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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 & […]

The state of California released a $10,000 new home tax credit in mid-February this year.  Since March 1st, one-third of the $100M appropriated had been applied for by new home buyers.  An important fact is a buyer must have an active escrow on a new home in order to apply.
The California Builders Industry Association stated […]

The national average interest rate on the 30-year, fixed-rate loan (used as the benchmark) averaged 4.78% in the week ending Thursday, setting a new record low dating back to 1971 for the second consecutive week.  That rate is down from last week’s  30-year, fixed-rate of 4.85% and a year ago of 5.88%.
Best regards,
Mark and […]

People think the government will regulate mortgage rates to keep them low forever.  In reality, inflation will start to catch up with government economic spending.  Once that happens, all of the current rules go out the window and the Frd will have to raise rates.  In our opinion, we have approximately 1 year before the […]

The Commerce Department released info today that Housing Starts were up 22% in February.  So what does that really mean?

It was the highest % gain in 19 years and the first gain in 8 months (New SFR up 1.1%, 5 units or more up 80%)
The housing starts in January were at an all time low
Housing […]

There are so many people trying to predict the Real Estate market today, that many forget that each market in the US behaves differently and there is a broad diversity in each local market.  San Diego and Vegas are very different in their behavior.
In other words, the newspaper says “real estate prices plunge”.  That is […]

For all first time home buyers, click here for a link where you can get all of your questions answered on the $8,000 home buyers tax credit.
We hope this helps,
Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, Short Sale & Investment Specialists,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real Estate