On Monday night, the City Council spent most of the evening considering various housing related issues. Culminating almost 3 years of stakeholder involvement (homeless advocates, landlords, city staff, etc), the Community Development Director presented the City Council its report.

Much of the discussion concerns “bootlegged” dwelling units (converted garages, un-permited room additions, etc), but what concerns a lot of Realtors is a proposal for an official, notarized inspection of all home sales in the City, provided to the City, conducted by a local certified home inspector (the “Local Resale Inspection Report Program”). See page 9 in the report. There would be fees involved for this report to the City.

In my personal opinion, this is completely unwarranted and unjustified. There is no reason the City needs to become so intimately involved in this intrusive manner of “big brother”. There will now be hundreds of dollars of extra cost for a home inspector to go to City hall to review the permit file, then act as an appraiser and measure the square footage of the home, determine number of rooms, etc, then have his report notarized before turning it into the City.

Unbelievable! How can this creeping bureaucracy continue? Have these people lost their common sense? I say – enough already!!

If you’re a first time home buyer and have been sitting on the fence – this will blow you over and get you going! You’ve known about the $8,000 first time home buyer federal tax credit.  But now, Californians  can take advantage of newly enacted AB 183 allowing up to $10,000 of additional tax credit! That’s $18,000! This is huge! But there are time lines and the tax credit is on a first come, first served basis. Want to know more? Call us now at 659-2000!

As expected, President Obama signed into law the bill that extends the first time homebuyer credit of $8,000; it also raises the income limits for qualification. But this bill also includes a $6,500 tax credit for existing homeowners who want to move up (or down) provided they’ve lived in their home for 5 of the last 8 years.

Details:

• Must be in escrow no later than April 30 and close escrow no later than June 30.
• For first time buyers, max. income limits have been raised to $125k for singles and $225k for a married couple.
• If you close escrow in 2010, you can claim the credit on your 2009 taxes (verify this with your tax counsel…!).

Comments – when the first $7,500 tax credit was enacted (not a true credit, but a loan that needed to get paid back to the Feds), then the “real” $8,000 credit, policy makers hoped it would not only spur the first time buyer buying that first home, but that a ripple effect would occur. The seller of that first home would move up, that seller would move up, and so forth.

It didn’t happen. Most first time buyers have been buying distressed homes (ie, short sales and bank foreclosures).

With the new $6,500 credit, policy makers now hope to kick into gear that move up crowd.

The Senate has reached general consensus to extend the first time homebuyer credit of $8,000 to April 30, 2010. However, this extension must be inserted into a formal Senate bill and then be reconciled with a House version, then signed by the President. Trying to read tea leaves, it would appear at this point enough Democrats and Republicans support this extension for it to pass. Some potential items that may also be included is increased income limits and a $6,500 tax credit for home owners who’ve lived in their home for 5 years or longer and purchase a new property.

With limited inventory (especially in the entry level market place) and first time buyers scrambling to find, offer and close escrow by the end of November, competition is fierce and brutal. So multiple offers are common and frustrated buyers are having to offer more (sometimes a lot more) to get an accepted offer. So why are appraisals causing sleepless nights? Read the rest of this article »

Yesterday the Fed made 2 decisions that fundamentally affect the real estate industry. First, they kept the federal funds rate (what banks charge each other for overnight loans) unchanged. Secondly, and more directly, they decided to extend their purchase of mortgage backed securities, which has kept interest rates low. How do these decisions made so far away affect Joe and Mary Mainstreet thinking about buying a home? Read the rest of this article »

A lot of buzz is being generated in the real estate industry for extending the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit which expires at the end of November. On Wednesday, a Senate bill was introduced to extend the credit for 6 more months and other bills are in the House. Opposition to the extension centers on its cost, while supporters say the economy is still too fragile for the housing industry and needs that stimulus. Another issue for the extension is that Congress is fully engaged with the health insurance issue and other issues are on the back burner. Our advice – assume the credit is going away in 10 weeks and plan accordingly!

It’s late Friday afternoon (yesterday) and I’m clearing out old paperwork that inevitably stacks up on the counter behind my desk, when I stumble upon a ripped out page from an auction catalog from earlier this year. Wow – look at those great deals!

I’d been curious last March to see what the ultimate results would be from those “great deals” so I’d ripped out the page and promised myself that someday I’d check out the final bid prices to see what really transpired on each home.

I’d circled the bid items for our local towns in Hueneme, Ventura, Camarillo and Oxnard – what did I discover yesterday on those homes?

Read the rest of this article »

Or stay on the sidelines?

No doubt about it. For real estate, the skies are dark with news of high foreclosures from the sub-prime mess, sales are down, credit standards are being raised, there’s high inventory, uncertainty about the economy – you name it, it’s big news in the media today. Read the rest of this article »

Over the past couple of months we’ve had clients submit offers on different bank foreclosed properties (REOs) and it’s not the same as submitting an offer on a “regular” deal! What do I mean? When “newbie” buyers initially come into the marketplace, they often come in with preconceived notions about how to approach the process – especially when wanting to make an offer on a bank foreclosure. Read the rest of this article »