Housing Affordability Best in Four Years!!*

Some brave financial analysts are coming out of the gloom closet. The chief economist for the Cleveland-based bank National City Corp (NCC, Fortune 500), Richard DeKaser, said that "housing valuations are almost back to long-term norms." 'Valuation' is defined as the difference between what a home should cost and its actual price. He said that current affordability is *"the best in the past four years." Three hundred and thirty housing markets were surveyed and showed price declines and improved affordability during the last three months of 2007.

DeKaser did caution that home prices could fall even further. Remember. this is nationwide, so price declines and hitting bottom will differ widely. As in all market fluctuations, more desirable areas will bottom out before the less desirable areas. In our San Diego market, it is even possible that we will see the bottom of the lower-priced market hit before the luxury market, which took longer to respond to the pricing adjustments.

Local agents are currently scrambling to field the multiple offers on the attractively priced and better-maintained short-sale and bank-owned properties. It is anybody's guess how long it will take to inch up to the properly priced, non-foreclosed homes in higher price ranges.

DeKaser points out that the biggest gains in affordability occurred in our own state of California (as well as Michigan and Florida). These areas have also been some of the hardest hit by foreclosures. The best bargains currently, according to the survey, are in Louisiana and Texas, where homes are undervalued by approximately 30%!

If you or anyone you know would like to look for investment property in these areas, we can connect you with a REALTOR you can trust who will know that market inside and out.

Columnist Confronts Data, 'Zillow Bogeyman'

We've all heard of Zillow. As real estate agents, we find it interesting to see what "value" they put on the homes we have listed. It is rare that we find their estimation line up with what we see from the actual comparisons we make using sold criteria from the MLS. I thought these articles summed up their misinformation wonderfully.

Zillow is in business to make money, which isn't a bad thing - we are all in business to make money. The Multiple Listing Service, though it does indeed make money, is supported by real estate agent's yearly fees, which are substantial! The use of Zillow by consumers and by real estate agents is free, unless you choose to advertise your business. Zillow makes it's money with advertising dollars, so it is important for them to keep their name in the forefront. The MLS makes it's money from agents, who input specific data to get specific answers on a specific home at a specific time period, etc. Our comparisons don't lie.

Zillow is good at what it does - draw consumers to check on the value of their home. But please do not take their values as gospel. Call us and let us use the same criteria your lender will use and the buyers who are looking for homes will be using! That is why we pay the MLS the big bucks! Read this link!

http://web03.echomail.com/remax/l.asp?t=H30&e=zvxrjvyzref~lnubb.pbz&c=8521a3db6892b7166

April Sales Highest In Eight Months!

What happened? While we were all reading and listening to the bad news, someone has been buying homes! Dataquick reported that Southern California homes sales in April are at the highest levels since August of 2007. The bulk of the sales have mainly been in homes under $500,000 as those looking for great deals took advantage of the price slump and foreclosures. Thirty-seven percent of the homes sold last month were foreclosures.

In San Diego County, Chula Vista is among the highest areas of sales activity in Southern California. We have been searching for property for a client around the $350,000 range in Chula Vista, and we are finding multiple offers being made on multiple properties of interest to our buyers. It is not only Chula Vista where we are experiencing the phenomenon of multiple offers, we are also encountering it in other areas of the county in properties under $400K. It very much feels like San Diego has decided to buy while the bargains are hot.

"Quite a few more buyers stepped off the sidelines last month to snap up homes at substantial discounts relative to the market's short-lived peak," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president. "It's no surprise, given the magnitude of the price declines in inland areas and the fact sales have been so amazingly low for so long. We continue to look for evidence of a sales bounce in the mid-priced and higher-end markets along the coast. If the higher conforming loan limits are making a difference in those areas it's certainly not a large one, at least not as of the end of April."

According to DataQuick, indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is at record levels, and, understandably financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is way down. However, down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and, interestingly, non-owner occupied buying activity is increasing.

All we know is that we are happy to see our first-time buyer clients finally being able to shop for a HOME!

San Diegans: CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!

Who Knew? Getting the FLU in the Merry Month of May!? I certainly didn't expect this. I was completely blindsided with it this morning. Not that anyone is ever really ready to get the flu, but some inkling that it's going around town would have been nice. I would have washed my hands more often.

So you won't be caught unaware, I'll let you know what to expect if the dreaded virus finds you. You'll wake up with a bit of a headache, and all of your muscles will ache like you did too much stretching at Pilates' class (at least that is what I thought). In a couple of hours, you will begin to feel like you have been run over by a truck. Every joint in your body will be screaming at you. You will have no choice but to lie down after taking as many pain relievers as you deem safe. The headache! You won't know what hurts worse: your head or your bones. Did I mention the chills? That's what will clue you in that this is serious business and you cannot (and should not) go about your normal day. It can be 80 degrees outside and you will be shivering and feel the need to burrow under a blanket.

After several hours of shivering and moaning, and probably too many pain relievers for your liver to handle, your fever will break. The best part is that your head will no longer feel that it is ready to split (where the term "splitting headache" came from, I'd guess). You'll begin to perspire and will need to grab a glass of ice water. Apparently this means the fever has "broke." I do hope that that is a good thing and that it won't glue itself back together and strike again once all those pain relievers wear off.

Then, you will pray. You will pray that this is the "24-hour flu" and not some tortuous Asian variety that we read about during flu season that keeps its victims in bed for a week. By the way, when exactly does flu season end? For all of your sakes, I hope it ends with me.

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Bloomberg.com posted the news that Consumer Confidence fell to a 5-year low and home prices as measured by the S&P/C-S Index experienced their greatest decline since at least 2001. San Diego experienced a year-over-year decline of 19.2% Will they drop further? Some say yes; some say maybe; some say no.

So, is anyone out there buying or are they all waiting for more declines in prices? Well, SOMEBODY is buying because we have put in countless offers for buyers and EVERY SINGLE ONE has been joined by multiple offers! This holds true for bank-owned and for short sales. (Most sellers who are not selling short or facing foreclosure are still priced out of the market and seem to be holding out hoping for that one buyer to fall in love and buy their home rather than go through the hassle of buying foreclosures and short sales.)

If you are a buyer who is looking for a long-term investment, waiting for the bottom is risky. Once we KNOW we've hit "bottom," the prices will already have begun to rise. Better to shop now while inventory is up and there are less buyers hitting the market. Good luck!