CalHFA this month said it received $5.4 billion in financing assistance through the Treasury Department’s temporary financing program, which will allow it to re-start other programs in the first months of 2010.

Mark and Kari Shea
Real Estate Experts Serving San Diego County
Specialists in Investment Properties, Foreclosures, Short Sales,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate
www.shea-realestate.com

In a surprise decision, FHA waived the 90 day rule for FHA loan customers to be able to buy a flipped home.  Prior to this decision, FHA buyers were left out of the market for homes that have been rehabbed and put on the market.

Best to you,

Mark and Kari Shea
Real Estate Experts Serving San Diego County
Specialists in Investment Properties, Foreclosures, Short Sales,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate
www.shea-realestate.com

As the economy recovers, markets will stabilize but the old ‘normal’ will not return.  A new normal will prevail when the housing market recovers, according to a report released by the Urban Land Institute.

Good reading,

Mark and Kari Shea
Real Estate Experts Serving San Diego County
Specialists in Investment Properties, Foreclosures, Short Sales,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate
www.shea-realestate.com

The sales numbers for April were released for San Diego County, here is what they showed:

SFR - Sales up 12% over March (Feb to Mar had an 18% gain)
Condo - Sales up 10% over March (Feb to Mar had an 18.3% gain)
New - Sales down 12.8% over March (Feb to Mar had an 16.8% gain)
All Combined - Sales up 10.6% over March (Feb to Mar had an 18% gain)

We will be back with more posts soon.

Best regards,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale&Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate
http://www.shea-realestate.com/

This morning the Commerce Department released news that pending sales of existing homes rose for the third month in a row in April.  When you consider that the 6 months of pent up REO inventory has not hit the market, this is exceptional news.

Best to you all,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate

Many real estate agents today have an on-line presence.  One of the largest questions that remains for consumers is how to separate help from hype.  Here is a basic framework we have found to address this issue:

• Does the agent have a website?
• Does the website have useful information?
• Does the agent blog?
• If so, what do they publish?

Consumers today say two things clearly:

1. I want information that pertains to me and my real estate needs
2. I do not want someone to sell me there services, I want the right to choose

Basically, if an agent promotes themselves more than they provide valuable market info, you have hype…not help.

Let us know if you have questions about the content on our blogs.

Best regards,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate

The US Census Bureau released some statistics in the last week related to the trend of people moving.   Here is what it stated:

1. The residential “mover rate” is the lowest ever since the Bureau started tracking the information in 1948.
2. The number of people who changed residences dropped by 3.5 million from 2008 to 2007.
3. Renters are 5 times more likely to move than a home owner.
4. When looking today to rent or own, the magic number is 5.  If you will stay in a residence you purchase for more than 5 years, it is better to buy versus rent.  However, today it is more like 5 to 8 years.

Let us know if you have questions.

Best regards,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate

The traditional Real Estate “brick & mortar” brokers (Prudential, Coldwell Banker, Remax, Keller Williams, etc) have been feeling the pain of the last two years.  With less agents and less business to support their large infrastructure, their balance sheets have taken a major hit.

However, the number 1 reason for the decline of the brick & mortar broker’s business is technology.  In the past, buyers and sellers were dependent on these large companies for resale data, access to listings and agents.  Technology has changed the landscape of the Real Estate industry.  Now consumers can find all of the information they need on the internet, including agent referrals and lenders.

We have found that buyers come to us prepared and having selected us because they feel we suit there needs.

Let us know if you have questions.

Best regards,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate

There is a lot of press in the last week about signs of recovery for the national real estate market.  On a local level in San Diego, the signs have been showing themselves for the last few months in a variety of ways:

1.  Home prices declined 1% from February to March where it declined 2.1% from January to February.
2. Sales of existing homes in San Diego have increased each month since January.  Sales were up 18% from February to March for resale SFR’s.
3. When tracking median home prices year over year by month, the rate of decline has improved 12.37% from March 2008.

While the worst may be behind us, we will still need to contend with the coming tidal wave of REO properties in the next 6 to 9 months.

Until that inventory clears, we will not know how stable the market will be.

Best regards,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate

The Real Estate Sales numbers were released for San Diego County for March 2009 today and they showed a solid improvement over the February numbers.  See below for details on trends from JAN to MAR 09:

Sales of Single Family Residence
JAN 09 = 1,563
FEB 09 = 1,573 =   0.6% Increase
MAR 09 = 1,919 = 18.0% Increase

Sales of Condominiums
JAN 09 = 771
FEB 09 = 725 =  6.0% Decrease
MAR 09 = 887 = 18.3% Increase

Sales of All New Combined (SFR&Condo)
JAN 09 = 118
FEB 09 = 168 = 29.8% Increase
MAR 09 = 202 = 16.8% Increase

SALES TOTAL ALL CATEGORIES
JAN 09 = 2,452
FEB 09 = 2,466 =   0.6% Increase
MAR 09 = 3,008 = 18.0% Increase

Please feel free to ask us any questions.

Best regards,

Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate