2008 Homes Sales and Price Report. LOS ANGELES (July 25) "Home sales increased 17.5 percent in June in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 37.7 percent, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS" (C.A.R.) reported today."Statewide home sales remained above the 400,000 level for the second month in a row, and up nearly 18 percent from a year ago," said C.A.R. President William E. Brown. "Following a 30-month string of year-to-year percentage decreases that began in October 2005, sales last month also posted their third consecutive year-to-year gain. Sales were driven in part by large shares of deeply discounted distressed sales in many parts of the state," he said. "With lower prices and favorable interest rates, affordability also has improved significantly in recent months, paving the way for many buyers to purchase their first home." ... Read More: http://www.car.org/newsstand/0608junesalesandpricereport/  

THE MARKET may be down, but sales of bank-owned properties are picking up, with multiple offers being made in many cases as lenders drop their prices to move foreclosed homes off the books. REO homes (bank shorthand for "real estate owned") that are in good condition and listed at $300,000 or less are drawing as many as 15 to 20 bids from home buyers and investors looking for bargains, area real estate agents report. "We ended up making an offer on a short sale in March, but since those take a while, we kept looking," Aimee Brown said. "Four days later, I found a four-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bath house for $225,000 online. It was a bank repo and had eight other offers, so we offered $250,000 and got it." "It costs a bank about $5,000 a month to hold a property," he said. "A $650,000 to $700,000 appraisal a year ago in some areas is now worth about $350,000. It took a while for the banks to adjust their mentality to that. Right now, anything under $300,000 is a hot price. ... Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-re-market1-2008jun01,1,7861975.story  

Foreign Buyers Flock to U.S. Housing Market. Americans' love affair with real estate may be cooling, but thanks to falling home prices and the weak dollar, attention is heating up from another group of suitors: foreign investors. While Americans are discouraged by images of neighborhoods blighted by "For Sale" signs and taped-off properties, foreign buyers are much more optimistic, especially about the long-term health of the U.S. market, says David Michonski, a certified international property specialist and CEO of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy in New York. "The foreign buyer has an unbridled confidence in the U.S. market that is lacking in the domestic purchaser today," he notes. "They view this as the bargain of a lifetime and are terribly excited about it." ... Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121200120766526797.html?mod=googlenews_wsj  

Lose Homes, Pay More Tax. Some of the biggest losers in the real estate slump are not purchasers of mansions they could not afford. They are buyers of second homes, or third ones, for that matter, who are sitting on a tax time bomb. Many of these people will lose their properties in foreclosure and then stagger into bankruptcy under the weight of a sizable tax bill. While Congress has granted some tax relief to people who lose their primary homes, there is no such aid for those who fall behind on payments on a getaway condo in Las Vegas, a retirement home on the Florida coast or an old house that they are renting out for income. Bankruptcy lawyers say they are seeing a wave of foreclosures among owners of second homes in such a position, owners who thought they had found sound advice for financial security. Then they discovered that they could expect a painful tax on the rental house. Like many others, the Garcias borrowed more than their homes are now worth. The difference between the amount they borrowed and the rental home's sale price in foreclosure will ultimately be considered taxable income as forgiven debt. ... Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/business/30tax.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin  

California Home-Price Cuts End Sales Losing Streak. May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Housing demand in California, where one out of every eight U.S. residents lives, is reviving as bargain hunters buy foreclosed properties, reversing a two-year slide in home sales. Sales in the state increased 2.5 percent in April, following 30 consecutive declines, the California Association of Realtors said in a May 23 report. The median home price tumbled 32 percent in April from a year earlier to $403,870, the biggest drop in at least three decades, dragged down by sales of foreclosed properties, the Los Angeles-based trade group said. Sales jumped 20 percent or more in April in Las Vegas, Fort Myers, Florida, and Riverside and Sacramento, California, areas that had ``strong and sudden price drops,'' said Walt Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. ... Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKzbMH2M1azY&refer=home  

Home sales offer hope to some. Two reports this week showed an uptick in Ventura County home sales in April that some see as good news for the real estate market. On Friday, the California Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes increased from a year ago, while the median price was down 28.2 percent. The last time Ventura County saw a year-over-year improvement in home sales was in September 2005, said Robert Kleinhenz, deputy chief economist for CAR. It was a very slight improvement, 0.5 percent, but an improvement nonetheless. The median price decline from $691,710 a year ago to $496,530 in April was the sharpest drop on record, Kleinhenz said. ... Read more: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/may/24/home-sales-offer-hope-to-some/  

Plenty of 'For Sale' signs but actual sales lagging. But since 2006, the country has been mired in a housing bust which, in many ways, is the worst since World War II. Construction is expected to drop to the slowest pace since the 1940s and prices are expected to decline by the largest amount since the Great Depression. Hardest hit are the states where sales boomed the most: California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and parts of the Northeast. In the Midwest, the problem is shrinking jobs in the auto industry, making homes hard to sell. But virtually all of the country has felt the aftershocks of the housing slump, either through weaker home sales or the massive drag housing has imposed on the overall economy. ... Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ih-MLks9gapQmcOV8huTs9f2fsswD90T6G600  

In mortgage market, "walkaway" homeowners may be urban myth. Bankers and housing market analysts are warning of a chilling new trend in the mortgage world: Homeowners voluntarily defaulting on their loans even though they can actually afford to make the payments. It's known colloquially as "walking away," or more jocularly as "jingle mail," from the sound your house keys supposedly make when you mail them back to your bank. It's a way of saying that Americans are beginning to apply a cold financial calculation to home ownership: When a home's value has fallen below what is owed on its mortgage, they feel it makes no sense to keep up the payments. ... Read more:  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walkaway11-2008may11,0,1641820.story  

Fannie Mae loses $2.2B in 1Q, warns of severe weakness. WASHINGTON (AP) � Fannie Mae reported losses of $2.2 billion in the first quarter and the nation's largest buyer of home loans said Tuesday it would cut its dividend and raise $6 billion in new capital, with expectations that the housing slump will persist into next year. Home prices fell faster in the first quarter than Fannie Mae had expected, the government-sponsored company said, and it will open a $4 billion share offering immediately, with the remainder being offered in the "very near future."Following the stock sale, Fannie Mae's federal regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, will cut the capital surplus cushion the company has to maintain by 5 percentage points to 15 percent, with another five-point cut in September, provided there is "no material adverse change" in the company's regulatory compliance. The company's estimated fair value of net assets as of March 31 was $12.2 billion, down 66 percent from $35.8 billion at the end of December. ... Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVAF4FNNGCiKCJfNJMp-FCePBQxAD90G5PA00  

What Your Home Is Worth. After a year of nervous headlines, the story is familiar: The country is in the grip of a housing crisis that has put millions of Americans out of their homes and threatens to dispossess millions more. While it might be tempting to view the unfolding crisis as someone else's problem, this is a mess that promises to touch everyone. But there is some encouraging news. In many cases, the government is offering help, and banks are trying to be reasonable. Owning your house may not make you a millionaire, as so many hoped as recently as a year ago, but it doesn't have to leave you a pauper. "I was so anxious to get the house, I didn't pay attention to the adjustable rate," says Patricia Crawford of Charlotte, N.C., who bought her home in 2004. Her initial payment was $795 a month. Earlier this year, it more than doubled. ... Read more: http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_05-04-2008/1What_Your_Home_Is_Worth  

As ARMs reset, some homeowners mortgage payment may drop!. Many homeowners facing ARM resets today will find that their interest rates - instead of skyrocketing as predicted - won't change a lot. "If they go up, it won't be much. Some might even be lower," says Steve Cochrane, senior managing director at Moody's Economy.com. That doesn't mean the mortgage crisis is over. Some homeowners are defaulting on their mortgages even before their payments reset, a sign they probably couldn't afford the house in the first place. And if housing prices continue to drop, some borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth might stop paying their mortgages, even if they could afford to. Should government help these people? ... Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/27/BU7P10BUDM.DTL&hw=ARMS+reset&sn=001&sc=1000  

Calif. bill requires lenders to maintain foreclosed homes. Banks and mortgage companies face fines of $1,000 a day if they allow foreclosed homes to become run down and a source of neighborhood blight under a bill that passed the state Senate on Monday. California has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. Many communities, particularly in the Central Valley, are riddled with homes that have been abandoned by buyers who could not afford their mortgage payments when they reset to higher rates. In many cases, the vacant properties are overgrown with weeds and shrubs and have become magnets for squatters and vandals. Swimming pools often become stagnant, turning into breeding grounds for mosquitoes. ... Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/28/financial/f145807D20.DTL&hw=Calif+bill+requires+lenders&sn=001&sc=1000  

Fed criticized at hearing on Bank of America takeover of Countrywide.The Federal Reserve held an unusual hearing Monday in Los Angeles on Bank of America Corp.'s proposed $4-billion takeover of troubled Calabasas mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. But it was the Fed itself that came in for some of the harshest criticism. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and others said the Fed needed to atone for failing to rein in the loose credit policies that brought down scores of lenders, took No. 1 mortgage maker Countrywide to the brink of collapse and knocked the economy for a loop. ... Waters was among several participants who took aim at the hefty compensation of Countrywide co-founder and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo, who cashed in $450 million in stock options before Countrywide hit the skids and its share price tumbled. Orson Aguilar, executive director of the Greenlining Institute, suggested that Bank of America or Mozilo donate half of the $450 million -- $225 million -- to foreclosure-relief efforts. ... Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-countrywide29apr29,0,4194473.story  

Silver lining in the midst of more bad housing news. Buried beneath all the sour news of rising foreclosures and declining prices last week was a bit of good news for the San Diego County housing market: Prices have finally fallen low enough to achieve some semblance of affordability for potential home buyers. With the median price down to $385,000 [roughly the same as in summer 2003] much of the frothiness of the Great San Diego Housing Bubble has melted away. In its place is a growing glut of unsold homes, including many that have been foreclosed upon, that have almost returned to the historical average for affordability. An additional 5 percent drop and we'll be there, according to a study released last week by Chapman University in Orange. ... Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/calbreath/20080420-9999-1b20dean.html  

Median price of SoCal homes plunged 24 pct to 4-year low. Southern California home values plummeted 24 percent during March, leaving prices at an almost four-year low amid the real estate market's deepening distress.The median price of homes sold in a six-county region stood at $385,000 in March, a sobering turnaround from the previous year when values had reached a record $505,000, according to data released Tuesday by DataQuick Information Services. Southern California homes haven't sold for so little since April 2004 when the region's median price stood at $380,000. ... Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/04/15/ap4892381.html  

Many areas are becoming ghost towns as families foreclose. David Day's house-flipping strategy flopped and now he's fighting for his financial life. Like so many others, he'll likely lose. Day and his family are on foreclosure's doorstep, struggling to make mortgage payments totaling $6,240 a month. "I haven't slept in five months. I wake up every morning in a cold sweat. I'm getting ready to go into bankruptcy," he said. "There is no money for food, basically." Day, a record producer who lives in Granada Hills, is upset that his lenders won't modify the mortgages on either his residence or investment property. So far, all the assistance plans exclude speculators. The situation is grim for Day and lots of others. ... Read more: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8906031  

If I Was A Dog. What are these sellers thinking? Their home is the only castle for sale? Buyers will love the scent of their lilac bushes so much that it will temporarily cause them to forget the competition? Is it possible the smell of fresh baked bread will cause a buyer to pay yesterday's price in today's market? In my opinion, it is imperative for a seller to price their property 10% below market in order to sell promptly and avoid being left in the long line of expired listings. It may be an election year, but it will be a long wait for the inventory levels to decrease to a balanced market. ... Read more:  http://www.brokeragentnews.com/news/residential/2008_4/4_7_2008_fc_1207620419.html