Stephens Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/brodiestephensFacebook GreatWest Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/searchmlshomesforsaleMySpace Brodie Stephens Blog: http://www.myspace.com/brodiestephensMySpace GreatWest Blog: http://www.myspace.com/greatwestPicasa Web Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/brodiestephensGreatWest Real Estate Careers- GMAC is looking for Professional Realtors to Join Us: http://www.CareersWithUs.comGlobal Employee Relocation: http://www.employeerelocation.blogspot.comApply for a Loan: http://www.choice1funding.com
ActiveRain Blog Brodie http://activerain.com/blogs/brodiestephens
ActiveRain Blog Company http://activerain.com/blogs/greatwestgmac
Sacbee http://www.sacbee.com
Company WordPress Site http://www.thehomeholders.com
Real Living http://www.realliving.com

First Time Buyer Tax Credit

2009-11-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

News Flash
Homeowners win big with extension and expansion of federal tax credit
The U.S. House of Representatives today voted 403 to 12 to extend and expand the home buyer tax credit. The bill passed the U.S. Senate late yesterday and now will go to President Obama for his signature, where it is expected to be signed this week.
The tax credit will be extended through April 30, 2010, with a 60-day extension if a binding contract is in place prior to the deadline. First-time home buyers will continue to receive a tax credit of up to $8,000, while existing homeowners will receive a credit of up to $6,500. Existing homeowners will be eligible for the $6,500 if they have lived in their current residences for at least five years. The bill also will increase the qualifying income limits from $75,000 for single tax filers and $150,000 for joint filers to $125,000 and $225,000, respectively. The purchase price of the home is capped at $800,000.
Under additional provisions in the bill, taxpayers can claim the credit on purchases completed in 2010 on their 2009 income tax returns. The bill maintains the provision that home buyers do not have to repay the credit, provided the home remains their primary residence for 36 months after purchase, and waives this requirement for active duty military personnel who move due to a military order.
For weeks, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R and its members have urged Congress and the U.S. Senate to extend and expand this crucial piece of legislation.
Nationwide, more than 1.4 million first-time home buyers were given the opportunity to become homeowners as a result of the Federal Tax Credit for First-time Home Buyers. According to C.A.R. research, nearly 40 percent of first-time home buyers surveyed said they would not have purchased a home without the federal tax credit, and approximately 70 percent said the tax credit was "the most important" or a "very important" factor in their decision to buy a home.
To read stories about the extension and expansion of this valuable home-buying incentive, please visit the following:
Aid for jobless, homebuyers clears CongressTo read the full story, please click here.
Congress Extends Jobless Benefits, Home-Buyer CreditTo read the full story, please click here.
Congress passes bill extending unemployment insurance, home buyer tax creditTo read the full story, please click here.
Articles above have been provided by the listed author immediately following the article. For additional resources and information to the authors, please visit the following sites.Resource Links:Bill Fields All Star Coaching Program: http://www.AllStarCoaching.netGreatWest GMAC Search all MLS Listings: http://www.LocalHomeLink.comGreatWest GMAC Consumer Buyer/Seller Blog: http://www.GreatWestBlog.comT. Sami Siddiqui (Broker/ Owner) Buzz About Sacramento Blog: http://www.samisiddiquiblog.comBrodie Stephens (Executive Vice President) One Stop Blog: http://www.brodiestephensblog.comGreatWest Podcasts- Weekly Updates on new REO, Short Sale, Bank Owned Foreclosure Listings: http://www.HouseTalkOnline.comGreatWest Videos: http://www.youtube.com/brodiestephensFacebook Brodie Stephens Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/brodiestephensFacebook GreatWest Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/searchmlshomesforsaleMySpace Brodie Stephens Blog: http://www.myspace.com/brodiestephensMySpace GreatWest Blog: http://www.myspace.com/greatwestPicasa Web Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/brodiestephensGreatWest Real Estate Careers- GMAC is looking for Professional Realtors to Join Us: http://www.CareersWithUs.comGlobal Employee Relocation: http://www.employeerelocation.blogspot.comApply for a Loan: http://www.choice1funding.com

New First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Bill

2009-11-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

New First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Bill

Let’s all hope this bill passes. It will continue to spur the economic and real estate recovery.WASHINGTON — Buying a home is about to get cheaper for a whole new crop of homebuyers — $6,500 cheaper.First-time homebuyers have been getting tax credits of up to $8,000 since January as part of the economic stimulus package. But with that program scheduled to expire at the end of November, the Senate voted 98-0 Wednesday to extend and expand the tax credit to include buyers who already own homes. The House is expected to vote on the bill Thursday. Buyers who have owned their current homes at least five years would be eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500. First-time homebuyers — or anyone who hasn't owned a home in the last three years — would still get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers in both groups have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30. The credit is available for the purchase of principal homes costing $800,000 or less, meaning vacation homes are ineligible. The credit would be phased out for individuals with annual incomes above $125,000 and for joint filers with incomes above $225,000. The credit would be extended an additional year, until June 30, 2011, for members of the military serving outside the United States for at least 90 days.The bill is H.R. 3548.HOW THE HOMEBUYER TAX CREDIT WOULD WORKTax credit: 10% of the purchase price of a primary residence, up to a maximum of $8,000 for first-time homebuyers and $6,500 for repeat buyers. First-time homebuyers are defined as people who have not owned a home in the previous three years. Repeat buyers must have owned their current home at least five years. The credit cannot be used for houses costing more than $800,000.Deadline for qualifying: Purchase agreements must be signed by April 30, 2010, and closings must be final by June 30.Military deadline: The deadline is extended by a year for members of the military who have served outside the U.S. for at least 90 days from Jan. 1, 2009, to May 1, 2010.Income limits: Individuals with annual incomes up to $125,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full credit. Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.How to apply: Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds their tax bill, the government will issue a payment. Taxpayers who want immediate refunds can amend their tax returns for 2008 to claim the credit.Cost: $10.8 billion.Source: Joint Committee on Taxation.Articles above have been provided by the listed author immediately following the article. For additional resources and information to the authors, please visit the following sites.Resource Links:Bill Fields All Star Coaching Program: http://www.AllStarCoaching.netGreatWest GMAC Search all MLS Listings: http://www.LocalHomeLink.comGreatWest GMAC Consumer Buyer/Seller Blog: http://www.GreatWestBlog.comT. Sami Siddiqui (Broker/ Owner) Buzz About Sacramento Blog: http://www.samisiddiquiblog.comBrodie Stephens (Executive Vice President) One Stop Blog: http://www.brodiestephensblog.comGreatWest Podcasts- Weekly Updates on new REO, Short Sale, Bank Owned Foreclosure Listings: http://www.HouseTalkOnline.comGreatWest Videos: http://www.youtube.com/brodiestephensFacebook Brodie Stephens Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/brodiestephensFacebook GreatWest Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/searchmlshomesforsaleMySpace Brodie Stephens Blog: http://www.myspace.com/brodiestephensMySpace GreatWest Blog: http://www.myspace.com/greatwestPicasa Web Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/brodiestephensGreatWest Real Estate Careers- GMAC is looking for Professional Realtors to Join Us: http://www.CareersWithUs.comGlobal Employee Relocation: http://www.employeerelocation.blogspot.comApply for a Loan: http://www.choice1funding.com

Recession's over, but it doesn't feel that way here in capital area

2009-11-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

Recession's over, but it doesn't feel that way in capital area

It looks like the longest U.S. recession since the 1930s is over.
So why doesn't it feel that way?
After four quarters of shrinking, the nation's economy – as measured by its gross domestic product – grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
But the news did little to erase the gloom that has settled over Sacramento's economic landscape like a thick tule fog.
Local businesses are keeping the umbrellas within arm's reach. Local consumers, battered by furloughs and job losses in nearly every sector, are struggling to find shelter.
They're making less, spending less and holding on.
"Yeah, I just bought a bigger wallet, because I'm making so much money over here," said Steve Ryan, co-owner of Rudy's Hideaway on Folsom Boulevard in Rancho Cordova, when he heard the news that the economy was officially growing again.
"Over the last couple of months, it hasn't gotten worse, but I feel like it's trying to get out of its own way," he said. "In the whole scheme of things, it hasn't gotten worse, but it has gotten only a little bit better."
Ryan said his restaurant's fate is shared by other local eateries – things aren't as bad as they were, but business is far from booming.
"The GDP is growing, but the signs of the recession are going to be with us a long time," said Suzanne O'Keefe, an economist at California State University, Sacramento.
"It's hard to feel that the recession's really over when you see all these signs that it's tough out there."
The signs seem to be everywhere: the housing collapse and its devastating effect on the Sacramento region's construction sector; state and local budget woes; wary consumers and businesses afraid to spend or hire.
The Sacramento area lost 40,500 jobs in the 12 months ended in September – 4.6 percent of its labor force, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
Across the state, the numbers are even more bleak: 88,000 lost jobs in the San Francisco-Oakland area; 47,800 in the Silicon Valley; a staggering 220,000 jobs in the Los Angeles area.
The Sacramento area now has 80,000 fewer jobs than it did in 2007, and the employment base is smaller than it was in 2003, said Ryan Sharp, director of the Center for Strategic Economic Research in Sacramento.
Some economists around the nation Thursday suggested that the nascent recovery is artificial – goosed by billions of dollars in federal stimulus spending on programs such as Cash for Clunkers and a tax credit for new homebuyers.
It is unclear that the economy is ready to stand on its own, they said. When Cash for Clunkers ended, for instance, car sales tanked.
"Consumers are in no position to go on another spending spree," said Sung Won Sohn, a former bank executive who teaches at California State University's Channel Islands campus in Camarillo.
"The job market is poor," he continued. "Even with the ongoing economic growth, potential employers are unwilling to hire people. They want to make sure that economic recovery will be sustained. The unemployment rate will continue to rise well into 2010."
Without jobs, he added, "Consumers are unlikely to open their wallets."
Still, he said Thursday, the recession is "technically over."
Rick Niello, president of the Sacramento-based Niello Co., which operates 13 car dealerships in Northern California, chuckled when he heard the economy was growing again.
"I haven't felt it yet," he said. "I think we're kind of at the bottom of the market right now," he said.
"I think we're kind of bouncing along the bottom. The good news is that we will come out of it, and I'm very optimistic."
Even though Cash for Clunkers has ended, and the housing tax credit may expire, there are still many millions of stimulus dollars coming Sacramento's way – money that could stimulate demand for hiring in a variety of sectors.
Federally funded job programs are "starting to make a dent," said Teri Carpenter, spokeswoman for the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency.
Some $7.4 million in stimulus funding has gone toward SETA job creation programs, putting nearly 800 people to work, she said.
"A lot of programs we've funded are just starting to percolate, but we've still got a long way to go."
What will it take for Sacramento to recover? Mike Lyon, head of Sacramento-based Lyon Real Estate, says it will just take time.
He said consumers have been bombarded by so much bad economic news that their confidence has been shattered.
"What it really gets back to is California's ability to heal," he said.
Sharp said California's recovery will likely lag months or years behind the rest of the nation.
"There's a decline in consumer and business confidence," Sharp said. "Add the coupling of state and local budget (problems) – the state budget issue is so tied to the economy – and that's also going to make the recession last longer."
No matter the national indicators, retailers in Sacramento's midtown remain worried, said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association. A number of midtown boutiques have closed in the past two years.
Yet now, Kerth said, there is a feeling that the remaining businesses have survived the worst of the storm.
"The water has quit coming up in the lifeboat, I'd say."

Certified Distressd Property Expert

2009-10-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Certified Distressed Property Expert- Linda Hess

LINDA HESS of GREATWEST GMAC REAL ESTATE, 2235 Douglas Blvd.#520, Roseville, Ca. has earned the prestigious Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation, having completed extensive training in foreclosure avoidance and short sales. This is invaluable expertise to offer at a time when the area is ravaged by “distressed” homes in the foreclosure process.
Short sales allow the cash-strapped seller to repay the mortgage at the price that the home sells for, even though it is lower than what is owed on the property. With plummeting property values, this can save many people from foreclosure and even bankruptcy. More and more lenders are willing to consider short sales because they are much less costly than foreclosures.
In the Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado Counties, more homes are in danger of foreclosing. It is happening in all price ranges. Local experts say that even high-priced homes are not immune.
“This CDPE designation has been invaluable as I work with sellers and lenders on complicated short sales,” said REALTOR HESS. “It is so rewarding to be able to help sellers save their homes from foreclosure.”
Alex Charfen, founder of the Distressed Property Institute in Boca Raton, Fla., said that Realtors® such as LINDA HESS with the CDPE designation have valuable training in short sales that can offer the homeowner much better alternatives to foreclosure, which virtually destroys the credit rating. These experts also may better understand market conditions and can help sellers through the emotional experience, he said.
The Distressed Property Institute opened in January 2008 and provides training on-site and online. The CDPE is the premier designation for Realtors helping homeowners in distress and handling short sales.
“Our goal is to educate as many people as possible so we can help as many homeowners as possible,” Charfen said.
Linda can be reached at (916)709-1419 or visit www. ShortSellersHelpers.net
For more information about CDPE designation or to find a certified distressed Realtor in your area, please call 1-800-482-0335.Articles above have been provided by the listed author immediately following the article. For additional resources and information to the authors, please visit the following sites.Resource Links:Bill Fields All Star Coaching Program: http://www.AllStarCoaching.netGreatWest GMAC Search all MLS Listings: http://www.LocalHomeLink.comGreatWest GMAC Consumer Buyer/Seller Blog: http://www.GreatWestBlog.comT. Sami Siddiqui (Broker/ Owner) Buzz About Sacramento Blog: http://www.samisiddiquiblog.comBrodie Stephens (Executive Vice President) One Stop Blog: http://www.brodiestephensblog.comGreatWest Podcasts- Weekly Updates on new REO, Short Sale, Bank Owned Foreclosure Listings: http://www.HouseTalkOnline.comGreatWest Videos: http://www.youtube.com/brodiestephensFacebook Brodie Stephens Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/brodiestephensFacebook GreatWest Profile Page: http://www.facebook.com/searchmlshomesforsaleMySpace Brodie Stephens Blog: http://www.myspace.com/brodiestephensMySpace GreatWest Blog: http://www.myspace.com/greatwestPicasa Web Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/brodiestephensGreatWest Real Estate Careers- GMAC is looking for Professional Realtors to Join Us: http://www.CareersWithUs.comGlobal Employee Relocation: http://www.employeerelocation.blogspot.comApply for a Loan: http://www.choice1funding.com

Do your homework on reverse mortgages

2009-10-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

Ask the Experts: Do your homework on reverse mortgages

Our three new "Ask the Experts" writers have been busily answering financial questions this month from online readers.
Here's a sample of their advice on personal finance, wills/estates and investing.
To see more questions or to get advice from our other financial experts on taxes, banking and investment clubs, go to: www.sacbee.com/ask.
Pamela Christensen, Certified financial planner
I expect to retire in about four years and will have a small Sacramento County retirement. We also have about $150,000 in CDs to live on. My parents got a reverse mortgage a couple years ago for the extra cash to live on and to have no mortgage payment. It seems to be working for them and we are considering it as well. Is this type of mortgage safe?
As with most financial planning, these issues are very individual. I like reverse mortgages in some situations, although it's always wise to get lots of counsel on your particular circumstances and the ramifications. For instance, do you have heirs in line to inherit your house? Do they want or need it? How much equity do you have in the home?
Do your homework and learn as much as you can. Start by going to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Web site (www.hud.gov) and search for "Reverse Mortgages." There's also information on the state Department of Real Estate Web site (www.dre. ca.gov). Click on "Consumers", then "Home Buyers/Borrowers," then "DRE Publications and Resources." Talk to your estate planning attorney and other financial professionals to get their opinions. Talk with family and friends only if you know they are well educated in reverse mortgages.
Gina Lera Estate planning attorney
My brother passed away, with no assets other than his car, which has a salvaged pink slip. He has credit card debt of about $15,000. Do I have to sell the car to pay off his debt? He'd said he wanted my son to have the car if anything ever happened to him. A couple credit card companies have already cleared him of the debt he owed. He lived with me, has no children and no other assets. What do I need to do?
I am sorry about your loss. Since your brother died without a will, his assets will pass as provided by the laws of the state where he resided at the time of death. Assuming he died in California and was not survived by a wife, children or grandchildren, his estate would pass to his parents (or, if both parents are deceased, to his siblings in equal shares).
Because the estate's value is less than $100,000, the heir(s) can assume the vehicle's title by making an appointment with the DMV, completing a "small estate affidavit" form and providing a copy of the death certificate.
The heir can then assign the car to your son without gift tax consequences, assuming the car's value is less than $13,000. Your brother's statements about wanting your son to have the car after his death have no effect, since California does not recognize oral wills.
Be careful in this process. The credit card company can collect up to one year following your brother's death. You indicated some debts were voluntarily discharged by several card companies, which is common in more modest estates. Be sure to get this confirmed in writing, to ensure you are not taking on additional problems. Even after the car is transferred to your son, the heirs are still liable for any debt up to the value of the car.
Cameron I. Beck, Investment adviser
I've read that people with defined pension plans should consider them as the short-term or fixed part of their asset mix, in terms of an overall retirement portfolio.
For instance, if 60 percent of your retirement income was in a defined pension, the other 40 percent could be placed in more aggressive investments to round out the portfolio.
Because of the recent market meltdown where investments may have shrunk 40 percent or more, is it still wise to think that way? Or should the rest of the portfolio be invested totally separate from the pension? I guess it goes back to how much risk I should be willing to accept.
In this day and age, you are very fortunate to have a defined benefit pension plan. Many employers find them too costly and are switching to employee-directed plans or defined contribution plans. At retirement, most of those fortunate enough to have a traditional defined benefit pension plan can expect to receive a fixed-income stream for their lifetime. It can be considered a fixed-income part of an asset mix. Unlike stocks, which fluctuate in value, pension plan distributions usually remain steady.
Whether your income comes from a pension plan run by your employer or from interest-bearing investments like CDs, it is important to practice diversification, which includes both growth and fixed-interest investments. Diversification, if practiced wisely, can lead to a prosperous retirement regardless of where your income comes from.

Deposit Your Check... From Home?

2009-10-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

Deposit Your Check...From Home?

First, we didn't need to visit the bank teller anymore. Then we were able to stick our checks right into the ATM without an envelope. Now we won't have to leave the house to make deposits.
Earlier this month, Sacramento-based Schools Financial Credit Union became the latest bank to allow customers to scan checks at home and deposit them over the Internet. Golden 1 Credit Union introduced scanner-based check deposits in July.
"Banking's not the way it was five or 10 years ago," said Nathan Schmidt, a vice president at Schools Financial. "With any type of technology, it becomes more convenient to self-service."
Another lender, USAA Federal Savings Bank, has gone even further down the convenience road. It allows customers to deposit checks with their iPhones by taking pictures of both sides of the check with the phone's camera.
According to an Oct. 6 article in American Banker, USAA customers have deposited more than 100,000 checks totaling $61 million with their iPhones since the service became available in August.
The article went on to say that giant Bank of America is expected to start testing mobile phone deposits soon.
Even with the widespread use of direct deposit and online banking, Americans still write and receive millions of paper checks each year.
A 2008 press release from the U.S. Treasury Department said that one in three Americans don't use direct deposit, including 10.5 million Social Security recipients.
And for the most part, when we have to deposit a paper check, we still need to go to an ATM to do it.
Businesses have been making deposits over the Internet for longer, ever since the passage in 2004 of the federal Check 21 Act.
Crafted in response to the banking system's paralysis in the wake of the terror attacks of September 2001, the act made a digital image of a check legally acceptable for payment.
Wednesday marks the act's fifth anniversary.
Businesses quickly saw the benefits of the new law. Sending checks as digital images eliminated courier costs and paperwork.
More than 60 percent of U.S. banks now offer merchant remote deposit – up from 50 percent in 2008, according to a June study by the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Community Bankers of America. Some 78 percent of banks plan to adopt the technology by 2011, the study found.
The extension of the service to consumers has come much more slowly. Cary Whaley, a director at the bankers group, said financial institutions have been wary about potential fraud.
"For many banks, it remains a business application," Whaley said. "The next step is the consumer side, but a lot of community banks are a little wary. When you're getting into thousands of consumers, the challenge for banks and credit unions is not only monitoring risk, but monitoring for changes in transactions and transaction amounts."
But some bankers said consumers are increasingly demanding the same convenience given to their business counterparts, and it's simply a matter of time before remote deposits become much more widespread.
Fewer than 1 million residential bank customers currently make deposits remotely over the Internet. But that number is expected to explode as more consumers catch on, and more banks make it available.
"It's clearly on the upswing," said John Leekley, founder and chief executive officer of the Georgia-based industry Web site RemoteDepositCapture.com. "The question is not whether we're going to reach 5 million, it's when. It's a matter of convenience and efficiency. I don't know anyone who enjoys going to a bank branch.
"If you can just scan a check on a phone or a home computer, it's really about getting that check sooner so you can get your money sooner."
When Schools Financial Credit Union decided to take the plunge, it included safeguards to prevent abuse. Customers must use their existing secure online banking log-in, and can't transmit items more than twice a day.
Users have a time limit to scan and deposit the check online and checks must meet specific requirements before they are deposited. Post-dated, damaged or lightly printed checks, for instance, will not scan properly and cannot be deposited.
Schools is rolling the program out over time. It will be available to all 40,000 members who bank online by mid-November.
All it requires to make a deposit is a digital scanner and a computer with an Internet connection.
In Sacramento, Golden 1 rolled out its Z@piT online deposit service in July to a customer base comfortable with doing business online. About 200 members are enrolled.
"So many people prefer to do self-service. They choose to go online – maybe they're parents with small kids, or they might not want to go to an ATM at 3 a.m.," said Golden One's chief executive officer, Teresa Halleck.
"People are already online," she said. "They're comfortable with electronic delivery and they're looking for more."

For Mortgages, 620 is The New Magic Number

2009-10-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

For Mortgages, 620 is The New Magic Number

Near historic low mortgage rates, favorable home prices, and the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers have contributed to home purchases in the past year. However, the onset of the credit crisis, new regulations for home appraisals, and more stringent guidelines for purchases and refinances have resulted in confusion for some potential home buyers.While using a mortgage broker to find the best loan may work for some buyers, it may not always be the best route. In the past, mortgage brokers could “shop” a loan to multiple lenders to help find the best deal. However, new practices and procedures under the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) have hampered mortgage brokers’ abilities, namely that lenders may no longer accept home appraisals commissioned by brokers. As a result, consumers may have to pay for new appraisals with each lender, which costs time and money. However, consumers who are very busy or need guidance may find that working with a mortgage broker is the easiest solution.Qualifying for a mortgage under current lender standards is more difficult nowadays than in years past. Beginning Nov. 1 or Dec. 12, depending on the type of loan, Fannie Mae is tightening its lending standards to the 620 credit score benchmark—including loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs. Borrowers with credit scores of less than 620 will find it very difficult to qualify for a mortgage. However, to qualify for the best rates, consumers generally need credit scores of 720 and must have verifiable, steady income.As for loan type, most real estate professionals agree that a fixed-rate mortgage is the best choice for buyers and refinancers.

Real Estate - A Great Long Term Investment

2009-10-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

Real Estate - A Great Long Term Investment

GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals know real estate is a good long-term investment. Although home values have stalled or experienced decline in recent years, longer snapshots in time have proved real estate to be a fantastic investment.Let’s consider one scenario provided by a real estate professional. If someone were fortunate enough to buy a home even in 2002 and paid $500,000. If they put 20% down, there mortgage was $400,000. That home went all the way up to $800,000 in 2005 and is now only worth $560,000. They likely refinanced when it was worth $800,000 and their note went to $600,000. They received a 200% return on their original investment, tax-free. Their original investment was not the price of the house but the amount of money they brought to the table. $100,000. Many folks used their home as an ATM machine with a roof. And many more homeowners are in trouble today because of it. Sadly, too many got caught in the free money craze. The good news is that fortunately many of these homeowners are holding onto their homes and some day when we see a return to annual appreciation, they will see their property values rise once again.Understanding that housing markets are cyclic is key. For homebuyers, our current cycle offers excellent home buying opportunities.

Quarterly home sales worst yet for Sacramento area

2009-10-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

Home Front: Quarterly home sales worst yet for Sacramento area

Sacramento-area home builders just keep singing the blues.July, August and September brought their worst quarter yet in this long housing crash: just 616 sales in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, the Folsom-based Gregory Group reports today.Actually, nearly all the region's sales were in Placer and Sacramento counties alone. The suburban cities of Placer County accounted for 44 percent of third-quarter sales of new homes in the region. Sacramento County's outer suburban rings comprised 43 percent.The tough numbers reflect California's expired $10,000 tax credit for buyers of new, unoccupied homes – and the imminent end of an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers, said Gregory Group President Greg Paquin. "All the evidence was that people were coming in asking how to use the tax incentive," he said. "That was a big selling point."Wednesday, however, the state Senate voted to extend the state's $10,000 tax credit to another 4,300 buyers. The Assembly is expected to vote on it next week.The newest sales numbers bring the year's new-home tally to just 2,286 through Sept. 30. At that pace, sales may fall below 3,000 this year in the six-county capital region, a level not seen since the 1960s. Statistics this year from researcher MDA DataQuick show that closed escrows for new houses are about 9 percent of all home sales. In 2005, home builders claimed 25 percent.Top five cities for sales in July, August and September:• Roseville, 167 sales.• Elk Grove west of Highway 99, 88 sales.• Rancho Cordova, 79 sales.• Lincoln, 57 sales.• Rocklin, 52 sales.No more up-front feesHere's mortgage news worth repeating: As of last Sunday, it's illegal in California for loan modification companies or attorneys to charge up-front fees to help you get your loan modified.Last Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB94, by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, to ban up-front fees. No exceptions. The game now requires a loan modification firm or attorney to clearly spell out what steps will be taken on your behalf with lenders. A struggling borrower does not pay until the firm or attorney has performed all those steps. If, however, the lender declines to modify a loan after those steps have been taken, you must still pay.Before you sign anything, the loan modification firm must tell you, in your own language, that you can get these same services free from government-approved nonprofit loan counseling firms. More information: www.dre.ca.gov.Free foreclosure workshopsThe Sacramento Mutual Housing Association will hold a pair of free foreclosure prevention workshops next week for people struggling with mortgages.The workshops will explain the federal Making Home Affordable loan modification program and other options to keep your house. It will also explain steps of the foreclosure process and how to avoid scams. During sessions, people can schedule a free individual session with a foreclosure prevention specialist.First session: Monday at 6 p.m. at Mutual Housing at Lemon Hill, South Sacramento. Address: 6000 Lemon Hill Ave.Second session: Thursday, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. at the Sacramento Association of Realtors. Address: 2003 Howe Ave., Sacramento.Preregistration is required. Call Tara at Sacramento Mutual Housing Association, (916) 453-8400, extension 43, or e-mail: tara@mutualhousing.com.

Foreclosure flood fails to materialize in Sacramento area

2009-10-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

Foreclosure flood fails to materialize in Sacramento area

People who watch housing prices have predicted for months that another deluge of foreclosed homes would soon hit the market – once again crushing Sacramento-area property values.But the flood of bank repos hasn't materialized. And now, a leading California foreclosure analyst says it probably won't."From the things I'm seeing, there's not going to be a wave any time soon," said Sean O'Toole, president of ForeclosureRadar, a Contra Costa County firm that tracks mortgage defaults and foreclosures.Despite a growing number of loan defaults and delinquencies, O'Toole said banks are now selling more homes than they're repossessing – and political pressure on them to work with homeowners is slowing foreclosure rates. Other market watchers also see banks slowly dribbling out their supply of repossessed homes."From all appearances, it does look like they're managing it better," said Charlene Singley, president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors.If the supply of homes for sale remains in balance with demand, the danger of another sharp downturn in prices is lessened, at least in the short run, O'Toole and others said Thursday.The prospect of another wave of new foreclosures has long threatened to destabilize a capital-area market precariously balanced by massive repo sell-offs, curtailment of new-home production and buyers enticed by lower prices, low interest rates and tax credits.Even as disaster scenarios remain easy to imagine, the number of area for-sale signs is now at an encouraging 52-month low.Still, the downside to this relative steadiness in the near term, O'Toole acknowledged, may be that it will take longer to work through the mortgage crisis and recover.On Thursday, La Jolla researcher MDA DataQuick offered fresh evidence of the market's tenuous balance.Regional home sales in September ticked up slightly from August, with 3,454 new and existing homes changing hands in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. Yet September marked a fourth straight month in which sales fell below the same time last year.That's because recent sales have been unable to match last year's sharp rise as banks unloaded thousands of repos, a phenomenon that also put downward pressure on area home values. O'Toole said banks have cut their statewide repo inventory by 41 percent in the past year.Now that the repo sales pace has slowed in Sacramento County – from 70 percent of sales in February to 53 percent in September – median sales prices have quickly stabilized.DataQuick reported a September median price of $176,000 in Sacramento County. Median is that point where half the homes cost more and half less. That was down from a 2009 high of $180,000 in August, but still well above February's housing bust low of $160,000.Fewer repo listings this year brought another phenomenon not seen since the boom: bidding wars. The phenomenon so frustrated state employee Lauri Lathrop that she finally bought a new house in Elk Grove in September."I was putting in offers $15,000 above the asking price, and I was getting outbid," she said Thursday. "I saw this new house and nobody could outbid me. It was like it was mine," she said.Lathrop obtained a favorable interest rate and an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers – though she missed the window for a $10,000 state tax credit for buyers of new homes.Such perks combined with affordability to prod more buyers off the fence this year. Sales of new and existing homes combined from January through September this year total 30,231, beating 29,751 during the same period in 2008 and 26,777 from January through September 2007.As a result, the number of for-sale signs in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties has fallen to May 2005 lows, according to Sacramento researcher TrendGraphix.The affiliate of Lyon Real Estate counted 6,129 listings in the four counties at the end of September. The numbers have fallen for 25 straight months since peaking at 16,262 in August 2007.TrendGraphix said 13.4 percent of current listings are bank repos and 27 percent are short sales, in which owners hope lenders will accept a sales price below what they owe. That means 40 percent are so-called "distress sales."That's scary, but real estate agents like Singley and Carey Covey of Cook Real Estate maintain there is an ample supply of buyers. And sales statistics from the Sacramento Association of Realtors show that banks are faster to approve short sales now than months ago.As the repo share of the sales mix has continued to decline, short sales rose to almost 20 percent of sales in September in Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento, SAR reported.Covey, who specializes in selling bank-owned homes, said he believes the supply of repos will remain steady. But he expects no trouble selling them at such a pace."As of right now, we're still short on supply, and there's still a lot of demand," he said.

SMUD demo house in Fair Oaks shows how to save energy

2009-10-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

SMUD demo house in Fair Oaks shows how to save energy

The 26-year-old house in Fair Oaks was a product of its time, all-electric and power hungry, built in an era of Rancho Seco nuclear power.Remodeled in 2009, the house is now the product of a new time, and it's all about energy conservation.Tucked away on a quiet, pleasant street near Hazel Avenue, the house is the Sacramento Municipal Utility District's newest demonstration of how Californians will use energy more sparingly in the future.It's also a showcase of products and techniques representing potential green growth for the capital region's battered construction sector, which is building barely any new houses these days.The remodeled house on Quail Hill Way is designed to use 60 percent less power than it did before."It's not strange. It's not goofy. It's not an earthship made of car tires," said Jim Bayless, who has transitioned from struggling home builder to green retrofitter. "It's a normal house," he said.Bayless, owner of now-idled Treasure Homes, bought the three-bedroom, two-bath house in May as a $150,000 short sale. He and partners in Folsom-based GreenBuilt Construction spent $141,000 to reroof it, install leading-edge appliances, solar power, the newest windows and other emerging systems known to vigorously slash kilowatt-hours.SMUD, which signed on as a partner, will rent the house for a year, at $1,700 a month, to show its features to the public and area building contractors. It's part of the utility's shifting focus to retrofitting existing homes. Deals with home builders to add solar power systems to thousands of newly built area homes have stalled with the housing crash."If we can duplicate this in some fashion by the tens of thousands, how much energy could we save?" asked Mike Keesee, a project manager at SMUD. Keesee said mass retrofits of existing homes could spare SMUD the costs of building power plants and take pressure off peak demand situations such as heat waves.Homeowners, too, may find it easier soon to finance such improvements. As a result of Assembly Bill 811, a law adopted last year, local governments throughout the capital region are considering making loans to pay for the upfront costs of home energy improvements. The loans would be wrapped into property tax bills with repayments spread over years and multiple owners.Financial incentives and rebates also can help with the upfront costs needed to save money later. SMUD estimates the costs of energy efficiency upgrades in the Fair Oaks home at about $32,000.When tours start Oct. 24, visitors will see a house filled with simple fixes that range from a radiant barrier beneath the roof � somewhat like a car's reflective windshield sunshade � to a 40-gallon rooftop water tank where the sun warms water for the house. There is a water faucet above the kitchen sink that turns off with a tap of the hand, and new ways to seal the house tight to prevent leakage of heated and cooled air.New dual-pane windows also keep out hot exterior air in summer and keep warm interior air in during winter."Windows," said Keesee, "have come so far."An Internet-based monitoring system in the house is reminiscent of the futuristic 1960s cartoon, the "Jetsons," allowing the homeowner to adjust interior temperatures with a remote control at home or from a desktop computer at work. The computer even shuts the garage door if it perceives that the owner has left it open after leaving for work."There are lots of little details, and that's what it's all about, getting the little details right," said Bayless during a tour this week.SMUD helped fund some of the work as a demonstration project aimed at spurring others to act. Manufacturers offered deals on energy efficient products in return for the expected exposure during tours. Colorado's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy affiliate, is also a partner, providing technical support and analyzing the energy savings.NREL's manager for residential research, Ren Anderson, said Tuesday the laboratory's goal in Fair Oaks is to help "enable utilities in California to meet their long-term mandated goals for renewable energy and energy efficiency." By 2020, California aims to build homes that generate the power they consume. The state aims for all buildings to do the same by 2030.The Fair Oaks remodel comes a year after Keesee and SMUD teamed with a Folsom firm to build a so-called "House of the Future" near downtown Folsom. That demonstration house, touted as a model for large-scale home builders to imitate, was declared one of the most energy efficient houses built in the United States. It sold in January for $625,000.Keesee said his research shows the Fair Oaks retrofit and demonstration house is among 20 to 30 of the most efficient homes nationally."There are maybe five to six in California at this extreme that I could find," he said. "That doesn't include the people who have quietly done it on their own.

California Realtors stay busy online

2009-10-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

Home Front: California Realtors stay busy online

Where do today's real estate agents go when they go online?
A new survey from their California trade group reveals a new generation of agents obsessed with e-mail, social networking, cruising multiple listing services and publicizing listings on a rising number of Web sites.
Realtors are getting intimate with the Internet (97 percent have high-speed access at home) or getting left behind, says a new California Association of Realtors technology survey conducted in July and August.
Almost half of 400 agents surveyed said they're now using social networking sites "to stay on top of trends in their business." Most popular, with 34 percent using it, was LinkedIn, a network of business contacts. Video site YouTube claimed 13 percent, MySpace 12 percent, Twitter 10 percent and Facebook 4 percent, CAR reported.
Wired agents most consistently seek information on Realtor.com, the Web site of the National Association of Realtors. Ninety-four percent named it as a top site. It's also a top site for homebuyers to look at listings.
After Realtor.com came their local multiple-listing services at 89 percent, their company Web sites at 86 percent and the California Association of Realtors site at 78 percent.
Increasingly, today's agents also appreciate the online valuation site Zillow, classified ad giant Craigslist and Yahoo Real Estate. In surveys three years ago, none of the three was mentioned.
In another break with the past, 70 percent of Realtors now promote listings online:
� 51 percent on Yahoo Real Estate.
� 37 percent on local newspaper Web sites.
� 29 percent on Zillow and 26 percent on Craigslist.
Nearly half the state's 172,000 Realtors carry laptops or tablet computers in the field, mainly to check e-mail and respond quickly, CAR said. Almost 40 percent carry a hand-held wireless device to do the same.
The survey results are based on a random telephone survey of CAR members. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus ve percentage points. More details: www.car.org.
Mortgage lending bills fate uncertain
We're still waiting on Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger.
As of press time there was no word whether he will sign or veto bills that aim to tighten mortgage lending standards in California and ban loan modification firms from charging up-front fees. Bills to watch include Assembly Bill 260, which bans many risky loans, and Senate Bill 94 and Assembly Bill 764, which prevent loan modification firms from collecting fees before they begin work.
Industry officials and prosecutors are also watching Senate Bill 239, which creates a new felony category in California law for mortgage fraud.
The governor has signed very few bills while awaiting a deal on water issues. He has until Sunday to decide.
While we're addressing deadlines, there's also no word on whether a federal $8,000 homebuyer tax credit will be extended after expiring Nov. 30. (The House voted Thursday to extend for one year the credit for military service members who have served at least three months overseas in 2009).
The fate of the expired $10,000 tax credit for buyers of new California homes also remains uncertain.
Rates stay below 5 percent
It's like spring again for mortgage rates. Much like March, April and May, they've marked two weeks now below 5 percent � just as the sales season begins a fall and winter slowdown.
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac pegged this week's national average at 4.87 percent, plus points, for the benchmark fixed-rate 30-year loan.
That's down from 4.94 percent last week and the year's 14th week below 5 percent.
For Sacramento buyers, locking in a $200,000 loan this week is about $90 a month cheaper than in June, when 2009 rates peaked at 5.59 percent plus points.
Falling rates are generally a sign that investors believe the economy is weak and won't produce an inflationary spiral any time soon.
With rates falling for six straight weeks now, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 19-week high in mortgage applications this week.
Most aren't buyers. Two-thirds of applicants nationally want to refinance.

Economist expects California existing-home sales to fall in 2010

2009-10-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Economist expects California existing-home sales to fall in 2010

Sales of existing homes will fall slightly next year in California as people lose more jobs and cheap foreclosed homes become a smaller part of the market, California Association of Realtors economists predicted Wednesday.Fewer sales of foreclosed homes may also push median prices a little higher than this year, the group said.Watch, too, for growing trouble in the higher-end home market, which so far has been spared the huge price drops seen at the less expensive end, said CAR chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young.The California trade group for 172,000 real estate agents is predicting sales of 527,500 homes in 2010 - 2.3 percent less than in this year. It also foresees a 2010 median price of $280,000. That's 3.3 percent higher than this year's current estimate of $271,000.But anything could happen in a still-volatile and sluggish economic and housing climate, CAR said. The group, releasing the estimates during a trade show in San Jose on Wednesday, cautioned that numerous wild cards could hurt the real estate market in 2010, including the state budget crisis, rising unemployment and possibly rising interest rates."As we get through this, there are a lot of unknowns," said Appleton-Young.In California, the nation's largest struggling housing market, those wild cards include:• The supply of foreclosed homes. Appleton-Young said prices could be pressed downward again if a heavier-than-expected wave of foreclosures floods the market next year. Foreclosures accounted for slightly more than half the state's sales this year; the estimate for next year is one-third."I don't see a tsunami of foreclosures," said the CAR economist. "I see an elevated level of foreclosures over the next couple of years, and an acceleration of foreclosures at the upper end of the market."Analysts, including Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, note that banks have been slow to foreclose and list existing repos, setting up the potential for a new wave of bank-owned properties going up for sale.Burns contends that continued government intervention - including tax credits for buyers - is necessary to stimulate housing demand in a slow economy. CAR is among the real estate groups lobbying Congress to extend a first-time homebuyer tax credit that expires Nov. 30.Sacramento-area real estate agents are also getting "calls to action" to lobby congressional reps for an extended tax credit, said Charlene Singley, president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors.• Sales of higher-end homes. Appleton-Young said many buyers are having trouble financing more expensive houses - and hesitating over fears they will lose value. Those factors, combined with rising joblessness among owners of higher-priced homes, have the potential to bring down prices in the upper segment.• Loan resets: Projections suggest that thousands of new risky adjustable-rate loans - including especially dangerous pay-option mortgages - will reset in 2010 across California, possibly triggering a new stream of loan defaults. Many of those, too, involve owners of more expensive homes.

Mortgage rates below 5 percent fuel re-fi boom

2009-10-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Mortgage rates below 5 percent fuel re-fi boom

Every dollar counts in this economy.
Homeowners hustled last week to refinance their mortgages after interest rates fell below 5 percent for the first time since May.
Refinance applications climbed 18 percent from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday, as rates on 30-year home loans dropped to their lowest level in four months to 4.89 percent.
With extra cash lining their pockets each month, homeowners could help the economy recover. Since the recession began, American consumers have reined in spending, which accounts for up to 70 percent of the economy. A refinance savings of a couple hundred bucks could go a long way in boosting household finances.
"A lot of people are thinking: "If I can get something right now, let's get it and run,'" said Pava Leyrer, president of Heritage National Mortgage in Michigan.
But more than 16 million homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth. To refinance they would have to cover the difference and then some. In some cases, that could mean forking over tens of thousands of dollars. Others simply don't qualify under stricter credit and income standards. And requirements for refinancing certain government loans will get tougher in November.
The Federal Reserve started buying mortgage-backed securities in January to drive down mortgage rates. But it plans to slow its purchases of mortgage-related debt and extend the program through the first three months of 2010, which will likely push rates higher.
Still, current low rates helped borrowers like Kimberly Austin in Kalamazoo, Mich., cut her monthly payment by more than $300 to $934. Austin, a 40-year-old accounts receivable clerk, ticked off a list of where that extra cash will go. A new roof, updating the electrical system and other improvements on the older house she bought in June of last year.
"That money would be a huge help," said Austin, who is set to complete the refinance on Thursday.
For Tanya Schlicht in Greenfield, Wisc., refinancing her mortgage will help cushion the blow from her husband's job loss earlier this year. He's working at a temp agency now, but makes less than before.
Schlicht, who works in a nursing home, is in the process of qualifying with just her income and wants to roll a costly second mortgage into just one loan. The move will save them a much-needed $200 a month.
"We're going to need it for the electric bill," she said.
She's a lucky one.
Many calls mortgage brokers received last week came from borrowers who couldn't qualify for a new loan because of lower incomes, higher credit standards or falling home prices.
New rules designed to limit conflicts of interest in the appraisal industry also are scuttling refinance applications because appraisals are coming in low, said Les Berman of EB Financial in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Lenders are stricter too. Before, Berman said they would accept a refinance application if the mortgage payment, taxes, insurance and all other debt added up to half a borrower's income. Now, the magic number is 41 percent.
The Obama Administration launched a plan in April to help borrowers refinance, even if their home has lost value. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are accepting borrowers who owe up to 25 percent more than their home are worth. But so far, only about 85,000 homeowners have had their loans refinanced under the plan, well below original expectations of 5 million.
"I personally haven't seen one yet," Berman said.
And on Nov. 18th, new requirements go into effect for borrowers who want to refinance a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration. The so-called "FHA streamline" loan will require at least six months of payments before a borrower can take advantage of the program, and verification of assets, job and income. Also, more borrowers will need to come up with more cash to refinance because of new rules to calculate the maximum loan amount relative to the home's value.
"That'll stop up to 85 percent of my streamline borrowers," said Leyrer of Heritage National Mortgage.
Mortgage brokers say a refinancing is worthwhile if you can shave off at least $100 from your monthly payment or get a full percentage point rate reduction.
That's why rates below 5 percent are so appealing. It's only the second time this year they dipped that low. Rates hit a record low of 4.78 percent in the spring.
"The experts say rates are going back up," said John Stearns, vice president at Robbins and Lloyd Mortgage in Mequon, Wis. "We're making hay while we can now."

FHA Loans soar in Sacramento area

2009-10-05T20:43:00.001-07:00

FHA loans soar in Sacramento area

The number of government-backed FHA loans jumped sharply last year, propping up a local real estate market otherwise saturated by loan denials.
During 2008, lenders issued 8,998 FHA loans in the Sacramento region, up from 649 during 2007, according to statistics released this week by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
"There's been such a shift in available financing as the market bottoms out," said Larry Bush, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
FHA loans are primarily used by people who can't afford a big down payment, or who otherwise aren't able to obtain mortgage insurance. FHA buyers need put down only about 3 percent. With the credit market shot, most conventional loans require at least 10 percent down.
Other than FHA loans, there are "very few lenders out there that will even toy with 95 percent financing," said John Arvanitis, owner of Sunrise Vista Mortgage, a Citrus Heights-based company that specializes in FHA loans.
FHA loans fell out of favor during the housing boom, experts said, because it didn't matter much whether borrowers had enough for a substantial down payment. Banks were giving zero down, "no proof" mortgages left and right.
Also during the boom, FHA mortgages were capped locally around $360,000, which didn't buy much back then. Now, prices have plunged, and the cap has been raised to $580,000, covering the vast majority of the local market.
"Even during the subprime era, I was trying to get people to go with FHA loans," Arvanitis said, adding that it was a tougher sell back then.
FHA insures loans; it doesn't make them. Like any insurer, the government tries to be careful before it acts.
There's a pretty long list of standards that a home must meet before an FHA loan will be administered, said Scott Burton, who specializes in FHA homes and runs Burton & Co. Real Estate Appraisals, a local outfit.
For instance, homes often don't pass muster because of lead-based paint, or roof or termite damage, Burton said.
The number of FHA loans issued locally would be even higher if the banks that owned foreclosed properties were willing to fix them up to FHA standards. Instead, "they want to sell them as is," said Burton, adding that banks are slowly coming around.
The 8,998 loans for 2008 also includes a small number of VA loans, which have slightly different terms.
The FHA loans are one of the few bright spots in the new federal report. It showed lenders denying about one-third of home loan applications in the Sacramento region during 2008, roughly double the percentage of denials in 2005 and similar to 2007, another bad year.
Mark Van Winkle and his family recently bought a home in Carmichael using an FHA loan. He's been in the Sacramento area for decades and has owned a house before, but got into some financial trouble around the turn of the century, forcing him to rent.
"We had no choice but to go with an FHA loan because of financial reasons," said Van Winkle, who got his loan through Sunrise Vista.
Despite his hands being tied, "it went really smooth," Van Winkle added.

Sacramento Association of Realtors Upcoming Events

2009-09-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sacramento Association of Realtors Upcoming Events

Here are some noteworthy events coming up in September that you might be interested in:SAR Volunteer Opportunity: Rebuilding TogetherDate: Saturday, October 3rdTime: All DayLocation: TBASAR has been organizing a team of members to help rehab the home of a needy Sacramento citizen. This team gets together twice a year to paint, construct, and even clean homes. If you are interested please contact Tony @ 437-1205 and for more details you can sign up at www.rebuildingtogethersacramento.orgSAR 2009 Fall Conference & ExpoDate: Friday, September 18thTime: 8:00-9:00am Early-bird session9:00am-4:00pm Conference and ExpoLocation: Radisson Hotel SacramentoCost: $25 (SAR and MLS Members)$30 (Non-Members)There will be exciting speakers, fabulous prizes and an extensive trade show not to mention a delicious lunch will be served. Speakers include:-Right Tools Right Now: Matthew Ferrara-It's Easy Being Green: Jim Casey-Recharge Your Batteries: Jay GrantThe Housing Affordability Update: "Show Me the Money"Date: Wednesday, October 28thTime: 9:00am - 12:00pmLocation: SAR Mack Powell AuditoriumCost: $10 ($15 if paid after 10/23)Topics covered will include the EEM, 203K, MCC and many more. This will be an amazing opportunity for information because the following organizations will be featured FHA, CalPERS, and CalHFA.Young Professionals Council/Public Issues ForumDate: Thursday, September 17thTime: 9:00am - 10:00amLocation: SAR Mack Powell AuditoriumThis year the Forum has been moved to accommodate the 2009 Fall Conference and will be held jointly with the YPC meeting. There will be updates given on the Sacramento region's water issues by John Woodling, Executive Director of the Regional Water Authority.WCR LuncheonDate: Thursday, September 17thTime: 11:00am - 2:00pmLocation: SAR Mack Powell AuditoriumThe Women's Council of REALTORS is holding their monthly luncheon on Thursday following the YPC/Public Issues Forum. A one hour Crime Prevention Seminar will be given by Crime Stop USA. This seminar has been seen by over 30,000 agents. Laugh yourself safe!Source Sacramento Association of Realtors

Mortgage fraud bills sent to Schwarzenegger

2009-09-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

Mortgage fraud bills sent to Schwarzenegger

As financial carnage from the housing crash continues across California, state lawmakers have sent several bills that crack down on mortgage fraud to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.In recent days, the Assembly and Senate have jointly passed bills to ban loan modification companies from asking for upfront fees and make mortgage brokers put their customers' financial needs ahead of their own commissions.They've also limited the size of pre-payment penalties and added California to the roster of states that allow prosecutors to file specific felony charges for those accused of mortgage fraud."No one right now is doing these risky loans," said Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance. "But five or 10 years from now people (will) forget, and if you don't have these controls in place, the same thing happens again."Lieu carried one of the Legislature's most sweeping mortgage reform bills this year, Assembly Bill 260, which was sent to the governor this week. It bans so-called subprime "negative amortization" loans where the amount owed grows even as the borrower makes payments.It also prevents mortgage brokers from receiving thousands of dollars in special fees for originating subprime loans and those with pre-payment penalties. The bill also limits the size of pre-payment penalties for borrowers who pay off their loans early.Lastly, it requires that mortgage brokers have a fiduciary duty to borrowers – that is, they must place the "economic interest of the borrower ahead of the broker's own economic interest" when making loans.That provision is especially opposed by the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. Fred Arnold, a Santa Clarita-area broker and the group's past president, said the bill's definition of fiduciary duty is vague and an invitation to "frivolous lawsuits.""It's not necessary. We already have a fiduciary duty under the Department of Real Estate," said Arnold.Last year, the governor vetoed a similar broad-based bill by Lieu to rein in mortgage industry practices. But Lieu said he worked with the Governor's Office on this year's version, noting, "We hope we've hit the sweet spot for a compromise."The bills land on Schwarzenegger's desk as California continues wrestling with more than 410,000 foreclosures since the start of 2007, the aftermath of unfettered lending practices earlier this decade.During the housing boom, unscrupulous mortgage brokers could earn fees of $20,000 or more for making risky subprime adjustable-rate loans, often to unsuspecting borrowers.Among groups backing changes in mortgage practices is the California District Attorneys Association, which is pushing for new felony penalties for mortgage fraud. The group sponsored a bill now before the governor, Senate Bill 239, by Sen. Fran Pavley, D- Agoura Hills. It would create a specific category of felony mortgage fraud, which the DA's group calls "one of the linchpins in the demise of the California real estate market and the related crises in the financial sectors."The group says Sacramento ranks seventh among U.S. metropolitan areas in reporting mortgage fraud complaints to the FBI.Finally, Schwarzenegger faces a choice of two bills that would bar loan modification companies from asking struggling borrowers to pay upfront fees.Both bills banning upfront loan modification fees – Assembly Bill 764 by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, and Senate Bill 94 by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello – passed the Legislature earlier this week. The governor has 30 days from a bill's passage to sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature.

Mortgage-relief program helps relatively few troubled homeowners

2009-09-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

Mortgage-relief program helps relatively few troubled homeowners

WASHINGTON – Major mortgage service companies boosted the number of trial modifications they offered to distressed homeowners in August, the government reported Wednesday, but the workouts still cover only a small fraction of the delinquent loans that are eligible for help.The Treasury Department released its second monthly report on loan modifications under the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable Program. It said that servicers had started 360,165 trial modifications through August, up by 124,918 from the modifications reported through July. The number of offers for trial modifications rose by 164,812, to 571,354 through August.The total number of trial modifications started represented 12 percent of all loans that are 60 days late on payments and considered eligible for the Obama administration's program. That's up from 9 percent through the end of July. "We think all the servicers could do more than they are doing now," Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr told the housing subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.The program is on track to meet its target of 500,000 trial modifications by November, Barr said. That number, however, is a small percentage of the more than 6 million potential foreclosures over the next three years that many analysts forecast.Mortgage servicers, many of them large banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, are essentially middlemen that collect mortgage payments on behalf of investors who own securities backed by pools of mortgages. Although borrowers negotiate with servicers as if they were the lenders, the servicers represent the interests of investors, not homeowners.From 2005 to 2008, servicers modified just 3 percent of all delinquent loans, according to documents reviewed by the House panel.That low number led the Obama administration to create the servicer performance report, dubbed "Name and Shame," in a bid to pressure investors and servicers to do more. Forty-seven servicers now participate in the administration's program, up from 38 in July.Wells Fargo and Bank of America improved on their July numbers but are still modifying a low percentage of eligible loans under the government program. Bank of America increased from 4 percent of eligible loans to 7 percent; Wells Fargo improved from 6 percent to 11 percent.CitiMortgage, part of troubled Citibank, boosted its trial modification numbers to 23 percent of eligible loans in August from 15 percent in July. JPMorgan Chase, thought to be the nation's healthiest large bank, improved to 25 percent of eligible loans in August from 20 percent a month earlier.The government's trial modification program seeks, through financial incentives to servicers and the investors they represent, to get borrowers into loans whose monthly payments are equivalent to 31 percent of their before-tax incomes.Industry representatives said in testimony that their modification numbers were much higher than the report indicated, but there are no reliable breakdowns of individual servicer numbers to distinguish between, say, allowing a borrower to skip a payment vs. modifying an adjustable-rate loan into a low-cost fixed-rate mortgage."There may be other things going on out there, but to comply with our program rules and to count as a real modification you've got to get people down to an affordable (payment) level," Barr told McClatchy.The administration will ratchet up pressure on servicers, he said, requiring new data on why loans weren't modified."We are requiring next month the implementation of denial codes by each servicer, and at that point we will be able to have good empirical data on reasons for denial," Barr said.Representatives of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo acknowledged in testimony that they fold legal fees and other foreclosure-processing costs into reworked loans, upping the balance that borrowers owe.Only Wells Fargo said it had a special program to help borrowers with strong payment histories should they lose their jobs.Bank of America's executive in charge of credit loss mitigation, Jack Schakett, acknowledged to the panel something long suspected but rarely spoken about publicly. Distressed borrowers who have equity built up in their homes, he said, are more likely to get foreclosed on, because there's a greater likelihood that servicers and investors who hold pools of mortgages will profit from the sales of the homes."The more equity that is in the house, the more the market will actually walk away with money, the less likely you will actually modify the loan," Schakett confirmed in an interview after the hearing.

Backlash against banks growing over mortgage modification

2009-09-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Backlash against banks growing over mortgage modifications

James Seeley, a machine shop supervisor at the University of California, Davis, just wants a modified mortgage that he and his wife, Sandi, can better afford.
It's a common quest in this economy. Seeley's wages are being cut. His house in Natomas has lost almost half its value. And he owes more than it's worth, even with a $125,000 down payment in 2006.
"We want to get payments down to 31 percent of our income," said Seeley.
In Curtis Park, Hilary Egan is trying to do the same. Her contractor husband has seen a considerable drop in business. She wants a modification before their interest-only loan resets next year to higher payments.
The Seeleys and Egans, both current with their mortgages, have something else in common: Both their modification requests were denied.
Their rejections have aligned them with a broad and growing swath of public opinion: sore that a U.S. banking industry that has received billions of dollars in taxpayer support in the past year hasn't reciprocated on their behalf.
"I don't know a single person who has benefited from the money that was given to lenders," said Egan.
Added Seeley, "The taxpayers are the largest investor in these companies, so I would think they would be taking care of us first."
Banks and financial institutions aren't usually adored even in best of times. But after absorbing much blame for exuberant lending that created the housing bubble, they are increasingly absorbing a backlash for their response to the subsequent foreclosure crisis.
It's not hard to see why. While banks and loan servicers have promised for almost three years to better address rising stresses on their home loan borrowers, foreclosures and defaults still haven't seriously slowed.
The eight-county Sacramento region has counted more than 42,000 foreclosures since the start of 2007. Many area neighborhoods are scarred by vacant repos and dead lawns that pull down property values of other homeowners. Statewide, the foreclosure tally has passed 410,000, and it's believed thousands more are inevitable.
As a result, it's not just borrowers griping about the inability of banks to contain the crisis. Elected officials, besieged by complaints from constituents, are increasingly applying pressure as well.
This month, the League of California Cities, convening in San Jose, will consider a resolution urging 480 cities to yank deposits from banks that "fail to cooperate with foreclosure prevention efforts."
"If you count up the money cities have in banks, that's an amazing amount of power," said Los Angeles City Council member Richard Alarcon, a former state lawmaker. "We have never tried to seize it. I'm trying to seize it. If you're not a good player on the foreclosure front, we're not going to put our money in your bank."
Last week, the Elk Grove City Council voted 4-0 to back the notion and lobby for it at this month's convention. The city of 141,000, one of the fastest growing in California during the housing boom, in the bust became an epicenter of defaults and foreclosures.
"It's time. It's past due. We should have done this some time ago," said Vice Mayor Sophia Scherman, who lives next to a foreclosed home. "It's going to send a very strong message to these institutions."
Others aren't so sure. Tony Cherin, professor of finance at San Diego State University, said, "I can understand the frustration."
But he said cities would have fewer choices for investing because of bank failures and mergers during the meltdown. He said cities' options "may be limited even though they would like to divest themselves."
Two weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, and more than a dozen other California House members applied their own pressure. They wrote Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, urging him to turn up the heat on mortgage lenders to modify more loans. Matsui and others wrote that homeowners who use HUD-approved counselors to contact loan servicers are often "rebuffed or told they couldn't be helped until they were behind on their payments."

California bill would extend tax credit on new homes

2009-09-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

California bill would extend tax credit on new homes

A popular state tax credit of up to $10,000 that helped sell hundreds of new houses throughout the Sacramento region earlier this year appears to be coming back.
A plan to extend the state tax credit to another 4,285 buyers of new, unoccupied homes in California – possibly as many as 500 in the capital area – is expected to receive a vote in the Legislature by Friday's end of the session.
The buyer tax credit began March 1 and unexpectedly sold out by July 2 as many first-time California buyers combined the state credit with an $8,000 federal tax credit.
Statewide, Roseville ranked eighth among cities where new house buyers received the state credit. Sacramento ranked ninth, the state Franchise Tax Board reported.
"It was used very extensively," said Dennis Rogers, a government affairs executive with the Roseville-based North State Building Industry Association. He and others in Sacramento's struggling building industry said the credit helped prod buyers off the fence before it ended in July.
"We've definitely seen a lot of interest from homebuyers coming into the sales environment because of the program," said Pulte Homes spokeswoman Jacque Petroulakis. Pulte is the capital region's largest home builder.
The original tax credit also helped area builders clear an excess inventory of homes finished or nearly finished, but not yet sold.
Builders and buyers now in the sales process hope to see the bill pass the Legislature this week and be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
That's considered likely by many close to the legislation. The governor was a force behind the original tax credit, calling it a job generator for the construction industry and larger California economy.
Statewide, 10,659 California buyers got the homebuyer credits, which allowed tax breaks of up to $3,333 per year for three years, the Franchise Tax Board reported Aug. 31. Buyers are expected to be notified by Friday about the amount of credit allocated or denied.
The tax agency stopped taking applications July 2, assuming that it had reached the program's $100 million limit. Original expectations were that most people could claim the entire $10,000. Then a newer FTB sample of taxpayers approved for the credit based on "their 2007 income tax liabilities, and incorporating 2009 tax law changes" showed most people won't owe enough state taxes to claim an entire $10,000 credit over three years.
"It's estimated that most people will get about $7,000," said FTB spokeswoman Brenda Voet. She said those who qualify for the entire $10,000 will still receive it.
The new FTB liability estimates means an estimated $30 million in credits could go unclaimed under provisions of the original tax credit bill passed in February.
Assembly Bill 765, by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, reauthorizes the tax credit under the new estimates. New credits would be available upon the bill's signing and run through March 1, 2010. Builders must apply on behalf of buyers within one week of closing escrow.
The new bill, however, won't help capital-area buyers who closed escrow after the FTB's July 2 deadline. They'll be ineligible for the tax break because they closed escrow during a time when the law, if it passes, was not in effect.

Sacarmento-area man called the housing crash

2009-09-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Sacramento-area man called the housing crash

Hats are off today to Sacramento's Michael Choe, 43, a supervising engineer with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. This week he earned his second appearance in Time magazine since 2005 – for making good calls in this crazed real estate market.
Choe sold high in 2004.
He rented for four years.
He bought low in 2008.
As the housing crash continues, Choe's is the ultimate wish-we-had-done-that tale.
In September 2004, as the market soared (the median price was 25.6 percent higher than the same time a year earlier in Sacramento County) Choe sold his house in Natomas.
"The (price) acceleration was increasing and that really scared me," he said this week. "I thought this is something that is going to end badly."
He sold the house he had bought in 2001 for $192,500 – for $369,00. He warned others he knew to do the same. He commented on blog sites then springing up that foresaw a massive housing bubble.
"There were very few people who did something about it," he said. "I put my money where my mouth was. I sold the home, and I took a risk by selling it. People were telling me I was crazy, that it would double in two or three years. I said, 'It's going to come back to 2000 levels soon.' "
Time magazine found Choe on the blog sites and profiled him in June 2005 (the median sales price in Sacramento County was then 22 percent higher than the same time a year earlier). The magazine's cover that week showed a cartoon man hugging his house and the title: "Home $weet Home, Why we're going gaga over real estate."
Time noted that Choe had sold and moved into a rental. It asked: "Is he serious? Choose to rent when owning seems a sure way to riches?"
The rest is history. Choe, his wife and two sons rented in El Dorado Hills as what scared him out of Natomas in 2004 came to pass. Then, a year ago, he jumped back in. Choe paid $281,000 for a bank repo in Sacramento that sold in July 2006 for $437,500.
He was too early, he concedes. Said Choe, "I'm still pessimistic about the housing market. I told my family we're buying now, but I know it's going down further. I'm going to lose money on this deal. It has gone down. But I made enough money on the sale of my original house that I can absorb any more losses."
The real story was that his son was ready to start school. Otherwise he would have waited two more years to buy.
"I wanted to get him in a good school district. I wanted to be stable in that way."
This week Time magazine revisited with Choe, recalling his 2004 decision and his 2005 interview. "Exceedingly smart move," said the magazine.
Time noted his decision to buy, and asked, "Is this smart move No. 2? In other words: Is it really time to buy?"
What does Choe think now?
"My prediction," he said, "is when it hits bottom it will stay flat. I would say a good five to 10 years. I've been looking at Japan, too. They stayed flat more than 10 years. There's no way that things are going to bounce right back. This was, in my opinion, a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
That's Choe's call. Anyone can be wrong or right. But the state engineer has been right so far. (He also yanked his money out of the stock market with the Dow at 13,000). That gives him satisfaction. For posterity, Choe is on the record in a national magazine as having called it correctly.
"I can tell my kids that your dad predicted the housing crash and nobody believed him at that time," he said. "They believed I was a lunatic. It turned out I did make the right call."
Interest rates ease again
News is improving on the interest-rate front. Rates for benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are headed back toward 5 percent as inflation remains in check, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The federal mortgage giant said interest rates nationally averaged 5.08 percent this week, down from 5.14 percent last week.
The new average is the lowest since the week of May 28, when U.S. rates averaged 4.91 percent. Mortgages rates have remained below 5 percent for 12 weeks this year, mostly in March, April and May.

Deeper Sacramento housing Crisis is forecast

2009-09-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

Deeper Sacramento housing Crisis is forecast

A major credit reporting company predicts mortgage delinquency rates will continue rising in the Sacramento area – with 12 percent of homeowners falling at least two months behind on their payments by year's end.
That's nearly twice the national projection and a dramatic jump from just two years ago, when less than 2 percent percent of area homeowners' notes were delinquent.
"California faces some challenges, and that's reflected in the statistics," said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy at TransUnion, one of the nation's three large credit reporting agencies.
"There are serious delinquency rates in California, and it's not out of the woods by the end of the year," Becker added. He predicted the delinquency rates in California would begin falling in 2010.
TransUnion, based in Chicago, analyzed trends in the mortgage industry for the second quarter and offered year-end projections for the Sacramento market and the state.
Today, Sacramento's 60-day mortgage loan delinquency rate – the percentage of homeowners at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments – stands at 9.62 percent, just below the state's rate of 9.7 percent, according to Trans Union.
The national rate, at 5.81 percent, is projected to rise to 6.93 percent by the end of the year.
California trails just Arizona, Florida and Nevada, which has the highest delinquency rate at nearly 14 percent. Delinquency rates are a key indicator because the 60-day threshold is traditionally seen as a step toward foreclosure.
In markets where home values have dropped most sharply, delinquency and foreclosure rates are highest. By that measure, the capital remains in trouble. In June, more than half of Sacramento-area households owed more on their homes than they were worth, First American CoreLogic reported last week.
"As long as that persists, we'll see delinquencies and foreclosures continue," said Suzanne O'Keefe, an economics professor at California State University, Sacramento. "Until the housing market turns around, there's not much hope for those rates to reverse."
By the end of the year, TransUnion predicts, 12.2 percent of Sacramento-area homeowners and more than 14 percent of homeowners statewide will be at least two months behind on their house payments.
Double-digit percentage unemployment and unpaid furlough days are increasingly catching up with homeowners who have "safe" fixed-rate loans, rather than the subprime loans that initially sparked the housing crisis.
Mike Himes, director of NeighborWorks Homeownership Center in Sacramento, which counsels struggling and first-time homeowners, said his office is seeing more clients facing growing debt and making choices between house payments and other expenses. His clientele includes a growing number of state workers whose paychecks have been pared by unpaid furloughs.
"There's a lot of money borrowed to stay in the house and keep up with living expenses," Himes said. "This is becoming more and more of a problem."
Despite the current darkness, Becker of TransUnion predicted the clouds could lift in 2010. And when they do, the sun will shine more brightly on the Golden State than the rest of the nation. TransUnion predicts that the delinquency rate will fall three times faster than in the nation as a whole.
"We anticipate the recovery will be more robust and last longer" than in other regions of the country, he said.

Great California Garage Sale opening draws thousands in Sacramento

2009-08-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

Great California Garage Sale opening draws thousand in Sacramento

Leila Torres stood with two companions Friday across the street from the huge state surplus goods warehouse in North Natomas and surveyed the long line of people waiting to enter the Great California Garage Sale, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest tactic to raise money for the state budget.
The morning was growing warmer, and the line – which already stretched more than a quarter-mile through a business park of low-rise warehouses – was growing longer. And Torres was reconsidering the appeal of a cheap, used computer.
"The line's too long," said Torres, a 28-year-old Sacramento resident. "It's not worth it. I'll go buy a computer for 100 bucks more. You could go to Costco for a brand new one."
The first day of the sale attracted at least 5,000 bargain shoppers, said State and Consumer Services Agency spokeswoman Erin Shaw.
"We're really thrilled that people are enjoying themselves and purchasing things," Shaw said. "This is extending the life of state-purchased items."
More than 6,000 items were on sale in the warehouse, said Shaw, and 600 cars, including a handful with visors autographed by the governor, were being sold or auctioned as well. As in 2004, when a similar sale took place, some items were also listed on eBay.
According to the Department of General Services' Web site, sales Friday topped $1 million – just a drop in the $26 billion state budget deficit.
The event attracted shoppers curious to see the odd variety of items that had been collecting dust in state storage rooms, including used office furniture and computer equipment, digital cameras, sets of unused Kenmore washers and dryers, a handful of antique pianos and organs – and a variety of watches, rings and gold chains confiscated by the California Highway Patrol.
Some shoppers were disappointed. "All the good stuff is gone," said Mirela Hrnic, who was sitting on top of a coffee table near the battered old pianos. "We wanted a flat-screen TV. There's really nothing too interesting here for me."
And despite the low prices, some people still wanted to make a better deal.
"People are asking to reduce prices," said Geoff McLennan, who works for the state and volunteered at the sale. "They think it's like a garage sale at home."
Lisa Orta picked up a small filing cabinet and a flat-screen computer monitor for a total of $65. Isaiah Heath bought three office chairs and desks for a construction office in Lodi.
On the other hand, a six-color silk-screen printer and dental chairs – "It gives me the creeps just looking at them," said Orta – clearly were intended for niche markets.
And the life-sized statue of Schwarzenegger in "Terminator" garb, standing in a big case just inside the warehouse's entrance, wasn't for sale at all.
By 10 a.m. Friday, a case of confiscated jewelry had been picked clean by eager shoppers, as had the selection of cameras, though Shaw said the shelves would be restocked overnight.
"It's hectic in there," said Edgar Racadio, 28, a Sacramento security guard. "I wanted to get a digital camera, but there's a mob around that table. You could get to the outer rim, but there's like three layers of people."
In a parking lot a couple of blocks from the warehouse, Mahmoud Mabrouk and his 17-year-old son, Amir, checked out long rows of Ford and Chevrolet cars that have been retired from the state fleet, weighing the options for Amir's first vehicle.
"He's not driving yet," said Mahmoud, a civil engineer who works for the state.
"Almost," said Amir, who attends Franklin High School. "And these are pretty good cars. But they have a lot of highway miles."
Source Sac Bee

Prime Borrowers become new focus of foreclosure crisis

2009-08-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

Home Front: Prime borrowers become new focus of foreclosure crisis

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2127628.html

There once was a time in Sacramento when well-educated people had two good jobs per household, a safe fixed-rate mortgage, and easy assurances that the mortgage crisis was someone else's problem.
Not so much now in 2009.
Suddenly, these are the new people in trouble as 11.6 percent unemployment and 14 percent wage cuts across state government take a toll. Their prime fixed-rate 30-year loans – the benchmark of responsibility and reliability, the sign of a college degree with the same payment every month year in and out – are buckling under pressures of a nasty economy.
Sacramento-area lenders, loan counselors and credit attorneys say they've seen it for months as thousands get pink slips, which ripples outward into lost earnings for area business owners. Thursday, the Mortgage Bankers Association spotlighted the trend nationally, saying "prime fixed-rate loans account now for one in three foreclosure starts."
The old subprime adjustable-rate loan problem that started the crisis in 2007 continued to wane in 43 states in April, May and June, the MBA said. But the new prime fixed-rate problem rose in 41 states, including California.
"This is further confirmation of what we've seen in the past year, one that's increasingly driven by fundamental issues in the economy," MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann told reporters during a conference call. Brinkmann has long said that early-recession layoffs hit renters first, many in construction. Then it hit manufacturing-dependent homeowners. Now, it's moved up the food chain to the professions with good educations and prime-rate "safe" loans.
The MBA doesn't provide region-specific numbers. But California has 3.3 million prime fixed-rate loans. They are 56 percent of mortgages in California. In the second quarter, 4.64 percent were delinquent to some degree. That's up from 3.95 percent the first quarter, and more than double the delinquencies of the same time in 2008. Nationally, it's worse – at 5.23 percent.
As a percentage, this may not sound like much. But it's adding to the pileup of two years of foreclosures – 43,000 in the capital region so far. It's contributing to falling values, even in higher-value neighborhoods financed with prime mortgages. Falling values block refinancing options and lead to more foreclosures, widening the circle of economic distress.
Brinkmann said delinquencies related to job losses put lenders at a tremendous disadvantage for solutions. Many people, even with prime loans, have financed homes to the edge of their two incomes. When one of those vital jobs is gone it's difficult, he said, to restructure a mortgage.
The economist said he expects unemployment nationally to peak in mid-2010 and prime delinquencies with it. Sacramento may have longer to contend with prime pressures as state government follows the other pillar of the regional economy – real estate and construction – into an apparent prolonged contraction.
Caution on Curtis Park Village
Sacramento's Land Park Neighborhood Association is passing for now on whether to endorse plans for nearby Curtis Park Village. An hourlong debate Wednesday on the 500-home project in the Western Pacific Railyard produced no consensus among 15 board members, said Jon Jensen, chair of the group's land-use committee.
The association has received a pitch from Sacramento developer Paul Petrovich. Also lobbying is the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association. Its leaders think the design is too suburban and car-oriented.
"We have not come to a decision," said Jensen. "We're working through the democratic process. We had a spirited debate and hope to reach some kind of resolution in the near future." He said a five-member board committee will make a recommendation. The 72-acre infill project goes before City Hall next month.
Theater joins home raffle rush
Home raffles are still the rage. Now it's the Sacramento Theatre Co. raffling a condominium built by JTS Communities at Regatta at the Rivers in West Sacramento.
The fundraiser features 100,000 $25 tickets for sale this Monday through next Jan. 31. The winner gets a two-bedroom condo, and the theater gets profits to fund education programs for students. The builder will be reimbursed for materials to build the condo.
Tickets will be sold at the box office. Check the theater Web site early next week for details, said director of development Karen Leslie.

Zip Code Chart for Home Sale

2009-08-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

http://dqnews.com/Charts/Monthly-Charts/Sac-Bee-Charts/ZIPSACB.aspx

Sacramento-area home sales remain sluggish

2009-08-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Sacramento-area home sales remain sluggish

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2130021.html

Sales of existing homes in the Sacramento area climbed 2.6 percent from June to July – far short of the surprising 7.2 percent rise nationally that sent stocks soaring Friday.
A July report showed sales of 3,495 existing homes in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to San Diego-based researcher MDA DataQuick.
Buyers also closed escrow on 320 new homes to push July's regional sales tally to 3,815, up slightly from 3,758 in June.
The rise failed by a long shot to match the U.S. sales increase from June to July. The National Association of Realtors called it the fastest monthly gain since 1999 and a sign that the market "has decisively turned for the better."
In the capital region, however, where the housing market is struggling to regain its footing, this year's July sales were lower than the 4,126 sales reported in July 2008. By comparison, there were 2,906 area sales in July 2007 and 3,275 in July 2006. In July 2005: 6,159.
July marked the second straight month in which sales dipped below the same time a year ago. Last year a massive supply of bank repos fueled a sales boom by first-time buyers and investors. The boom has faded as repos fell to 58.7 percent of July sales, the lowest share in 15 months, DataQuick reported.
A dwindling supply of cheap repos drove Sacramento County's median price higher – to $180,000 – in July, DataQuick reported. That's after two months at $175,000, and well up from February's low of $160,000 in a county that's home to about six in 10 of the area's home sales.
DataQuick said 38 percent of Sacramento County sales were below $150,000. Homes priced at $400,000 and higher were 6.6 percent of July sales.
Significantly, the rate of year-over-year price declines slowed in Sacramento County. July prices were 14.3 percent below July 2008. For much of the past two years Sacramento County's median price – where half of homes sell for more and half for less – slipped 30 percent or more from the same month a year earlier.
"We're coming off that period when we had the steepest slides," said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. "It's going to get easier and easier to get to single-digit decline from a year ago unless we see foreclosures and job losses ratchet up."
Foreclosures in the region, indeed, rose in the second quarter of 2009. The unemployment rate in the region has climbed to 11.8 percent and to a record 11.9 percent in California, the state reported.
July's median sales prices in Sacramento County are back to what they were in September 2001. Then, the county's median household income was $44,928, according to Claritas, a demographic research company. Today, it's $57,847, suggesting a market again well matched with incomes and even overcorrecting after its housing boom excesses.
Prices are back to October 2002 levels in Placer and Sutter counties and mid-2003 in El Dorado, Yolo and Yuba counties.
"It's affordable by all our natural price measures," said Dean Wehrli, a Sacramento executive with San Diego-based Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors. "I would say we're in the middle of the overcorrection."
Wehrli said today's median price for existing homes in Sacramento County is about the same as if the boom had not occurred and prices rose 3.4 percent a year since 2000.
But it's still not easy to buy, complain first-timers trying to snag bargains.
"I've been in this since March. I've been outbid. I'm bidding $30,000 over the asking price. And still, cash just walked in and took it," said Dianna Starr of Sacramento. "People I know say it's a buyer's market. No, it's not."
Starr, outbid by investors on several foreclosed homes in the $135,000 range is trying now to buy a short sale listing. That's an equally frustrating problem for buyers.
In short sales, a bank agrees to a sales price below what it's owed on the house. Complications abound.
Starr said in her case the main mortgage lender wants to sell, but lender JPMorgan Chase has balked at taking a loss on a home equity line of credit.
"I'm doing everything I can," said the medical transcriptionist at Solano State Prison. "I'm a hard-working person that can't catch a break."
Regionally, the number of for-sale signs in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties fell for a 23rd month. Sacramento researcher TrendGraphix reported 6,572 homes on the market in the four counties as July ended, the fewest in four years.

Small homes makes big splash in Sacramento development

2009-08-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

Home Front: Small home makes big splash in Sacramento development

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2108425.html?storylink=pd

The K. Hovnanian-built house in Natomas has a standard-size bedroom and a surprisingly large great room that combines a kitchen and living room. But that's about it for 817 square feet – likely the smallest new house for sale in Sacramento. Price: $126,000.
Home Front discovered this seventh wonder of the real estate world via colleagues who got builder postcards aiming to pry boomers out of Land Park and east Sacramento and into Four Seasons in Natomas.
Seeing the house – very livable, but suited, petwise, for a fish tank or bird cage – raised a question of why builders don't add more of these into their sales mix? This house was a bit of a fluke; a handful of them were built for irregular lots. Sales consultant Dee Elrod said there are no plans for an entire tract of these. The company didn't offer comment.
But an Internet search revealed that KB Home recently tried something similar, selling 880-square-foot homes in Houston for $64,000. The idea was to compete with bank repos. But 1,200 square feet is likely to be the smallest KB house that Northern Californians see, said KB spokesman Craig Lemessurier.
Today, an 800-square-foot home makes a novelty item in a real estate column. But once this was the norm. The 2002 book "Affluenza" says homes in the pioneering New York suburb, Levittown, were 750 square feet in the 1940s. Average size grew to 950 square feet in the 1950s and to 1,350 square feet by the 1970s, the book states.
In 2003 in the Sacramento region, average home size peaked at 2,612 square feet, according to statistics from the Gregory Group, a Folsom consultant. Average size is now about 2,375 square feet. Ask home builders what's ahead and they all say smaller still.
Downsizing – say to 1,200 square feet or 1,400 square feet for first-time buyers in the Sacramento region – is a routine effect of recession, history shows. But it also happens when buyers hew to an old-fashioned rule of real estate: buying at a price three times their annual household income. Builders say buyers have to toe that line now. They can't get loans to buy higher.
"I just think smaller houses fit into the new profile," said Kevin Carson, a former John Laing Homes executive and president of the Sacramento division for the New Home Co. based in Orange County. Carson targets move-up buyers. Yet he says, "There won't be the mini mansions that were built so much five years ago."
Indeed, many big boom-time houses have proved foreclosure-prone, expensive to cool and vulnerable to frightening drops in value. For a long time to come they'll be monuments to the euphoric era that built, financed and sold them.
Meanwhile, nothing marks a new era so abruptly as an 817-square-foot house. Obviously, it can be done – and done well. The question is: why isn't more of it being done?
Home-builder merger
Tuesday will bring a colossal merger in the nation's home-building industry, a union of the Sacramento-Reno division of Pulte Homes of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. and Dallas-based Centex Homes.
Both firms, individually, are already among the capital region's biggest builders. The merger will create a Wall Street giant in the region that can take a buyer from Centex's traditional starter homes to Pulte's traditional move-up homes to Del Webb's houses in post-55 adult communities. Del Webb is a subsidiary of Pulte.
Combined, the three entities held a 17 percent market share of new-home sales the first half of 2009 in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to Hanley Wood Market Intelligence of Costa Mesa.
No comeback yet
Home Front caught up this week with Sidney B. Dunmore, former head of failed Granite Bay-based Dunmore Homes.
As the first area builder to go under during the housing bust it's inevitable that Dunmore would be among the first rumored to be starting some kind of comeback.
Not so, Dunmore, 54, said in a phone conversation. Not yet. He denies there's a new business venture sniffing around for land to start over.
"I'm always looking. I'm always looking at opportunities," said Dunmore. "I can't really say I've found anything at this time. But I'm still in the hunt if some opportunity pops up. But there's nothing on the horizon."
Dunmore Homes filed for bankruptcy in November 2007 and was liquidated in February 2008 – after more than a half century in business and construction of 22,000 homes. Dunmore described the current building industry economy in the capital region as "pretty flat." But at least it's finally stopped getting worse, he said.

Troubled homeowners wrestle with loan holders

2009-08-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Troubled homeowners wrestle with loan holders

By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2111186.html?storylink=pd

WASHINGTON – Nearly three years into the deepest U.S. housing slump in generations, lenders are modifying only a small number of problem mortgages, and rising foreclosures are restraining the economy's recovery.
The Obama administration has stepped up pressure on lenders and their mortgage servicers, who act as bill collectors on behalf of investors who own mortgage bonds. The administration on Aug. 4 unveiled the first of what will be monthly "name and shame" exercises, publishing data on the loan-modification efforts of about three dozen companies.
McClatchy's Washington Bureau received calls and e-mails from borrowers across the nation in response to a recent story about the "name and shame" effort. In subsequent interviews with them, a common theme emerged: Virtually all say they were encouraged, directly or indirectly, by their lenders to fall behind on their mortgage payments in order to qualify for loan modifications. Then the modifications never came.
These borrowers burned through retirement savings, destroyed their credit ratings and suffered mental and financial hardship. Here are two of their stories:
'A LOAN … THAT WAS GUARANTEED TO FAIL'
Phil Stubblefield, 61, arrived in loan-modification hell quite by accident. His ex-wife died of heart failure April 20, and her Sacramento home and Countrywide mortgage passed to their daughters, one of whom was in college and the other starting medical school. As students, each had limited income.
Stubblefield reached out in May to Bank of America, which had bought Countrywide in January 2008, as it faced a bankruptcy filing because of problems with its loan portfolio. Stubblefield sought to modify the loan on the property in order to stay current amid unusual circumstances.
"Virtue was met with no help at all. The only recommendation was, 'We can help you when the loan goes into default,' " said Stubblefield, an Amtrak train conductor in California's capital. "That's when I said, 'That's easy; then they'll talk to us.' "
After the mortgage payment became two months late in June, the girls started receiving what Stubblefield dubs "nasty-grams." Getting authorization to speak for his daughters, he tried to negotiate a lower interest rate to reduce payments enough for him to help, or to have some portion of the loan forgiven.
"I was waiting for them to turn around and say, 'What can you do for us?' There was no coming together, no negotiation," he said. "It was 'Sell the house,' and that's when I came back and said, 'Don't you read the newspapers? There are 40,000 foreclosures in Sacramento and a 19-month turnaround on (real estate) listings.' "
What especially irks Stubblefield, who worked for eight years as a mortgage broker, are the comments from lenders that they're doing everything possible to keep people in their homes and out of foreclosure.
"It comes off to me that it's just window dressing and speech that doesn't translate to anything," he said. "No action."
Stubblefield's ex-wife had a mortgage payment of about $1,850 a month, more than half of her take-home income from a state government job. Until lending standards became unhinged from 2004 to 2007, conventional wisdom was that lenders wouldn't underwrite loans with payments that exceeded 35 percent of borrowers' take-home pay.
"They put her in a loan to begin with that was guaranteed to fail," Stubblefield said.
A Bank of America spokesman took Stubblefield's loan information from McClatchy but didn't comment.
'I FEEL LIKE ALICE IN WONDERLAND'
A work-from-home psychotherapist and Realtor, Helen Rudinsky, who's now 53, bought property in the nation's capital in June 2004. At the height of the housing boom, she took out an interest-only loan, offered for pricier homes and marketed as virtually risk-free because of climbing home values.
A few years later, she gave birth to a boy who was diagnosed with autism. She has temporarily moved to Bend, Ore., seeking easier access to expensive testing and therapy for her child.

Suburban Sacramento land rush? Big homebuilders buy up 'finished' lots

2009-08-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

Suburban Sacramento land rush? Big homebuilders buy up 'finished' lots

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2108559.html

Sacramento's new-home sales are still down and out, but some capital-area builders are betting money that the region's suburbs will soon resume their growth boom.
They've begun snapping up ready-to-build home lots at prices ranging from $25,000 to $67,000, setting the stage for a new suburban land rush.
The phenomenon suggests that a real estate market in decline for four years may be resetting for a new business cycle, some say.
Builders looking for land are focusing on "finished" lots, which already have government approvals, streets and utilities.
"They just have to pour a slab and start building," said Kathryn Boyce, Sacramento analyst for Costa Mesa consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.
Capital-area builders say prices for finished lots have risen 20 percent since April as giant public builders muscle back into the region's land game for the first time since 2005.
Boyce said the land rush is greatest in Placer County, followed by Folsom and Elk Grove.
Hanley Wood counts 17,251 finished lots in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. Many are owned by lenders that repossessed them. Others are owned by development firms that need to raise cash. Investors own still more.
The recent escalation in land prices has led some in the industry to question whether they can make money when so many homes are priced at $250,000 or less.
"Prices might be going up too fast," said Tim Lewis, owner of Roseville-based Tim Lewis Communities.
Lewis recently bought lots at two projects in the capital region and one in Reno – his first in that city. "I'm cautiously looking at projects, but I'm certainly not on a buying frenzy like some of these publics (publicly traded builders) might be," he said.
Even with the recent rise, land prices in the Sacramento region are nowhere near the dizzying levels of five years ago. At the height of the real estate boom in 2004, builders paid up to $150,000 for finished lots in Roseville, and up to $120,000 in Natomas and Elk Grove.
Still, the renewed scouting and buying by building giants has sent a buzz through an industry that has endured prolonged downsizing and financial trauma.
"There is a consensus out there that we are at the bottom or pretty darn close," said James Radler, a Roseville-based land broker with Park Place Land Advisors of Irvine.
Radler and others say publicly traded home builders such as Los Angeles-based KB Home, Texas-based D.R. Horton, New Jersey's K. Hovnanian Homes and Meritage Homes, headquartered in Arizona, are among those looking at lots and buying. Others in the game include private Arizona-based building giant Taylor Morrison. All are among the capital region's top builders.
"These guys need lots," Rad- ler said. "If they don't do deals, they don't build homes, and if they don't build homes they aren't in business."
Most of the builders didn't respond to Bee inquiries, which is not surprising, say those who watch the industry. Said Boyce, "They're trying to position themselves without anybody knowing."
"They all want to be under the radar as much as they can," added Dean Wehrli, vice president and Sacramento analyst for Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors of San Diego.
During the housing downturn that began after area home prices peaked four years ago this month, many large builders sold off home lots to maintain balance sheets. A few closed down divisions and left the area. Now, though capital-area home building remains sluggish – just 1,764 sales the first half of 2009 – firms are competing again for lots in a market they expect to begin rising as early as 2010.
Industry analysts say big Wall Street home builders, especially, need more lots to keep operations going while waiting for a new cycle.
"They essentially haven't done any buying for four years," said Radler.
The supply of lots is also constrained by the closing of Natomas to new building permits through 2011. That region, popular with buyers and builders for much of this decade, is under a building-permit moratorium until levee fixes bring 100-year flood protection.

Sacramento-area prosecutors focus on mortgage fraud crime

2009-08-12T21:32:00.001-07:00

Sacramento-area prosecutors focus on mortgage fraud crime

By Chelsea Phua cphua@sacbee.com

About two years ago, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson hired a forensic auditor and increased training for his prosecutors in the area of real estate fraud and other financial crimes.
He dedicated two prosecutors and two investigators to handle a majority of the fraud cases.
As a result, more financial schemes that in the past might have been dismissed as belonging in civil court are instead being prosecuted as criminal offenses, El Dorado prosecutors and investigators said.
Pierson said his office has made mortgage fraud crime cases a priority. "The magnitude of the loss is so great on the individual victim and also on our economy as a whole," he said.
Prosecutors in the Sacramento area have taken varying approaches to the surge in real estate fraud. Some, such as El Dorado County, have devoted more resources, while others have used existing anti-fraud units.
Nationwide, the number of suspected cases of mortgage loan fraud has increased from 52,868 in 2007 to 64,816 in 2008, the FBI says.
Former U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said that about 2 1/2 years ago his office started receiving reports of mortgage fraud on an increasingly regular basis.
"It was just a recurrent theme I was hearing over and over again," said Scott, now a partner with Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe.
Scott pushed for a mortgage fraud task force that included the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and the state's real estate board.
As the cases poured in, Scott said his office and the task force realized that "we need to find allies in the region." The task force started to offer training to law enforcement agencies and local district attorney's offices in the investigation and prosecution of mortgage fraud cases.
"We realized we were ground zero here for mortgage fraud in this district," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Stegman.
The U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of California, which handles cases from the Oregon border to Bakersfield, had the most mortgage fraud indictments in the nation during fiscal year 2008, Stegman said.
Training provided by the federal government and organizations such as the California District Attorneys Association is helping smaller district attorney's offices to handle the increasing workload as a result of the mortgage meltdown, said Bob Cosley, supervising investigator with the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.
Larger agencies such as the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office usually have an established unit that handles real estate fraud and other types of white-collar crimes
"We have a unit specializing in this type of caseload for more than 20 years," Sacramento County Assistant District Attorney Albert Locher said.
The office participates in the Sacramento-area mortgage fraud task force.
"In times of economic downturn, there are more of these kinds of cases that surface," Locher said, but said it's not necessarily because more crime happened.
"When times are flush, criminals can churn enough fraud to cover their tracks," Locher said. "When the tide goes down, you'll see more rocks, but the rocks have always been there."
In Placer County, the District Attorney's Office's elder abuse unit encounters most of the real estate-related fraud cases. About 70 percent of elder abuse cases are financial in nature, Deputy District Attorney Jim Deslaurier said.
The number of cases hasn't fluctuated much in the last few years, but as the population ages, the office might see more of these cases, Deslaurier said.
Yolo County District Attorney's Office hasn't had many mortgage fraud cases referred to the office, said Dan Stroski, lieutenant of investigation in charge of the insurance fraud unit at the District Attorney's Office.
Stroski said the courts seemed apprehensive to hear them because it takes about three years for such cases to make their way through the system. Suspects in such cases also typically do not have an extensive criminal history and end up serving little time.
"That doesn't mean we'll give up," Stroski said.

Bad June swoon for Sacramento-area homebuildres

2009-08-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

August 10, 2009
Bad June swoon for Sacramento-area homebuilders

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/real_estate/

Ouch! Homebuilders in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties reported their second worst sales month of 2009 in June, selling just 197 homes, condominiums and townhouses, the California Building Industry Association reported about an hour ago.These things happen. But the regional sales tally was the lowest since January, when builders sold 163 homes, reported the CBIA, a trade group for state homebuilders.It rather flies in the face of more encouraging news nationally on the new-home construction front. But sales are still very weak here as builders face significant competition from discounted bank repos. These repos still account for more than half the region's sales.Monthly sales totals in the four-county area by month:Jan: 163Feb: 201March: 297April: 290May: 346June: 197 June sales fell 43 percent from May, and were down 57 percent from June 2008, according to Costa Mesa-based Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. The firm compiles statistics for the CBIA monthly sales reports.Statewide, builders reported 2,607 June sales. That was 13.6 percent fewer than in May and down 26 percent from the same time last year. CBIA execs called it weaker than expected and called again for the state Legislature to extend a $10,000 tax credit for buyers of new unoccupied homes in the state. The tax credit, which began in March, ran out in July due to better-than-expected demand. Monday, the National Association of Home Builders, also called on Congress to extend the nation's $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit for another year.Hanley Wood research executive Jonathan Dienhart said today he expects statewide sales to match last year's levels in coming months. But he cautioned in a statement, "It will definitely take a longer time to start mounting a significant recovery with home purchase tax credits due to expire and the broader economy continuing to struggle."Builders in the four-county Sacramento area plus Yuba and Sutter counties sold 1,764 homes the first half of 2009, Hanley Wood reported. That puts them on track to finish well behind last year's 4,847 sales.Top capital builders during the first half of 2009, according to Hanley Wood:1) KB Home of Los Angeles, 161 sales, 9.1% market share. 2) Dallas-based Centex Homes, 143 sales, 8.1% market share.3) Miami-based Lennar Homes, 132 sales, 7.5% market share.4) JMC Homes of Roseville, 123 sales, 7% market share.5) Beazer Homes, headquartered in Atlanta, 112 sales, 6.3 percent market share.Other builders in the top 10: Arizona-based Taylor Morrison, Michigan-based Pulte Homes, New Jersey-based K. Hovnanian Homes, Michigan-based Del Webb and Texas-based D.R. Horton. As an aside, the combined entity of Pulte, Centex and Del Webb - the result of a Centex/Pulte merger to be finalized later this year - accounted for 299 of the region's 1,764 first-half sales, a whopping 17 percent market share.

New Land Deals seen

2009-08-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

Construction: New land deals seen

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2080102.html?storylink=pd

The real estate market isn't cured yet, but several indicators suggest that it is beginning that long, slow and greatly anticipated climb out of intensive care.
If so – and if the patterns continue – the market here could stabilize, finally reversing the decline that has marked the capital region as one of the worst-hit metro areas in the United States. Sacramento's ill-fated housing boom peaked four years ago this month when home values reached their zenith across much of the region – and then started slipping backward.
Among positive June indicators that have fueled relatively upbeat news in recent days are those that show greater-than-expected U.S. construction activity, especially in the home building sector.
• Even in the capital region, home builders are doing better – starting 374 houses, apartments and condos in June. That was 122 more than in May, the California Building Industry reported.
• Statewide, home builders started 17 percent more dwellings in June than in May, and reported the most construction starts for single-family homes in almost a year, according to the CBIA.
Analysts have warned these improved housing indicators look good primarily because of the ferocity of the real estate downturn. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman referred to the indicators Monday on National Public Radio as "just the first glimmer of hope" and warned the economy will remain weak for an extended time.
Foreclosure activity that has saddled the capital region with 41,900 home repossessions since 2007, as well as an 11.6 percent unemployment rate in the state and the region, still applies brakes to excess enthusiasm about the economy.
In Sacramento "we have a lot more decompressing to do," added Sanjay Varshney, dean of the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento. "Normally, I would have said we would have defined a bottom, too, later this year or early next year. I think for us the challenge is the government layoffs have just begun.
"We might be looking at our cycle to be pushed out compared to the national cycle," he said.
Yet, rising construction numbers – even if well below the same time last year – are steering developers and builders into new land deals. One Sacramento-based development operation bought 800 home lots in Reno last week in anticipation of an upturn.
"We're really seeing enthusiasm on the part of builders that we haven't seen in a few years," said Douglas Mull, vice president for land acquisition in Northern California and Nevada for the Lewis Group of Companies of Upland.
A Lewis venture – Lewis Investment Co. of Nevada – paid $6.6 million for lots that fell into bankruptcy court after the original developer, affiliated with CalPERS, invested more than an estimated $20 million readying them for homes. That was LandSource Communities Development, LLC, a multistate real estate portfolio once run largely by Miami-based Lennar Homes. CalPERS lost nearly $1 billion on its investment in the partnership, which filed for bankruptcy in June 2008.
Mull said Lewis plans to sell lots to U.S. home building giants, many of which run Reno operations from headquarters in Sacramento and the Bay Area. Most of the lots are in the suburban 5,000-lot Damonte Ranch community that Lewis helped develop early this decade. Sales stalled during the housing bust.
Mull said Monday that Reno's $20,000-per-lot builder fees are especially competitive for national builders. Fees can run four or five times higher in Sacramento-area cities.
The land executive, reminded of double-digit unemployment and high foreclosure activity in both Sacramento and Reno, acknowledged the road to a rebound is long.
"But there's new home demand," he said. Mull estimated Lewis will take about five years to sell all the lots.
Some other indicators drawing attention:
• California's existing home sales rose 20 percent in June compared with the same period a year ago. Though capital-area sales failed to beat June 2008, analysts and real estate agents blamed dwindling bank repos for sale. They also report fierce bidding wars for repos that remain. June's existing home sales in the Sacramento area marked a peak for 2009, while a once-frightening and prolonged glut of for-sale signs continued to fall.
• Multiple offers have spread now to vacant land for new homes, said Mark Rowson, Northern California president for Agoura-based Warmington Homes. He said, "A year ago nobody was talking. Now, there is movement.
"We've put some offers in, but we have not been accepted," he said. "Offers have come in a lot higher than we've been offering."
Kathryn Boyce, a Sacramento analyst for Costa Mesa-based home-building industry consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, explained: "They're trying to position themselves for the next wave."
• Investors are also returning to home builder stocks. Monday, Michigan-based Pulte Homes reported second quarter losses worse than last year. But the losses were not as bad as the first quarter's, and the company attributed the improvement to markets starting to recover. Share prices on the New York Stock Exchange rose 3.43 percent in Monday trading, to $11.76. Texas-based Centex posted a profit in its first quarter, thanks to a $407 million tax gain. Its stock price was up 3.76 percent Monday to $11.32.

Nation's economy appears set for upswing

2009-08-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Nation's economy appears set for upswing

By Kevin G. Hall khall@mcclatchydc.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2074069.html

WASHINGTON – The worst U.S. recession in 70 years should end over the next three to six months, judging by data released Friday that showed that the economy's contraction eased considerably from April through June.
The Commerce Department reported that the economy shrank at an annualized rate of 1 percent in the year's second quarter, less than most analysts had expected, and far less than the dramatic 6.4 percent shrinkage in the first quarter, a figure revised downward Friday from the initial estimate of 5.5 percent.
Independent economists think that the economy now is poised to grow, albeit slowly.
"The key point is that this is the last negative (growth) report in the Great Recession, signaling the end of the downturn. The economy won't come roaring back, but at least it's back," said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, a forecaster in West Chester, Pa.
Several factors augur well for the near future. Recent reports on home and auto sales have shown improvement.
"Leading indicators of activity are pointing up, and the housing sector appears to be stabilizing," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement.
Adding to the hopefulness is the stock market, which enjoyed its best July in 20 years – and its best month since October 2002.
The Dow surged 725 points or 8.6 percent for the month, with most of the gains arriving in bursts in the final 15 days. The Dow has risen four of the past five months.
Businesses did cut their stockpiles of goods at a record pace in the second quarter, but even that carries a silver lining, the Associated Press reported.
With inventories at rock bottom, businesses will likely need to ramp up production to meet customer demand. That would stimulate the economy in the current quarter.
AP reported that some economists think that these factors could push growth in the July-to-September quarter to a more vigorous rate than previously forecast – possibly 3 percent annual growth or higher.
President Barack Obama credited the $787 billion economic stimulus plan that passed earlier this year for the emerging signs of recovery.
"This and other difficult but important steps that we've taken over the last six months have helped us put the brakes on recession," he said at the White House. "I am guardedly optimistic about the direction that our economy is going, but we've got a lot more work to do."
Many uncertainties remain.
The first-quarter improvement was fueled, in part, by an 11 percent boost in federal government spending, along with a decline in exports that was far less harsh than in the first quarter.
Consumer spending, which powers two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, remained weak. Real personal-consumption expenditures fell 1.2 percent in the second quarter, after increasing 0.6 percent from January through March.
Sales of durable goods – big-ticket items such as large appliances and wide-screen televisions – shrank 7.1 percent from April to June after expanding at a 3.9 percent annual rate in the three previous months.
The job market appears unlikely to do much to increase that spending in the near future.
Although the size of job losses has fallen in recent months, the Fed says that unemployment – now at a 26-year high of 9.5 percent – will top 10 percent at the end of this year. Businesses likely won't boost hiring until they're certain the recovery has staying power.
Vincent Reinhart, a former top economist at the Federal Reserve who is now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that the continued rise in joblessness will "test bank balance sheets. That'll test business models generally. … A lot of manufacturing and retail activity doesn't look good when the unemployment rate is above 10 percent."
Economists also worry about commercial real estate.
"The commercial real estate problems are a big worry for the financial system and thus the rest of the economy. … As rents and prices decline, given all the vacant space, commercial mortgage holders will default on their loans, causing big write-downs at banks and other financial institutions," said Zandi, of Economy.com.
Still, the recent economic improvement as well as the easing pace of job losses, could help consumers sense that they are finally in a position to rebuild their nest eggs, and families may eventually start to feel comfortable spending again.
"I don't know when it'll happen, but the savings rate will plateau at some point," Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, told the New York Times. "Consumers will strike that balance between living within their means but still living life."

Homebuyers gain an edge with Internet searches

2009-08-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Selling Short can be scary

2009-07-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

Home Front: Selling short can be scary

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2070978.html

As attempted short sales proliferate across the capital region, many people are worried about bad things that might happen to them – even if they succeed in selling.
Foremost among worries are nasty state tax bills for forgiven debt. With short sales, banks take less than they are owed to avoid the high costs of foreclosing. And governments typically have taxed that kind of forgiven debt as extra income.
Home Front checked this week into the status of legislation that would get people off that hook. As many know, the federal government already has ordered the IRS not to tax forgiven mortgage debt through the end of 2012.
The state of California did the same last year with Senate Bill 1055. It told the Franchise Tax Board not to tax forgiven mortgage debt through the end of 2008. So what about 2009 and beyond? Two bills to extend the protection through the end of 2012 – Assembly Bill 111 and SB 97 – are parked in Assembly and Senate revenue and tax committees.
Technically, if they don't pass, people who do short sales in 2009 will owe taxes on that forgiven debt on April 15, 2010. But don't fret yet; SB 97, at least, by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, provides an out.
Even if passed after April 15, "the bill says there are no penalties or interest imposed for failure to pay," said Eileen Newhall, consultant to the Senate Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee. In other words, if the bill passes after the tax filing deadline there are no tax problems for those who do short sales in 2009. (Again, this is only for people who own and occupy their homes, not for investors.)
There's another out, which also applies to investors, said Linda Hainsworth of Sacramento. She conducts classes on short sale complexities for other real estate agents.
"There's an exemption if you're insolvent," she said. The definition of insolvency is tricky, she added, so advice is best taken from a tax attorney.
A second concern
People trying to do short sales also are worrying about reports that some lenders are selling second mortgages – typically the down payment loan – to collection agencies. They fear that in three or four years those agencies will be on the phone seeking payment.
Hainsworth confirmed it's happening. Elk Grove bankruptcy attorney Jonathan Stein said the owner of a "second" has up to four years after the default date to collect. He said it's critical that your real estate agent negotiates a solution to the second.
Stein fears some people will rebuild credit scores after the hit of a short sale only to file bankruptcy when confronted later by a collection agency.
Both offer the same counsel: get good advice about that short sale.
Credit extension in limbo
So, what's the newest on extending $10,000 state tax credits to more buyers of new unoccupied homes in California? The short answer: nothing.
As you'll remember, the Franchise Tax Board stopped taking applications July 3, while home builders and lawmakers tried to work out a deal to extend the tax credit to thousands more buyers. But lawmakers left for summer vacation without a deal.
None of three bills dealing with extending the credit – AB 765, SB 49 and SB X3 38 – shows signs of changes to make it happen. Staffers say to check back after Aug. 17. Meanwhile, the Franchise Tax Board has awarded certificates worth $70.9 million so far to 7,567 new homebuyers.
Getting back to good
One new housing project at a time, the capital region is restabilizing. One project that's finally gone all the way is North End Lofts at 14th and C streets in the Mansion Flats district of downtown Sacramento. It's an 11-unit loft project that started in 2006 with sales prices in the $400,000s. As the housing bust settled in, the developer lost the project to the bank, which recently slashed prices to the low $300,000s.
Thursday, property managers Frank Sherman and Cory Smith were finishing the interior of the last unit sold. The project is an anchor now in a neighborhood that needs it.
New occupants include Lynn Mayo, who moved to Sacramento from Portland.
"They're really nice," she said of the three-story lofts. "Hopefully, this will be an up-and-coming neighborhood."
Also just arrived are Sacramento artist John Krempel and architect Phil Harvey. They sold their house in Land Park and moved downtown.
"We've been looking for something like this for a long time," Krempel said.

The Best Deal On Home Refinancing

2009-07-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

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.

US Home Sales Have the Smallest Decline in 10 months

2009-07-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

Real Estate Sales

2009-07-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

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.
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"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."

Capital-area foreclosures keep climbing in second quarter

2009-07-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

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.

California foreclosure deals are bittersweet for novice investors

2009-07-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

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."

Sacramento-area home sales fall for 1st time since April 2008

2009-07-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Video News Story on Loan Modification Scams

2009-07-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCCg6XK3lCs

Mortgage defaults spread as even 'safe' borrowers falter

2009-07-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

Mortgage defaults spread as even 'safe' borrowers falter

By Jim Wasserman and Dale Kasler jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2017811.html

The mortgage default crisis has an ominous new face. It's your neighbor with a traditional fixed-rate loan.
No longer is the real estate bust simply the result of exotic, subprime loans that doubled payments and blew up in homeowners' faces. As the Sacramento economy buckles, even the safest mortgages have become part of a new wave of loan defaults, experts say.
With capital-area job losses reaching 45,000 in the past year and unemployment at 11.1 percent, lenders, bankruptcy attorneys and debt counselors all say they're seeing rising delinquencies among prime borrowers with fixed-rate loans and good credit. Many of those slipping into trouble are state workers, the mainstay of Sacramento's economy.
"The tide has definitely shifted," said Pam Canada, executive director of the Neighborworks Homeownership Center of Sacramento, a nonprofit loan counseling firm. "We're seeing more people with a loss of income."
Prime fixed-rate mortgages, with the most favorable interest rates and 15-, 20- or 30-year terms that guarantee the same monthly payment for the life of the loan, have long been the bulwark of American homeownership.
There are 3.3 million of them in California – 56 percent of all mortgages. But nearly 4 percent were delinquent in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That number was less than 1 percent two years ago, when the default crisis was dominated by subprime loans.
The MBA says layoffs are now hitting more educated borrowers.
"There tends to be a higher correlation there with having a fixed-rate mortgage," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the lender trade group.
It's not just the layoffs creating trouble for traditionally safe loans. Many area workers have had to absorb wage cuts. Others who lost jobs have found new jobs that pay less. Or they have found only part-time work. Many workers who depend on overtime pay have also seen it disappear or dwindle.
Finally, in a capital region defined by a massive state government work force, furloughs have grown to three days monthly, approximating a 14 percent salary cut. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing still more pay cuts for an educated population that's increasingly showing up at nonprofit mortgage counseling centers.
This upheaval has had a ripple effect on small-business owners like Michael and Winnie Kyalwazi, owners of Cafe Le Monde at McClellan Business Park. They've fallen behind on their fixed-rate house payments because business is down 25 to 30 percent, said Michael Kyalwazi.
"This is a short setback, the way I look at it," he said. "We're viable. We just need some breathing room."
It's a familiar sentiment.
"Most want to pay, but they can't because they're underemployed and have cuts in income and cuts in commissions," said Paul Rigdon, vice president for lending at Sacramento's SAFE Credit Union. "We're seeing all kinds of income-related problems."
As the newest turn in a housing crisis that has seen 40,000 area foreclosures and heartbreak in thousands of other homes, trouble for prime borrowers is one more obstacle to a housing recovery any time soon.
Lending-industry officials say it's harder to restructure loans for jobless people who can barely afford any payment. Worse, economists say rising defaults and the foreclosures to come among these borrowers are likely to persist long after unemployment peaks sometime next year.
"Foreclosures and delinquencies have a long tail, and we will see that continue for several quarters after a turnaround in unemployment," said the MBA's Brinkmann.
Forecasters at Stockton's University of the Pacific predict unemployment in the capital region will peak late next year at 12.3 percent – and remain in double digits through 2011. If so, problems with prime loans are likely to linger in a region having a hard time catching a break.
Already in the foreclosure process is Ron McClure of Roseville. He bought a $600,000 house at Sun City Roseville in 2003, using a prime, fixed-rate loan that cost him $3,200 a month.

How Assessor slashes property values

2009-07-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Home Front: How assessor slashes property values

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2014910.html

This week the Sacramento County Assessor's Office – and more like it across the great foreclosure belts of California – chopped property values again on nearly everything built in the housing boom.
The value slashing in Sacramento County that started in 2007 with 50,000 properties and 90,000 last year, reached 170,000 in 2009. That's nearly every lot carved from a pasture and turned into a new house since 2002 – or even earlier depending on where you live.
The good news: Your property taxes go down. The bad news: Well, don't even look.
Home Front caught up Thursday with Assistant Sacramento County Assessor Kathleen Kelleher for a few questions about the new values.
Your office reduced values for tax purposes on 170,000 properties. How many of those are houses?
Basically all of them. There are about 500 commercial properties. The rest are residential.
How's this actually done?
We use what we call sales-ratio trend analysis. It's a development of time-adjusted facts based on market sales. It is largely a computer analysis. We have a staff of 60 or 70 appraisers right now. We wouldn't be able to value 170,000 properties (personally) plus do our other work.
People often go to Zillow.com or Cyberhomes.com to look up their home values. Where does the county's assessed value fit into the question of, "What is my house worth?" Would real estate agents use your number to assign the house a value when listing it?
I really can't answer for them, but I doubt it. They'll probably go to their own analysis of what the market is doing.
Do people appeal these low values, arguing their house can't be worth so little?
I don't think anyone has gone to an appeal hearing on that.
This is the first time since 1978 that assessed values have gone negative from one year to the next. You've been in the office 22 years. Did you ever expect to see anything like this?
No.
Is this year the worst of it?
I really don't have a great answer for you on that one.
Banks try loan alternative
Fresh news on loan modifications: Nonprofit loan counselors say they're seeing more banks try an alternative to writing down principal. That's the industry term for permanently reducing what homeowners owe. Borrowers love it; banks don't.
Pam Canada, executive director of Neighborworks Homeownership Center of Sacramento, said this week some banks are agreeing to temporarily cut the amount owed.
Here's how it works: If a borrower paid $300,000 for a house that's now worth $200,000, that borrower can get the loan modified temporarily to make payments based on the $200,000 value. Then the other $100,000 is deferred – added back onto the loan five years from now, or when housing values rebound. A borrower might pay off that $100,000 after refinancing or selling. Canada said it's an emerging short-term fix that keeps people in homes and keeps banks from having to forgive so much of what's owed them.
Poll: Own home still dream
Survey of the week: 67 percent of Americans believe owning a house is still the "aspirational symbol" of the American dream.
So says a Harris Interactive survey of 2,122 adults – 71 percent of them homeowners. The May national online survey conducted for Delaware-based savings bank ING DIRECT also found:
• 42 percent of Americans think bigger down payments in recent years could have prevented some of the current economic downturn.
• 37 percent would consider making mortgage payments twice a month to pay off their homes faster.
Rates back at six-week lows
Finally, benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rates have returned to six-week lows. Average rates early this week fell to 5.20 percent (before points), said federal mortgage giant Freddie Mac in its weekly Thursday survey. That's down from 5.32 percent last week.
The firm said rates haven't been this low since the week of May 28, when they averaged 4.91 percent across the U.S. Freddie Mac economists attributed the continuing decline to "market concerns over a weakening labor market."
Personal finance Web site Bankrate.com reported overnight averages Thursday of 5.33 percent for 30-year loans.

Tax Tip - First Time Home Buyer's Credit

2009-07-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nbjRbNeU2I

Repo business soars as Sacramento area home sales slump

2009-07-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

Repo business soars as Sacramento area home sales slump

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2002300.html

At the beginning, Alejandro Maybuena lost the Sacramento house he bought in April 2005 for $350,000. At the end, in early 2009, Kim Gish bought it for $109,000.
Stories like this have happened more than 40,000 times in the Sacramento area. Still, the tale in particular of one house in California's capital region shows the sweeping change in a real estate industry that once involved mainly a mom-and-pop seller, a buyer and two real estate agents.
Today, an alternate universe – the repo business – dominates. And business is very good.
As the U.S. foreclosure crisis grinds on, the detailed work of processing, repairing and selling thousands of homes repossessed by banks is real estate's new gold. In the past year, repo-related business has rapidly grown to national scale, fueling job growth in Colorado, Texas, Ohio and elsewhere to service the meltdown in markets like Sacramento and the Central Valley along with Phoenix, Las Vegas and Florida.
The nation's housing collapse also has upended the pecking order of local real estate agents. Former top earners are on the sidelines, unable to move expensive homes. The new royalty is making good money in a real estate economy where things fall apart, where trackers can count almost a half-million repos on the U.S. market.
"From an industry standpoint, everybody who participates has seen an uptick in their business," said Paul Carlson, senior vice president of human resources at Austin-based Field Asset Services.
Carlson's firm, which repairs, cleans and maintains repos right down to mowing the lawns weekly, has almost tripled its hiring in the past 18 months. Austin business publications gush over the firm's "hiring spree," its 550 employees and third expansion into larger offices in a year.
Clearly, the housing distress that has overwhelmed states like California has become big business. Yet, it always starts small, one house at a time.
For Alejandro Maybuena, 60, and his wife, a three-bedroom house near Sacramento's southern edge in 2005 represented a long-delayed accomplishment – their first house.
It wasn't easy buying then, not in that last roaring spring of the housing boom. Maybuena, a custodian for the city of Davis, said the house was the eighth they bid on as frantic buyers competed to get in before prices rose higher.
"My agent said I should offer another $10,000. All I could think of was how many more months I'd have to work to pay that off," he said.
But he made the $350,000 offer with the assumption, then so widespread, that prices would keep rising.
Instead, values crashed. The rest is the same old story: inability to refinance, get a loan modification or rationalize making $2,500 interest-only monthly payments on a house no longer worth the price paid.
"It was a dream for us," Maybuena said recently, standing in the doorway of an Elk Grove house he rents for $800 a month. "But, unfortunately, our dream was ruined."
After foreclosing, Texas-based American Home Servicing Inc. – which services 575,000 loans nationally – started the repo clock ticking. It assigned the house to Bruce Slaton, a Keller Williams real estate agent in Elk Grove. Slaton specializes in REO sales, shorthand for "real estate owned," the industry term for bank repos.
In a normal real estate market, Slaton might get listings from open houses or word of mouth. Now he gets them directly from banks or asset management companies hired by banks to sell their houses.
In this case, he got an e-mail from American Home Servicing, which has an in-house asset management division. There, he's a known commodity.
"I got into bank stuff about 2000," said Slaton. "When the market changed (toward distress), I was in the system."
Also in that system are the national corporate giants and smaller regional players that have long helped lenders manage and sell repos that come in good markets and bad. Business has soared. Slaton said banks outsource up to 80 percent of foreclosed properties to third parties to handle.

Small banks start feeling financial stress

2009-07-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Small banks start feeling financial stress

By Charles Piller cpiller@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2000836.html

At first, the Sacramento region's small, business-oriented community banks appeared to have sidestepped the plight of banking titans that staggered under the burden of home mortgage defaults. Now some are showing signs of stress.
Gold Country Bank in Marysville has become the weakest bank of its size in California – below 98 percent of similar banks nationwide, according to Bankrate.com, a leading independent evaluator. It took the place of MetroPacific on June 26, when that Irvine Bank was seized by regulators.
Granite Community Bank in Granite Bay has similar problems, according to data from analysts and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Nationally, one in five banks lost money in the first quarter of this year. But among this region's 15 small community banks, two of every five lost money, including Gold Country and Granite Community.
Those and many other small banks rely more heavily on a combination of construction, industrial and commercial real estate loans than on home mortgages and securities. Initially, most coped with the economic collapse.
Not long after the residential mortgage meltdown, construction lending followed the same downward slope. Experts believe commercial mortgages and industrial loans – sensitive to high unemployment and low consumer confidence – are following a similar path.
The impact on banks holding many of those loans could be dire. When banks fail, federal insurance protects deposits up to $250,000 in most cases, but not shareholders' investments. Local businesses reliant on community banks for credit also could suffer.
Representatives of Gold Country and Granite Community said that despite the challenging economy, they are prepared for any eventuality.
"Everyone in this region is experiencing the same things," including falling demand for loans and sharply declining property values, said David R. Kaiser, president of Granite Community. "I don't think I have any more concerns than my counterparts."
But commercial real estate loans – on which many local banks deeply depend – were recently described by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, as "a ticking time bomb" for massive default problems later this year.
Local challenges
In Yuba County, home of Gold Country Bank, the process already is unfolding.
"There's a ton of empty commercial space; somebody has got to be making payments on those," said Steve Brammer, chief operating officer of the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corp., a public lending agency. "It's hard to do that without tenants."
Lease rates for prime commercial space in Yuba County recently have fallen as much as 40 percent, Brammer said.
"We are starting to see some commercial loans going south," said Brent Bosanek, owner of the Coldwell Banker Commercial property brokerage in Yuba City, and a former area commercial banker.
"For commercial lending, it's all about the cash flow," which declines as leases are renegotiated downward, he said. Lenders from outside the region have contacted his firm to appraise commercial properties, anticipating steep declines in value.
Bosanek added: "Banks are worried."
Tarra Victorino, Gold Country's chief financial officer, said the commercial property threat was on her bank's radar, but that she was "not comfortable" quantifying the possible impact on its business.
"All banks are concerned if the commercial real estate sector suffers the problems that are predicted," she said.
Several local banks also had far higher rates of commercial and industrial lending than similar banks. Such loans often go bad quickly in a recession, said Foresight Analytics partner Matthew Anderson. "They are even riskier than real estate lending."
Like some of the other banks, Gold Country also has relatively high levels of restructured loans. This means terms have been changed before the loan comes due.
Troubled banks tend to use the practice, which is legal, to avoid designating loans as delinquent or to forestall foreclosures – delaying bad news from reaching their balance sheets.

Home Affordable refi program expanded

2009-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Home Affordable refi program expanded

Loan-to-value ceiling raised from 105% to 125%By Inman News, Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

http://www.inman.com/news/2009/07/1/home-affordable-refi-program-expanded

Inman News
Homeowners who are up to 125 percent underwater will be allowed to refinance under the Obama administration's Home Affordable Refinance Program if they are current on their payments and their loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
The federal regulator overseeing Fannie and Freddie has boosted the program's loan-to-value (LTV) ceiling from 105 percent to 125 percent to allow more homeowners to take advantage of lower mortgage rates.
Fannie and Freddie will also offer pricing incentives to encourage borrowers with LTVs above 105 percent to refinance into 20- or 25-year loans to pay down principal more quickly and reduce lifetime interest payments, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.
When the Home Affordable Refinance Program was announced in February, the Obama administration said it hoped that as many as 4 million homeowners will be able to refinance under the program.
But some critics said the program wouldn't help borrowers whose loans aren't backed by Fannie and Freddie, and that the 105 percent LTV ceiling would exclude many who are deeper underwater because of steep home-price declines (see story).
The Mortgage Bankers Association last month revised downward its forecast for 2009 loan originations by $700 billion, citing rising interest rates and the slow pace of Home Affordable refinancings -- about 13,000, the group said (see story).
In announcing the increased 125 percent LTV ceiling today in Las Vegas, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said nearly seven in 10 of homeowners with mortgages in the city owe more than their homes are worth.
Donovan said "tens of thousands" of refinancings and trial loan modifications are under way. Under the parallel Home Affordable Loan Modification Program, 200,000 borrowers have received offers for trial loan modifications, Donovan said. That program, which provides incentives to loan servicers and borrowers for loan modifications, is intended to help up to 4 million borrowers.
In broadening the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the Obama administration could end up going beyond its original stated goal of helping "responsible" homeowners -- those who purchased a home with a down payment, only to see their equity shrink or disappear as home values fell.
A 20 percent down payment equates to an original LTV of about 80 percent; a home purchased with no down payment would have an LTV of about 100 percent.
A homeowner who made a 20 percent down payment on a $200,000 home would have had a $160,000 mortgage. Excluding any reduction in principal since purchase, the value of their home would have had to decline by 36 percent, to $128,000, for their LTV to grow to 125 percent.

Latest Statistics For 4 Counties - Sacramento - El Dorado - Placer - Yuba

2009-06-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.webstarmagic.com/gmac/stats_4_counties.htm

Despite programs meant to help,many homeowners still frustrated

2009-06-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

Home Front: Despite programs meant to help, many homeowners still frustrated

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1978579.html

Day in and day out since 2007, callers who struggle with mortgages throughout the Sacramento region, those who can't sleep for worrying, who want to stay with houses that have lost $150,000 in value, have phoned Home Front to fret and express a common sentiment.
"My lender," they say, is "difficult." Callers complain about long waits, bureaucratic snafus and a sense of not being helped. These calls have kept coming through every government program unveiled to help borrowers, despite every statistical release saying more loans are being modified.
Now, as the state has unveiled a law making lenders prove they have comprehensive loan-modification programs, a new round of callers have weighed in with their problems. Two told of modifications that raised their monthly payments instead of lowering them. One, regretfully, paid $3,800 up front to a loan modification company for that outcome. Another, sheepishly, told how a new-home sales agent told him – in 2007, no less – that his house would appreciate enough to refinance the adjustable-rate loan now taking him under.
Most callers feel lost, confused by a system that holds their lives in its hands, yet often provides no one point of contact, where e-mails and phone calls go unanswered. Frustrated, callers now are asking why state government is certifying this level of response as a comprehensive loan-modification program that exempts lenders from 90-day delays in foreclosing.
Home Front isn't calling this a scientific poll of consumer sentiment about the state's new foreclosure law. People who get modifications they need don't call a newspaper to complain. And public relations staffs of big banks stress they're adding staffers, improving efforts to keep people in their homes.
Yet the people call as always, one, two or three a day in the wake of the newest foreclosure prevention story, wondering how plans and programs launched to provide them help and hope, are still so hard.
All too often, all that can be done is to listen.
Pets pay the price
As foreclosures grind on, the tales of abandoned pets do, too. Coldwell Banker real estate agent Donald Stitt of Sacramento recently checked in with some stories about pets he's finding in foreclosure properties. Here's what he's seen personally, he says:
• "Out on Hazel Avenue in the backyard of a foreclosed home was a caged, extra-furry black bunny. The metal cage was sitting directly on the ground in the middle of a large weed-infested backyard, out in the direct sunlight with no food and no water. I was so perplexed at this situation I did not know what to do first.
• "On Cottage Way, close to Cottage Park, on the side patio of a vacant home, I came across a poor 5-inch box turtle in a 2-foot-long aquarium with about 3 inches of the dirtiest water you've ever seen … No food, no toys, just trapped in this dirty aquarium, lonely, hungry and obviously abandoned.
• "In a vacant 'short sale' home in Greenhaven, where supposedly the seller was still coming over every day to take care of the property he was about to abandon, he had also left his dog in a small crate in the hot garage. No water, no food, all day. Despite my pleas, the owner did not take the dog to be with him, but persisted in leaving him in this garage where he barked incessantly when someone was viewing the house. It broke my heart.
• "And I can't tell you how many koi ponds and backyard 'water features' that have lovely fish living in them appear to be abandoned with little or no care.
"I'm not sure what the answer is, but getting the word out can't hurt," Stitt said. "A Realtor can do very little about these sad situations except for making frantic phone calls because we do not own the property. I want people to think about it. It's heartbreaking."
Air let out of balloon biz
Alas, for a sweet memory of the housing boom. Once in the 21st century a person could make amazing money selling balloons – to home builders.
Carolyn Hadin of Balloons Creations by Carolyn still remembers being "swamped." Balloons by the dozens every day, said the Sacramento dealer. Balloons floating from rooftops, rising above any place that said, "Homes for sale."
What's a housing boom balloon dealer do for an encore while builders slog through their slowest years in two decades or more? Hadin said she's selling balloon bouquets and building up a corporate and wedding business.
"So far, knock on wood," she said, "everything is OK."

We're in a slow, but definite recovery mode

2009-06-24T18:42:00.001-07:00

"We're in a slow, but definite recovery mode"

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/real_estate/archives/2009/06/were-in-a-slow.html?mi_atom=Home%20Front

So says Alexis McGee, president of Fair Oaks-based Foreclosures.com, which tracks the nation's foreclosure markets for real estate investors. Here's McGee's new national roundup:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -While President Obama, Congress, and the American people debate financial regulatory reform, foreclosures continue to mount as embattled housing markets bump along the bottom.
But amid much talk about problems, many areas of the country are now experiencing rebounds, with declining foreclosures, increasing home sales and even increased average sale prices, according to ForeclosureS.com, a leading real estate information provider.
"We're in a slow, but definite recovery mode," says Alexis McGee, foreclosure expert, educator, author, and president of ForeclosureS.com. "While foreclosures persist and unemployment still worsens, there are positives in the market that give a strong indication that housing markets have bottomed. Even some interest rate increases have failed to put a damper on prospective home buyers and investors who wisely recognize that buying a home today is more affordable than it has been in decades."
In Southern California, for example, home sales rose for the 11th consecutive month in May, powered in part by a market shift as sales of mid- to high-end home sales (those $500,000 and over homes) actually rose. The median home price ($249,000) also increased for the first time since July 2007, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick. The data aggregator showed a total of 20,775 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties last month. That was the most since May 2006, up 1.3 % from April, and up 22.8 % from a year ago.
"Affordability is the prime driver," adds McGee. May's median home price in Southern California was the second-lowest for any month since it was $242,000 in February 2002, and it stood 50.7 % below the peak $505,000 median reached in spring and summer of 2007, according to DataQuick numbers.
"In the nation's mid-section, housing markets are heating up, too, as buyers get off the fence and take advantage of today's affordability," adds McGee. "Despite ongoing foreclosures, especially in the Chicago area, for the third consecutive month home sales climbed in Illinois--up 9% in April over March. The median home price of $150,000 was little changed from March, too, according to Illinois Association of Realtors."
Among other telling positive economic indicators:
Housing starts nationwide climbed 17.2% in May, with building permits up 4%, according to Commerce Department numbers.
Pending home sales shot up, too. The National Association of Realtors' forward-looking Pending Home Sales Index based on contracts signed in April was up 6.7% in April, and is up 3.2% from a year ago.
Existing home sales - including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - increased 2.9 % to 4.68 million units in April from 4.55 million units in March.
Housing affordability is at record levels. The National Association of Realtor's Housing Affordability Index for April was the second highest on record. A median-income family with a $60,900 income could afford a $296,800 home in April, assuming a 20% down payment and that 25% of gross income is devoted to mortgage principal and interest. That buying power far exceeds the $169,800 April median single-family home price.
Around the Nation ... What's Really Happening?
Looking beyond the national numbers to what's happening in some of the nation's hardest-hit real estate markets across the country:
California: Existing single-family home sales soared 49.2% statewide in April compared with a year ago. The median home price was up 1.4% compared with March, but down 36.5% from a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors. Markets tightened, too, with an unsold inventory of just 4.6 months compared with more than double that a year ago.
Florida: Like California, home sales are up, and so are foreclosures and defaults. For the eighth month in a row, existing home sales rose--18%--in April, with existing condo sales up to--21%, according to Florida Association of Realtors numbers. The state, along with California, Arizona, and Nevada, powers the nation's foreclosure abyss--10.6% of the mortgages in Florida are "somewhere in the process of foreclosure," according to the Mortgage Bankers' newest Delinquency Survey.
Georgia: As of June 1, the state of Georgia began offering a $1,800 tax credit to homebuyers through November 30 of this year. The credit, available to buyers of eligible single-family residences, is not limited to first-time homebuyers and has no income limits, according to the Georgia Association of Realtors.
North Carolina: Despite brighter national numbers, this manufacturing state has seen existing home sales decline nearly 32% over the past year, with the average home price off 9% April 2008 to April 2009, according to the North Carolina Association of Realtors.
Michigan: As the auto industry has unraveled, foreclosures in the motor state have soared. Yet the Michigan Association of Realtors reports residential home sales as reported by 41 of its local associations are up more than 8.5% YTD as of April over year-ago numbers. The Detroit Board of Realtors reports sales up a whopping more than 23%. Affordability is the name of the game. At least 15 Michigan local Realtor associations report average home prices statewide off more than 30% over year ago numbers in April.
Massachusetts: Home sales and home prices climbed here in the Northeast. Detached single-family home sales were up 9.6% in April over March, with median home prices up nearly 8%, according to data from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

7 Lenders get immunity from state foreclosure prevention act

2009-06-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

7 lenders get immunity from state foreclosure prevention act

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1962447.html

Bank of America Home Loans, CitiMortgage and Carrington Mortgage Services are among the first seven lenders and loan servicers granted immunity from the state's foreclosure prevention act launched this week in California.
The new law makes lenders prove to the state that they have a comprehensive loan-modification program that helps borrowers stay in their homes. Those that can't prove it to the state's satisfaction must wait an extra 90 days before foreclosing on borrowers.
More institutions that received quick exemptions from 90-day delays: EMC Mortgage, Select Portfolio Servicing and Kondaur Capital Corp., the state Department of Corporations reported on its Web site. The law, which took effect Monday, prompted 41 applications this week from lenders and loan servicers aiming to prove their modification programs meet the state's test. Many more are expected next week.
"There are potentially hundreds of companies that should or would be involved in this," said Corporations spokesman Mark Leyes.
State agencies reported Friday that 38 institutions received temporary 30-day immunity while the state reviews their applications. Among them were some of the Sacramento region's leading lenders, including Wells Fargo, GMAC and JPMorgan Chase.
The state Department of Financial Institutions temporarily approved seven applicants, including several credit unions. The state Department of Real Estate also temporarily approved two.
The law aims to slow and prevent foreclosures in a state that has endured more than 365,000 foreclosures in the past two years. More than 37,000 have occurred in the capital region.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested the lender-reporting concept late last year and signed legislation implementing it in February. Friday, Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Camille Anderson said the administration is "very encouraged by the progress made this week."
Bank of America Home Loans spokesman Rick Simon said Friday the Charlotte bank's adherence to federal Making Home Affordable guidelines provided it the exemption from 90-day delays in foreclosing in California.
"From the start the state has indicated that the major lenders participating in Making Home Affordable go beyond the requirements of state law for an exemption," he said.
Leyes agreed. "If they are in full compliance with Making Home Affordable there isn't really any reason they wouldn't comply with us."
Making Home Affordable is the Obama administration plan begun in March. It offers lenders incentives to cut interest rates or turn loans into 40-year terms to get payments in a range from 31 percent to 38 percent of a borrower's gross monthly income.

Sacramento area misses move-up homebuyers -- they're staying put

2009-06-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Sacramento area misses move-up homebuyers -- they're staying put

By Jim Wasserman jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1959684.html

Almost four years into the real estate crash, a once-thriving sector of the Sacramento-area housing market – the move-up buyer – has become a virtual dead zone that must revive itself for a true recovery to take hold, analysts say.
Even as real estate rocks with enthusiastic first-time buyers and investors – accounting for up to two-thirds of area sales – one expert warns against being fooled by "the common belief that real estate is flying off the shelves."
Momentum needed for a true recovery rests on the shoulders of those who traditionally dominate real estate markets: people who sell one house and buy another.
And they aren't doing it.
They can't.
"Half to two-thirds of sales in the Sacramento region have not triggered a move-up," said Andrew LePage, an analyst for property researcher MDA DataQuick. "It was just some lender got its money back and then it ends. When that's been two-thirds of your market for months and months, ouch."
Until the move-up sector of the market recovers, housing can't recover, analysts say. (Everything above $400,000 is almost at a standstill. DataQuick says sales in move-up neighborhoods such as Land Park, east Sacramento and Arden Park are half their 10-year average since early 2008.)
And until housing recovers, many believe the economy will lag, and the state with it. The downturn prolongs the pain of layoffs, fuels the plunge in property taxes and deepens the local and state budget morass.
What are the problems confronting move-up buyers? Charlene Singley, president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors, counts three strikes against them:
• "First are the vast numbers" of distress sales and bank repos, she said. "Those people aren't moving up. They're not even moving down. They're just going into rentals."
The National Association of Realtors says two-thirds of sales in California this year have been distress sales that don't trigger a move-up.
• "Equally big are homeowners out there who aren't in a foreclosure, not in a short sale," said Singley. "They don't have the equity to pull out to put down on another house. They used to pull it out, move up, make money, do it again. You'd see it three or four times."
Many consider that real estate stairway the promise of California. The theory is you have to "get in" the market and then ride it up. But now about one-third of borrowers in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties are trapped where they are – perhaps for years – owing more than their homes are worth.
• "Finally, if they're lucky enough to have equity, maybe their income is decreased or they're worried about their job security," Singley said. "They could move, but they don't have to. Why would they put their homes on the market? Not when they could wait a few years."
This large collective impact of distress sales, negative equity and job fears translates into "an outright collapse in organic sales that measure the true health of the housing market," according to Mark Hanson, managing director of Field Check Group, a Bay Area financial industry consultant. Hanson said California resales that trigger a second move – whether up, down or across – were down 60 percent in April from three years earlier.
That explains why Cynthia Hearden's $459,000 house in Sacramento's Land Park neighborhood has been slow to sell since its March listing. It tells why Kathy McKnight in the city's Pocket neighborhood decided not to offer her house for sale after an agent suggested an asking price of $525,000, less than she had hoped.
Hearden, nearing retirement and aiming to downsize, showed one of the more creative responses to lack of move-ups. When she got an offer based on the potential buyer first selling her own house, Hearden waited as neither house moved. Then she looked at her potential buyer's $289,000 house in South Land Park, and proposed a trade accounting for price differences.
The other homeowner was interested, but even that deal fell through last week.

El Dorado County rejects some federal stimulus money

2009-06-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

El Dorado County rejects some federal stimulus money

By Cathy Locke clocke@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1945169.html

El Dorado County officials turned down $1.6 million in federal stimulus funds, leaving an ideologically diverse group, including affordable-housing advocates and local contractors, angry and perplexed.
The Board of Supervisors last week twice rejected what staff members described as no-strings-attached funding.
"It's as close to a no-brainer as I've ever seen come before this board," Richard Meagher of the Affordable Housing Coalition of El Dorado said of a grant application that could have put local contractors to work rehabilitating foreclosed houses and made the dwellings available to moderate and low-income homebuyers.
But Supervisor Jack Sweeney characterized himself as a "free-market person" and argued that many current economic ills are a result of government's intrusion into society.
"When people earn something, they appreciate it better," he said.
During their regular meeting Tuesday, the supervisors voted 4-1, without a staff presentation or discussion, not to join with the city of South Lake Tahoe in applying for Neighborhood Stabilization Funds.
But after receiving a stream of e-mail protests from constituents, some accusing the board majority of putting personal ideology above the good of the county, the supervisors convened a special meeting Thursday to reconsider.
Community leaders, affordable housing advocates, and representatives of the real estate and construction industries urged the board to accept the money.
The grant funds would be used to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed homes, which would be resold to moderate and low-income homebuyers – those with household incomes that are 120 percent or less of the area's median income.
On the county's west slope, the funds would be directed to five areas identified by the Federal Housing Administration as the most affected by foreclosures: Cameron Park-Shingle Springs, Diamond Springs, El Dorado Hills, Georgetown and Pollock Pines.
County staff member Shawna Purvines said 246 homes are in foreclosure in the target areas, and 189 potential homebuyers have been prescreened for eligibility and are on the county's waiting list.
All funds would have to be spent by Sept. 30, 2011. But until then, money from the sale of each home would be returned to the local program to buy, rehabilitate and restore additional houses.
Purvines estimated between eight and 18 houses could be rehabilitated and sold during that period.
Homes sold under the program would remain income-restricted for 20 years, she said, providing the county with long-term affordable housing stock.
"You don't often get the federal government to say that you don't have to compete for (grant funds), we're allocating it to you," said Nancy Kerry, housing manager for South Lake Tahoe. The city can't apply for the money without the county's participation.
Nonprofit housing firms and local contractors would take charge of the projects, and the county would be reimbursed for monitoring their activities.
But Sweeney noted that under the federal program contractors would have to pay prevailing wages for the Sacramento area, which typically are higher than those in El Dorado County. He, along with Supervisors John Knight and Ron Briggs, argued that such projects were better left to private investors.
The El Dorado Builders Exchange, which represents local contractors, urged support for the program, arguing that it would create jobs and rehabilitate vacant homes that might otherwise be vandalized.
Real estate agent Judy Mathat said that in addition to helping meet the demand for moderate and low-income housing, the program would provide work for contractors, real estate agents and people in related businesses, and possibly help them keep their homes out of foreclosure.
The public arguments swayed Supervisor Ray Nutting, who described his vote Tuesday as a "wobbler."
"If we don't collect our fair share (of tax money from Washington), our fair share goes someplace else," he said.
He joined South Lake Tahoe-area Supervisor Norma Santiago in urging support for the grant application. But the proposal was defeated on 3-2 vote, with Sweeney, Ron Briggs and John Knight voting against.

Foreclosure filings up sharply over last year

2009-06-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Foreclosure filings up sharply over last year

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1933547.html

Lenders made a daily average of 203 foreclosure filings against struggling borrowers in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties in the past year, according to Santa Ana-based real estate tracker First American CoreLogic.
Borrowers in the region received 74,348 notices, ranging from first warnings to repossessions, from May 2008 to April 2009, the firm said.
That was sharply higher than the 51,307 filings during the same period a year earlier when lenders filed an average of 140 notices daily.
The increase reflects the growing struggles of homeowners to make their mortgage payments amid rising unemployment and falling home values. First American said 6.78 percent of the region's home loans were 90 days or more delinquent in April, compared with 6.48 percent a year ago. The Sacramento region's delinquency rate is worse than the U.S. average of 5.1 percent but better than California's statewide average of 7.08 percent.