STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL HOUSE HUNTING

House Hunting
Presented by Freddie Mac

 Once you know how much money you can borrow and have an estimate of your closing costs, you’ll know the price range you can afford. You might already have your “dream home” in mind. Perhaps you want to settle down in a particular neighborhood, or maybe you just need more space for your growing family.

Even if you know exactly what you’re looking for, the house hunting process can be overwhelming. It takes time.

The First Step – A Reality Check

It’s fun to look at houses. And this part of the process is very exciting, but don’t let your excitement rule the house-hunting process.

• Stick within your budget – don’t look at homes above what you can afford – even if it’s “just a little” more.
• Don’t let your heart rule over your head. You may fall in love with a property, but if it is beyond your means, it is not the right house for you.
• Be flexible. Don’t be disappointed if the houses in your price range differ from your dream. Buy the home you can afford rather than the home that “has it all.”
• Compare what you’d like to have with what you really need.

Some good house-hunting tips

• Take pictures inside and outside the home.
• Bring a spouse, family member, or friend.
• Make sure the house fits into your budget.
• Ask about utility and maintenance costs.
• Think of commuting time and costs.
• Consider your monthly budget – can you afford the renovations and maintenance that you’ll need to do?
• Don’t make a “spur-of-the-moment” decision.

Additional tips to make the house-hunting process easier

• Concentrate on a few neighborhoods. Decide what’s most important to you about the neighborhood you want. This can greatly narrow down your search.
• Find a real estate agent. They’ll have many more listings than you can find on your own.
• Compare homes. Make sure you know what you would get and what you would miss in each house before you make a decision.
  

Thanks,
CAROL PERDEW
Prudential California Realty
wwwCarolPerdew.com
(209) 239-7979

TIPS TO HELP PREVENT FORECLOSURE

Avoiding Foreclosure
Presented by Freddie Mac

The last thing any homeowner wants to think about is losing the family home. No one expects to lose their house to foreclosure, but by understanding the foreclosure process and what may lead up to it, you can be in a better position to recognize and address potential problems that may impact your ability to make every mortgage payment on time.

What is foreclosure?

In the contract you signed when your mortgage lender loaned you money to buy your house, you agreed that if you can’t repay the loan, the lender can foreclose to take ownership of the house.

If you do not pay your monthly mortgage payment, you are technically in default on your mortgage. State laws vary, but generally, a loan that is as little as 90 days delinquent can be considered in foreclosure.

Your lender may send you a notice indicating that they are starting foreclosure proceedings, but don’t wait; take steps to prevent a foreclosure as soon as you realize you are having trouble paying the mortgage!

• Learn to recognize the warning signs of foreclosure.
• Know what early steps you can take to avoid foreclosure.
• If you are in the midst of a foreclosure, know the dos and don’ts.
• Know where to get help in dealing with issues that could lead to foreclosure.

Have a Plan B.

Don’t wait until you’re in a financial predicament before assessing your options. The time to develop a backup plan is not when things have gotten so bad that you are facing foreclosure, but when things are going well and you can prepare for the unexpected “what if’s” that happen in life.

Quick Knowledge Check

Take our Avoiding Foreclosure Knowledge Check to find out how much you know about protecting your home and avoiding foreclosure.

What to do in special circumstances…

If you are a victim of a natural disaster.
If your property has been damaged or destroyed by a tropical storm, hurricane, tornado, flood, or other disaster, talk to your lender immediately. They often have special disaster relief options to help you.

Check our Protection section for more information on help after a natural disaster.

If you are a service member on or recently released from active duty.
There are special financial relief options in place for service members through the Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA). Talk to your lender about them.

If you are a veteran.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has produced a streaming video to provide information to
vets facing foreclosure.

To View Foreclosed Homes got to www.CentralValleyHomes.com

Carol Perdew
(209) 239-7979
www.CentralValleyHomes.com

Selecting the Right Home to Buy

Finding and Choosing the Right Home

Based on criteria that you and your REALTOR® establish together, your Associate will help you find the perfect home. There are many factors to consider in selecting a property, including location, bedroom and bath count, schools and amenities.

Your Associate will apply their extensive community knowledge and professional resources to research available properties, and show you the homes that best meet your needs. If you find a property that interests you through the Internet or your own research, let your Associate know so that a showing can be arranged.

As you view different properties, your criteria may change. Open and direct communication with your Associate is a key element of a successful property search.

 Search for Bank Owned Homes at www.CentralValleyHomes.com

Carol Perdew
(209) 239-7979
www.CarolPerdew.com                                                                                          

 

Housing Slump Hits Bottom

Check out this breaking news from Yahoo News.  California’s real estate market may be hitting bottom, suggesting housing recovery may follow.  Housing prices are showing signs of stability.
Home ownership in California is growing to be affordable again.  Now is the time to buy and take advantage of  low prices! 

California hints at bottom to housing slump

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California’s battered homes market may be hitting bottom, suggesting a national housing recovery may follow, veteran banking analyst Charles Peabody said on Friday, citing a rebound in home sales as renters become owners.

In many parts of California, buying a house, especially at auction, makes more financial sense than paying rent so home sales have been on the rise recently.

“The key is to try to get some stability in the price of homes, which appears to be happening in California,” Peabody, of the independent research firm Portales Partners, told Reuters by phone on Friday.

As goes California, the most populous state, so goes the rest of the United States, according to Peabody, who warned early on about the pending credit and mortgage market slumps and put “sell” ratings on many banks.

Peabody sees the tumble in California home prices nearing its end and suspects prices elsewhere also will stabilize.

“Since California constitutes 25 percent of the housing stock in the U.S., any stabilization can have a profound impact on national averages,” Peabody said in a recent report.

Home ownership in California is growing affordable again thanks to reasonably low mortgage rates and the fall in home prices, fueled by the firesale of foreclosed homes. As a result, home sales are picking up, foreshadowing a stabilization in home prices before year end, Peabody said.

“By extension, a stabilization in home prices is required before any sustainable rally in financials can be expected,” he said. “It is our belief that we are moving in that direction.”

Peabody said he was uncertain whether stable home prices will stick. For now he sees “a bottom, but not the bottom” for housing and financials, adding that, “We think a temporary bottom in housing is at hand.”

Reasons to believe California home prices will firm may be found in data from the California Association of Realtors, Peabody said.

Notably, buyers are responding to sharply lower home prices. The realtors’ group reports the state’s June home sales rose 17.5 percent from a year earlier while its median home price plunged 37.7 percent. June also marked the third consecutive month of increases in home sales from year-earlier levels in the state.

California’s backlog of homes for sale shrank to 7.7 months of supply in June from 16.8 months in January. The days a home for sale stayed on the market fell to 49.1 in June from 71.6 in January.

June’s supply of homes for sale is well below the national average and approaching the six-month’s supply level of a balanced market, Peabody said.

He noted Lompoc, California home prices are “depressed,” with the local median price down 39.7 percent in June from a year ago. A buyer may find a house in Lompoc that would have cost $500,000 in the hey-dey of the housing boom earlier in the decade now selling at auction for $250,000.

The annual “carrying costs,” or monthly mortgage payments and property taxes, for a home in Lompoc now equates to about 25 percent of the $80,000 gross income of a two-income earning blue-collar household. More important, that $20,000 in annual carrying costs now are in line with rents in Lompoc, where monthly rents run $1,500 to $2,000, Peabody said.

“At last, the carrying cost of purchasing a home equals rental rates, a condition that should lead to more stable home pricing going forward,” he said.

(Editing by David Gregorio)

Search for Homes at www.CentralValleyHomes.com

Thanks,
Carol Perdew
(209) 239-7979
Carol@PerdewHomes.com

 

MORTGAGE DEFAULTS MAY BE NEARING A PLATEAU

California Mortgage Defaults up 125%

DataQuick: Activity may be ‘nearing a plateau’

By Inman News

 

Lenders started foreclosure proceedings on a record number of California homeowners in the second quarter, the result of declining home values and the rampant spoilage of a batch of especially risky home loans made in late 2005 and 2006, a real estate information service reported.

Mortgage servicers recorded 121,341 “notices of default” during the April-through-June period. That was up 6.6 percent from a revised 113,809 for this year’s first quarter, and up 124.9 percent from 53,943 in second-quarter 2007, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Last quarter’s number of defaults was the highest in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1992. Notices of Default are recorded at county recorders offices and mark the first step of the formal foreclosure process.

“It’s still very clear that most of the problems are in certain areas and in certain categories. Basically, areas that absorbed spillover activity during the end of the boom cycle in 2006 seem to be the hardest hit. Prices went too high, fueled by the availability of easy-to-get, dicey home loans. An added element was speculative buying,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

“The small increase in defaults from the first to the second quarter may indicate that we’re nearing a plateau. We won’t know until the end of the year, but it may be that some lenders are starting to prioritize workouts with homeowners instead of grinding things through the foreclosure process. Of course, they may just be swamped and can’t handle processing any more paperwork,” he said.

Most of the loans that went into default last quarter were originated between September 2005 and November 2006. The median age was 26 months, up from 16 months a year earlier.

On primary mortgages, California homeowners were a median five months behind on their payments when the lender filed the notice of default. The borrowers owed a median $11,583 on a median $346,400 mortgage.

On home equity loans and lines of credit, homeowners were a median eight months behind on their payments. Borrowers owed a median $3,492 on a median $60,000 credit line. However the amount of the credit line that was actually in use cannot be determined from public records.

Although 121,341 default notices were filed last quarter, they involved 118,020 homes because some borrowers were in default on multiple loans (e.g. a primary mortgage and a line of credit).

Last quarter’s default numbers were a record in almost all of the state’s 58 counties. That included Los Angeles County, where last quarter’s 21,632 residential defaults surpassed the prior record of 21,444 recorded during first-quarter 1996.

On a loan-by-loan basis, mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties — an historical norm. The likelihood was highest in Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.

Of the homeowners in default, an estimated 22 percent emerge from the foreclosure process by bringing their payments current, refinancing, or selling the home and paying off what they owe. A year ago it was about 52 percent. The increased portion of homes lost to foreclosure reflects the slow real estate market, as well as the number of homes bought during the height of the market with multiple-loan financing, which makes ‘work-outs’ difficult.

Multiple-loan financing peaked in Q4 of 2006 at 60.9 percent of all financed home purchases. Last quarter it was 11.5 percent.

Trustees Deeds recorded, or the actual loss of a home to foreclosure, totaled 63,061 during the second quarter. That’s the highest since DataQuick began tracking Trustees Deeds in 1988. Last quarter’s total rose 33.5 percent from 47,221 in the previous quarter, and jumped 261 percent from 17,458 in second-quarter 2007. In the last real estate cycle, Trustees Deeds peaked at 15,418 in third-quarter 1996. The all-time low was 637 in the second quarter of 2005.

There are 8.4 million houses and condos in the state, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosure resales have emerged as a significant market factor, accounting for 40 percent of all California resale activity last quarter. A year ago it was 5.4 percent. Foreclosure resales vary significantly by area, from 3 percent in San Francisco County to 75.1 percent in Merced County.

CHECK OUT BANK OWNED HOMES AT www.CentralValleyHomes.com

 

Thanks,
CAROL PERDEW
(209) 239-7979
Carol@PerdewHomes.com