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 sales from the applied credits should begin being realized in Aprilof this year.

Please feel free to ask any 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 buzz about Loan Modifications and what people can expect.  Here are the basics:

1. Expect them to take 60 to 90 days to receive a Yes or No answer.
2. It is generally better to work directly with your lender than a fee based service.
3. Know that only 5% to 10% of applications for Loan Modifications are being approved.
4. Explore all of your options, short sale, refi are deeding the property back to the bank prior to foreclosure.
Please let us know if we can answer any questions for you.

Best regards,

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

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

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 rates start to rise.

So if you want to buy, you can be patient, but only so patient.

Best regards,

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

We have had people as us “why are you not with a large national Broker with name brand recognition?”.  The bottom line is this, the large national Brokers (ReMax, Prudential, Century 21, Keller Williams) are struggling.  They are saddled by large overhead with a shrinking number of agents to cover the expense.

However, that does not answer the question.  The nature of the question is about our ability to compete with the large national companies.  Here is the answer:

1. Nimble and quick in the marketplace today is good
2. The internet works for everyone, large or small
3. We can implement changes faster
4. You can get specialized service without the red tape

The wave of the future will be small companies who understand their customers needs.

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

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 & Condo)

Month SFR Condo New Total
DEC   2,033   971   321   3,325
JAN    1,563   771   118    2,452    Total Sales Down 35.6%
FEB   1,573   725   168    2,466    Total Sales Relatively Flat

Our data shows that the dramatic drop from Dec to Jan was related to the freeze on releasing foreclosures by the 10 largest mortgage holders beginning in mid-November.  Sales remaining flat in Feb show the foreclosure sales have yet to come back to their past level.

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

Fannie Mae recently released statistics showing the difficult nature of a Short Sale transaction and how that relates to Foreclosure statistics.

In 2008, Fannie Mae found that for every one short sale that closed, eight homes went into foreclosure.  This speaks to the difficult nature of the Short Sale process and the backward nature of how lenders handle them.

Furthermore, Fannie Mae holds 30.7 million loans of which 921,000 are 60+ days late and 644,700 which are 90+ days late.  Fannie Mae put a freeze on evictions and foreclosures beginning in mid-November.  They were able to do 23,777 loan modifications in the 4th quarter of 2008 which is 7,926 per month.  That equates to:

They converted 8 tenths of 1% (0.008%) of the 60+ day late loans
They converted 1.2% (0.012%) of the 90+ day late loans

You can draw your conclusions about the loan modification efforts.

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

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

1. 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%)
2. The housing starts in January were at an all time low
3. Housing starts are down 47% from February 2008

So what does this all say?

1. Take all real estate news in context, both good and bad news
2.  Builders are building rental units
3. Do the research to understand what you are reading.

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

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 taken from a national average which includes the hardest hit areas in the country.  They are:

1.  Stockton California
2. The Inland Empire in California (Riverside County)
3. Detroit Michigan
4. Dade County Florida

So while you are reading this info, take the time to investigate where you live.  And, what to expect?  Prices to fall at different rates in different areas.  Also, for prices to rise in some areas…it is happening.

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

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