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

The residential “mover rate” is the lowest ever since the Bureau started tracking the information in 1948.
The number of people who changed residences dropped by 3.5 million from 2008 to 2007.
Renters are 5 […]

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:

 Home prices declined 1% from February to March where it declined 2.1% from […]

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 […]

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 real estate home sales for San Diego County are out.  Home sales trended up slightly from Jan to Feb.  Keep in mind they went down sharply in Jan from Dec.  Here are the combined numbers for San Diego county:
Total Sales = Resale SFR + Resale Condo + New Homes (SFR […]

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

The homes stats are out for January 2009 for San Diego County, below is a snapshot:

SALES
January ‘09 
December ‘08
Change 12/08 - 1/09
January ‘08
Change 1/08 - 1/09

Resale houses
1,567
2,033
-22.92%
995
89.30%

Resale condos
773
971
-20.39%
443
74.50%

New homes/condos* 
119
321
-62.93%
388
-69.30%

All combined 
2,495
3,325
-35.41%
1,826
34.70%

Analysis:
1. Foreclosures make up 40% of the market.

 From 08 to 09, foreclosure sales are up.
From Dec to Jan, foreclosure sales are […]

One thing is for certain, it is getting more difficult for buyers to obtain a home loan to purchase real estate.  What are the key ingredients in being able to close a home loan today:

 Good to excellent credit scores - that means 625 plus with BK or other issues
Cash for down payment - FHA Loan […]

Dear readers,
When you are looking at buying Real Estate today, they whole question boils down to one thing…what is my motivation.
Below are some reasons to buy:

Prices are more affordable than ever.  How long do you plan on staying in the home?
More first time buyers are purchasing to take advantage of tax benefits
Many homes to choose […]