Thought you might be interested in this article about home sales rising.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homebuilding-forecast-Modest-apf-4025770964.html?x=0&.v=2

Check out this articile about home sales out of control.

Home sales rise to highest level in 2.5 years

Only a 7-month supply of homes on market; bidding wars are erupting

I Reed Saxon / AP October home sales rose 10.1 percent, beating expectations, as tax credit spurred sales.  View related photos

Video   Realty Check: Existing Home Sales Sales of existing homes jumped, but commercial real estate has further to fall, with CNBC’s Diana Olick. CNBC

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Foreclosure rates by state Foreclosure rates tend to be highest in four key states. Click to see the progression for every state since 2005.

updated 54 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2 1/2 years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit.

Home sales nationwide are now up nearly 36 percent from their bottom in January, data Monday showed, though they are still 16 percent below the peak in autumn 2005. At the current sales pace, there is only a 7-month supply of homes on the market and in some areas there are bidding wars.

Joey Wilson, 53, and her husband made unsuccessful offers on 20 Las Vegas homes since midsummer before closing on a four-bedroom, $136,000 home this month.

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“It’s insane,” said Wilson, who relocated from Kentucky. “I’ve never seen a market like this before.”

The National Association of Realtors said home resales rose 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million in October, from a downwardly revised pace of 5.54 million in September. It was the biggest monthly increase in a decade, and far above the 5.65 million pace expected by economists, according to Thomson Reuters.

Without adjusting for seasonal factors, sales were up 21 percent from a year earlier and were up in all four regions of the country. The gains were led a 26 percent increase in the Midwest. Sales were up 25 percent in the Northeast, 23 percent in the South and 10 percent in the West.

The housing recovery is being driven by lower prices combined with federal programs to lower mortgage rates and bring more buyers into the market. The median sales price was $173,100, down 7 percent from a year earlier and off roughly 2 percent from September.

Many experts predict prices will hit a new low next spring, perhaps falling another 5 to 10 percent, as more foreclosures get pushed onto the market.

The government has tried to counter that trend by offering a tax incentive for first-time buyers and by keeping mortgage rates around 5 percent since the spring.

The tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time owners was originally set to run out on Nov. 30, but Congress renewed it earlier this month and broadened its reach. People who have owned their current homes for at least five years can now claim a tax credit of up to $6,500 for a home purchase. To qualify, buyers must sign a purchase agreement by April 30.

The Realtors’ report on October home sales reflects offers made before buyers knew the tax credit would be extended.

“The incentives really did get people to go out and buy,” said Wells Fargo economist Adam York. “The question is: What does the trend look like when the credit is over with?”

Home sales are likely to drop over the winter as buyers hibernate for a few months without the looming tax credit deadline.

The new deadline means “we’re going to see some good activity coming out of the spring,” said Pat Lashinsky, chief executive of online real estate brokerage ZipRealty Inc.

But the government support can’t last forever. For example, the Federal Reserve is likely to curtail its effort to push down mortgage rates next year. If rates then rise too high, it would make home purchases less affordable and dampen housing demand.

“When we do kick those crutches out from under the housing market, will it be able to stand on its own?” said Mark Fleming, chief economist with real estate information company First American CoreLogic. “It’s really hard to tell.”

Another concern is that job losses are pushing once creditworthy homeowners into default. Borrowers with prime, fixed-rate loans accounted for one in three new foreclosures in the second quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said last week. Nationwide, a record 14 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure.

 

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And in areas where foreclosures have hit hard, housing remains depressed, despite low prices and mortgage rates and the tax credit.

Cleveland real estate agent Colleen Rock notes that the city’s economy is still struggling with job losses. Another round of foreclosures could depress prices again.

“Just because we’re stabilizing, I can’t comfortably tell you we’re back to a normal market,” said Rock, an agent with Re/Max Crossroads. “It might be another year.”

Prudential Real Estate Laguna Beach

 

 

Great Video on the Social Media Revolution!
Prudential Real Estate Laguna Beach
www.prudentialcal.com

Google’s got social game

By GahlordDewald

Created 2009-11-03 01:00

Google has added a new tool: Social Search. Accessible via Google Labs [1], Social Search provides results culled from the searcher’s social media graph.

Just as there are separate tabs in the normal Google search for images, blogs, video, etc., once you opt in to the Social Search experiment you’ll see a new tab for social-enhanced search-engine results.

For now, I’d consider this tool pretty bleeding-edge: the requirements for opting in, creating a Google profile and logging in to your Google account will curb the initial group using this tool.

However, if you wish you had thought more about video for search-engine optimization (SEO) before Google started blending video results into the regular search results, here’s your chance for one of their next additions.

For the past year or so, we’ve all been hearing about and experiencing how social Web activities produce results because social capital carries more meaning and influence than traditional paid advertising or other large-audience, reach-based methods (like SEO).

It makes sense at a gut level that decisions like choosing a real estate professional to work with can be influenced by knowing someone who had a positive experience.

Google, being in the business of selling advertising sprinkled around search results, would like to provide the most influential and relevant results to those using their search product. So it only makes sense that they’d be looking for a way to enhance their search results with sources that are closer, in terms of relationships, to the searcher.

Here’s how you can try out the new social search tool.

• Get a Google Profile [2] if you don’t have one already. (Yes, I know, yet another social media profile to manage.)
• In your Google Profile, add all your other social media profiles as "other links."
• Go to the Google Labs page [3].
• Opt in to the Social Search experiment. …CONTINUED

[pagebreak]

From here on, when you are logged in to Google and conduct a search, you will be using the Google Labs search, giving you the social search option as a tab under "more options." You should also know that you can sign up for only one experiment at a time, so make sure none of the others are truly important to you.

The quality of your results will depend a great deal on the profile links you provide to Google via your profile. If you didn’t have any social networking profiles, then you won’t see any results. I also found that it took a couple days to start showing any results at all. So perhaps you might set it up and then try again a couple days later.

Given that this tool is still very much an experiment and not in general use, how might you use it in the meantime?

• General reputation management (assuming your clients have "friended" you on one of your social networks).
• Help raise Google’s awareness of some site or page that it isn’t indexing for its primary search (though I don’t think it would help with specific keyword ranking or other SEO heavy-lifting).
• Listening to your social networks for topics/themes that are important to your audience.
• Locating social network content from your friends that you might link to in your own content.

With the rise in importance of social networks to online marketing agendas, Google appears to be developing a tool to layer its core competence (search technology) on top of all that social activity. In many ways, the search function of the individual networking sites present a threat to Google’s all-encompassing Web search.

For example, when looking for business information on someone it makes sense to start at LinkedIn’s search instead of Google because all of the results in LinkedIn will be business-oriented.

Incorporating social graph information into the way Google displays results is a logical step for them. For those using online marketing techniques that rely on being found online and monitoring reputation, observing how this service develops and is rolled out is worthwhile. Just like it was for video results.

Gahlord Dewald is the president and janitor of Thoughtfaucet, a strategic creative services company in Burlington, Vt. He’s a frequent speaker on applying analytics and data to creative marketing endeavors.

Make your posterous posts show up automatically on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or your other blogs.

–>

I thought you would find this article interesting by Inman News
Prudential Real Estate Laguna Beach www.prudentialcal.com

Investor Report: Fannie Mae’s PRP

by Kenneth R. Harney

Here’s some unexpected good news for real estate investors and second home owners facing payment squeezes on their mortgages.

Fannie Mae has just come up with some help for people who don’t qualify for the Obama administration’s “home affordable modification program,” also known as “HAMP.”

Starting this week, Fannie will consider requests for temporary payment reductions on investor and second home loans in its portfolio where borrowers have either already gone delinquent or are on the verge of falling behind.

The new program, which Fannie calls the “Payment Reduction Plan,” or “PRP,” permits loan servicers of Fannie-owned investment and second home loans to cut distressed borrowers’ payments by as much as 30 percent per month for as long as half a year.

The idea is to provide some transitional time that allows the servicer and borrowers to figure out the best way to avoid foreclosure.

Here’s how it works. First, you’ve got to be able to show the servicer that you’ve encountered a financial hardship, are in danger of going delinquent or already have, and that you are not eligible for a federal loan modification program because you’re an investor or second home owner.

All of the White House loan relief plans to date have excluded investors and second home owners, leaving large numbers of distressed owners with nowhere to go but foreclosure.

Here’s how to qualify for the new Fannie program:

First of all, your loan has to be in Fannie’s portfolio or in a mortgage-backed bond that Fannie has guaranteed. Your servicer can tell you whether that is the case.

You’ve also got to be prepared to demonstrate that you have the financial resources to pay at least 70 percent of your regular monthly payment for the next six months.

Even if your loan already is somewhere in the foreclosure process, you might still get a reprieve — and lowered payments — if the scheduled foreclosure sale is more than 45 days from the date you enter Fannie’s new payment reduction plan.

During the six months of lowered payments, the servicer and you are supposed to work together to come up with a permanent solution, which could involve modification of the loan terms.

However, if at any point in the six month period, you fall behind on your reduced payments, the whole program could come to a screeching halt. You’ve got to pay on time at the lower, agreed upon number, or they pull the plug — and you go to foreclosure.

If you think you might qualify, talk to your loan servicer as soon as possible.

Published: October 30, 2009

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

You may find this article interesting. Prudential Real Estate Laguna Beach www.prudentialcal.com

Existing home sales inventories fell 10.8% in August to an 8.5-month supply, the lowest level of inventory since April 2007. However, sales closings slowed 2.7% after four months of rising sales volume.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted that nationwide, the typical mortgage payment for a median-priced home now represents less than 25% of a family’s monthly income. He added that 2009
payment percentages have been the lowest on record since 1978.
California Home sales volume increased 12% in July compared with the same period a year ago, according to the California Association of
REALTORS®. Record affordability and tax
incentives were the primary drivers.
July 2009 sales prices in the state declined by
19.6% to a median of $285,480, compared
to $355,000 in July 2008.
As the tax credit draws to an end, sales are
rising. Month-to-month sales in July 2009
increased 8.1% over June, and median prices
rose 3.9 % to $285,480 compared to the
June median of $274,740.
“July marked the fifth consecutive month
of month-to-month increases in the median
price,” said C.A.R. Vice President and
Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young.
“This was the largest increase on record for
the month of July, based on statistics dating
back to 1979. The yearly decline in July also
was the smallest in the past 19 months.”
Foreclosures Pressure Prices
Data Quick Information Systems reports
that notices of default in Southern California
were up 3.8% year over year in the second
quarter of 2009. According to Credit Suisse,
40% of Alt-A loans are due to reset in the
next 24 months. Another wave is due to reset
in mid-to-late 2010. The majority of those
loans are Option adjustable rate mortgages.
First-Time Home Buyers Lead the Way
About 67% of first-time home buyers can
now afford to buy a home in California,
compared to 76% of first-timers nationally.
Homes priced under $500,000 accounted
for 74% of the California market in July —
a testament to the strength of the first-time
home buyer. As of June 2009, California
topped all states with a 10% market share of
all FHA lending in the U.S.
Historical Comparisons Favor Today’s
Housing Recession
Surprisingly, California’s current housing
correction isn’t as severe as the one the state
experienced during the recession of the early
1980s, when housing sales plummeted 61%
peak-to-trough between 1978 and 1982.
In comparison, housing sales volume sank
44% between mid-2003 and 2007, and has
steadily risen since that time.
With improved affordability comes demand.
In July 2009, there was a 3.9-month supply
of unsold inventory across the state — down
dramatically from a 16-month supply in
January 2008.
Advice for Buyers
Cash buyers are making it difficult for other
buyers to compete in certain price ranges.
Make it easy for the listing agent and the seller
by offering a complete package so they don’t
have to wonder who you are and whether
you can afford the home. In addition to a
well-written and complete purchase offer,
include the following to show the seller your
offer is as good as cash:
• A personal letter indicating why you would
be a good fit for this home
• Pre-approval from a major lender,
like HomeServices Lending www.hslca.com
• Pre-approval is better than pre-qualification,
since it requires verification of your
employment, income, credit and
other factors
• An earnest money deposit as close to
3% as possible
• Proof of funds for the down payment
and closing costs
You may also want to consider removing
contingencies earlier than called for in the
contract.
Advice for Sellers
Homes in many price ranges below $750,000
are attracting the most qualified buyers the
market has seen in years. However, it’s still
a tale of two markets. Homes priced below
750,000 are selling quickly; for those priced
above $900,000, the buyer has the advantage.
If your property is in this higher price range,
it’s critical to set realistic expectations based
on market conditions. An experienced agent
will help you price your home properly,
market it aggressively, and make it easy for
buyers to see it.
ORANGE COUNTY
Orange County is one of the fastest-moving markets in Southern California, with a hot seller’s
market* in homes priced at or under $899K, and only 11 months of inventory on hand in homes
priced above $900K.
Not since December 2008 have listings been absorbed faster than they enter the market. The number of
listings on the market was down to 3,290 in August 2009 from 3,453 in July. Listings sold were
up to 3,568 units in August from 3,126 sold in July.
Detached single family homes are in a frenzied
seller’s market under $900K, with fewer
homes on hand at $599 or less than it takes
to close a 60-day sale.
Detached Properties – Inventory in Months
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0
*A seller’s market is characterized by fewer homes than available buyers, often with firm prices and
multiple offers from buyers. A buyer’s market has more homes for sale than available buyers, often
with weaker pricing and larger concessions from sellers. Detached homes have no shared walls with
neighbors. Attached homes have at least one shared wall with neighbors.
According to the price per square foot, active
listings are still oversupplied in the higher
price ranges, as the majority of closings take
place in the affordable ranges.
Attached homes, according to price per
square foot, underscore the higher number
of active listings in higher price ranges,
compared to the closed and pending sales,
suggesting that prices have further to fall.
Attached home listings are doing very well
with homes priced at or under $799K in a
healthy seller’s market.
Attached Properties – List Prices Per Square Foot by MLS Status
Attached Properties – Inventory in Months
Detached Properties – List Prices Per Square Foot by MLS Status
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
$0 $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600
$0 $100 $200 $300 $400
©2009 Prudential California Realty Independently owned and operated. Objective data used in this report provided by Real Data Strategies. Inc. Our
company’s mailing materials are printed on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as the product of sustainably managed forests. An
independently owned and operated member of the Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. This is not intended as a solicitation if your property is currently listed
with another broker.
Detached Properties – Listings Taken and Absorbed – 12 Months through August 2009
Attached Properties – Listings Taken and Absorbed – 12 Months through August 2009
The number of attached property listings
declined and sales outnumbered new
listings in August. With 1,243 new listings,
a robust 1,437 were absorbed.
For the first time since December 2008,
more homes have sold than entered the
market. Detached home listings ebbed to
2,047 in August from 2,141 in July, while
closed sales leaped to 2,131 units from
1,850 for the same period.
New Listings Listings Absorbed
New Listings
Listings Absorbed
With over 3,400 sales associates in 58 offices across Southern California and the Central Coast, Prudential California
Realty is the name to trust when buying or selling a home. Our agents close more than $12 billion in sales volume and well
over 16,000 transactions each year. We also provide every aspect of domestic and international relocation to corporations
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