By Don | March 3, 2011
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!!
By Leslie | January 10, 2011
Here you’ll find quarterly and monthly real estate activity in chart form for homes sold in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo and also the data particulars for each city. All data is taken from the Ventura MLS, Oxnard MLS and Camarillo MLS.
Sold prices – Single family homes in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo:
Note how the quarterly trend lines parallel each other for the three cities since 2007. Sold prices for homes are going up in Camarillo and down in Ventura while Oxnard remains steady. The monthly chart shows the volatility of sold prices in Camarillo and a downward price trend for Ventura.
Sold prices - Condos in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo:
Fourth quarter shows a slight trending up for all three cities for sold prices for condos.
Numbers sold – Single family homes in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo:
Quarterly – Oxnard shows the strongest decline in number of homes sold since the last quarter of 2008. Month to month shows Camarillo spiking up in number of homes sold.
Detailed statistics for single family homes sold in:
Detailed statistics for condos sold in:
Detailed statistics for pendings (in escrow) – single family homes and condos sold in:
Comparing fourth quarter for number of homes in escrow to past years shows Ventura is down a bit from 2008 and 2009; Oxnard is substantially down and Camarillo is markedly down from 2009 but matching 2008.
By Leslie | October 15, 2010
The number of foreclosures has been big in the news but what Ventura County residents really care about is what’s happening locally – not in another county or another state. See the chart for the last 12 months. The Notice of Defaults and Trustees Deeds are on the rise, while the number of Trustee Sales is trending downward
The quarterly chart shows NODs on the rise, NTSs are see-sawing and REOs are rather flat.
Data courtesy of Foreclosure List Service.com.
By Leslie | September 10, 2010
The number of foreclosure defaults for Ventura County jumped from about 500 to 600 for the month of August while the Trustee Sales (auction date) remains about the same as July. The Trustee Deeds (gone to auction) remains steady. See the chart for the last 12 months. You can also see the chart for quarterly trends since June 2005. Data is from Foreclosure List Service.
By Leslie | July 31, 2010
Summer time! In our July – August newsletter, read all about the 4th of July at the Hollywood Bowl, record breaking interest rates, and charts to quickly see at a glance the housing market trends and foreclosure stats . On the 2nd page see pics of Don showing a bunch of kids on a field trip at the Camarillo airport how a plane is built. They loved sqeezing the numerous clamps and were surprised at how light the aileron is!
By Leslie | July 23, 2010
The number of homes in Default (the first stage of foreclosure) has been on the decline since previous highs with a few exceptions, while the number of Notice of Trustee Sales and Trustee Deeds have been on the rise. This is partly due to banks unloading their shadow properties. See for yourself this trend on the Quarterly chart of Ventura County Foreclosure Statistics since 2005.
There are several factors in play – there are more fixed rate loans than the subprime loans of yesteryear; home prices have stabilized and are on the rise in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo; and the HAFA program is available with a $3,000 relocation incentive for the home owner to do a preapproved, streamlined short sale.
If you’re interested in the HAFA program (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative) – give us a call or comment on this site!
By Leslie | July 13, 2010
Interest rates are at an all time low of 4.57% for a 30 year, fixed rate loan according to a recent survey by Freddie Mac.
But now there is much speculation if this fabulous interest rate will keep the housing market at the fever pitch it was prior to the April 30th deadline for first time homebuyers to enter into escrow to receive the $8,000 federal tax credit.
Check out for yourself the chart that Don Nelson Team compiled for the number of homes sold in the past 12 months for Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo. Which city do you think hiccuped but has now rebounded to fever pitch?
By Leslie | July 9, 2010
Our monthly and quarterly charts of single family homes and condos that have sold for Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo are just a click away! This month, we’ve enhanced a feature showing the number of single family homes sold per quarter. For those of you who must have the raw stats, follow below… The graphs are in Adobe pdf format.
Here are the links for the charts of sold prices for single family homes and condos:
Here is the chart for the numbers sold per quarter for single family homes:
Quarterly graph – single family homes, numbers sold in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo.
Detailed statistics for single family homes in:
Detailed statistics for condos in:
Detailed statistics for pendings (single family homes and condos in escrow):
By Leslie | June 17, 2010
In our June newsletter we talk about the U.S. Treasury’s new HAFA program designed to streamline short sales for sellers and the incentives for the sellers. On our website you can listen to two short videos we’ve put together – one is a brief intro to the HAFA program and the second is more nuts and bolts.
Do you know anyone who could benefit from this new program?
By Leslie | June 16, 2010
Who reads and tracks our blog? The Ventura County Star! The statistics and other info we publish is one source they use in tracking our local real estate market. Read the article in todays paper about “flippers” – investors who buy houses, fix them up and sell them for a profit. A reporter from the Ventura County Star, Stephanie Hoops, wanted to know what’s happening in our local market and interviewed Don Nelson.
Filed under article topic:
Housing Market,
Investors