California Distressed Home Sales Continue Decline

Distressed home sales in California in April declined to their lowest level since February 2008, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Distressed sales fell to 24.4 percent, down from 27.9 percent in March and 45.8 percent in April last year.

CAR also said the share of lender-owned sales fell to single digit percentages for the first time since late 2007 – 9.2 percent in April, compared with 10.2 percent in March and 24.3 percent in April 2012.

In Sacramento County, CAR said the share of distressed single-family home sales in April was 32 percent, down from 37 percent in March and 60 percent in April 2012.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/23/5441832/distressed-home-sales-decline.html#storylink=cpy

California Real Estate Posts Strongest Price Increase in US

Real estate prices continue to rise, and housing markets in the West are leading the way. Some East Coast markets are exhibiting weakness. 

In March, the median sales price for new homes was $247,000, increasing from the previous month's $226,400, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The average sales price fell, however, to $279,900 from $286,300. 

A forecast from the National Association of Realtors projects that the national median existing-home price will rise about 7.5 percent this year from 2012. 

The trade group said that the national median existing-home price for all housing types was $184,300 in March, rising from $173,000 the previous month. The price was 11.8 percent higher than 12 months prior and up for the 13th consecutive month. 

U.S. home prices increased 1.0 percent between January and February based on Lender Processing Services Inc.'s Home Price Index. That left the index at $210,000. Compared to a year earlier, the index -- which represents the price of non-distressed sales by taking into account price discounts for REO and short sales -- was up 7.3 percent. 

California and Washington home prices rose 2.2 percent from January -- the most of any states in the LPS report. Nine of the 10-strongest metropolitan areas were in the Golden State. Nevada's 1.8 percent followed, then 1.6 percent in Hawaii and 1.4 percent in Illinois. The only state with a decline was Connecticut: down 0.3 percent.

Half of the top 10 metropolitan markets identified by Pro Teck Valuation Services in its April Home Value Forecast were in California. Two of the worst markets were in Florida, and another two were in Louisiana. 

CoreLogic's Home Price Index inched up 0.5 percent in February from January and was up 10.2 percent from February 2012. 

Santa Ana, Calif.-based CoreLogic announced that it acquired Case-Shiller on March 20 from Fiserv Inc. for $6 million. 

A seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent increase between January and February was reported for the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index. Compared to the same month last year, FHFA's index was up 7.1 percent. The index stands 13.6 below its April 2007 peak. 

FHFA, which utilizes purchase prices on homes financed with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans to determine its index, said that the Middle Atlantic had a 1.9 percent year-over-year increase -- the worst of any area. The Pacific was up more than any other area: 15.3 percent. 

Another index, the FNC Residential Price Index, indicated that national home prices increased 0.2 percent from January to February -- a 28-month high and the 12th consecutive increase. Compared to a year earlier, the index was up 6.1 percent, "its fastest acceleration since July 2006." 

Phoenix and Las Vegas had the biggest month-over-month gain of any metropolitan statistical area at 1.9 percent. Phoenix and the biggest year-over-year gain at 29.3 percent, while No. 2 Las Vegas had a 14.5 percent increase from February 2012. 

US Home Prices Post Highest Increase Since 2006

Home prices rose by 9.3 percent across the nation’s 20 major metropolitan areas in the year ending in February 2013 for the highest annual increase in growth since May 2006, according to real estate market trends reported today by S&P/Case-Shiller.

For the first time since early 2005, all 20 areas have posted year-over-year increase for at least two consecutive months, and the rate of annual growth accelerated in 16 of the cities, according to the group’s Home Price Indices for February.

“Home prices continue to show solid increases across all 20 cities,” David M. Blitzer, Index Committee chair at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement interpreting the latest real estate market trends. “Despite some recent mixed economic reports for March, housing continues to be one of the brighter spots in the economy.”

The largest annual price increases were seen in Phoenix, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Atlanta, Blitzer said. The Atlanta housing market suffered a wave of foreclosures in 2012, while the Western cities were among the hardest hit by the housing market collapse.
In other real estate market trends, investment in residential real estate accelerated from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, making a “positive contribution” to economic growth, Blitxer said. The mix of housing is also shifting to include a larger-than-typical share of apartments.

Real Estate Tricks from the Rich and Famous

Sometimes it seems as though the home of every Hollywood celebrity or sports star that’s for sale is featured prominently on Access Hollywood or the Wall Street Journal.

The fact is that many choose a legal, ethical and controversial way to keep photos of their homes and their asking prices secret from all but those who might be interested in buying. You’ll never see them on the popular real estate Web sites.

Virtually all real estate sites from the national aggregators like Zillow to your local real estate agent’s site are based on databases of property listings created by the nation’s 900 multiple listing services. Most of these are owned and operated by local Realtor organizations and they were first created about 150 years ago as a way for real estate brokers to share their listings and help match buyers and sellers.

For one reason or another, some listings have never been placed on multiple listing services. Homes for sale by real estate agencies that are not placed on the MLS are called pocket listings. Instead, the listing broker keeps them in his “hip pocket” and markets them outside the MLS. Some real estate brokers encourage them because if they don’t list a property on the MLS, they are not obligated to share the commission with the buyer’s agent.

Many wealthier sellers, including celebrities, protect their privacy by choosing not to put their homes on the MLS. Other sellers like to test the waters for their properties and gauge reaction to the asking price in a controlled environment. Their agents market them as pocket listings, using social media, emails, special websites and old fashioned tactics like open houses to target an exclusive market of wealthy buyers and their agents.

Pocket listings are on the rise and not everyone in the real estate industry is pleased. Recently the California Association of Realtors distributed a Q&A and hosted a Webinar to help its members comply with legal issues associated with pocket listings ranging from the Fair Housing Act to multiple listing service rules that require sellers to be fully informed and agree in writing not to have their properties listing. Even so, some industry leaders don’t believe pocket listings are in the seller’s best interest.

“If the seller is fully informed and provides written consent not to place their home on the MLS, then I’m not concerned,” said Betty Graham, a Beverly Hills broker and president of Coldwell Banker Previews International/NRT, the Realogy franchise’s luxury brand. “But I’m not sure that’s the case in many of the pocket listings I have seen. The fact is that our first responsibility is a fiduciary responsibility to act in the seller’s best interest and with a pocket listing there is a great potential to violate that fiduciary responsibility.”

Ms. Graham has been observing pocket listings in the LA celebrity market for years. Before heading up Previews International, she was the president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the greater Los Angeles area. In her 30 years as an agent and broker in Malibu and elsewhere in the LA market, she represented such luminaries as Rod Steiger, Dustin Hoffman, Charles Bronson, George C. Scott, Cecily Tyson, Cleavon Little, LeVar Burton, Madonna, Sean Penn, plus five transactions with Johnny Carson.

Investor's Keep SOCAL Housing Market Strong

California home sales continued strong last month as investors snapped up mid- to high-end homes, though it was unclear whether the rebound will continue through the year, real estate research firm DataQuick reported Wednesday.

The region recorded its highest February sales in six years, with 15,945 homes sold in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties, DataQuick said.
That was down 0.7 percent from January but up 1 percent from February 2012.

The median sales price was $320,000, down slightly from January but up nearly 21 percent from February of last year, DataQuick reported.

Year-over-year prices - that is, prices compared with the same month in the previous year - have jumped by double digits each month since last August. Even so, the median sales price was only about what it was in mid-2003, DataQuick said.

And despite year-over-year improvement, sales remained nearly 10 percent below the February average.

Many of the January and February sales were to investors who went shopping for bargains during the 2012 winter holiday season, DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement.
"That's when many traditional buyers and sellers drop out of the market, leaving a relatively high concentration of very motivated market participants, especially investors," Walsh said. "March and April will offer a better view of how broader market trends are shaping up this year."
Investor and cash buying was at or near all-time highs, DataQuick said.

Absentee buyers - mostly investors and some second-home purchasers - bought a record 31.4 percent of the Southern California homes sold in February.

More mid- to high-end homes - those going for between $300,000 and $800,000 - were sold in February compared with a year earlier, while lower-cost homes lagged, partly because a slowdown in foreclosures meant fewer homes for sale, DataQuick said.

There were some good signs.
"Foreclosure activity remains far below peak levels. Financing with multiple mortgages is very low and down payment sizes are stable," DataQuick said.

 

Imigration Helps Strengthen US Housing Sector

Increasing demand from new arrivals to the United States is helping to strengthen the housing sector, according to a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association analyzing the effects of immigration on real estate market trends.

“Immigrants are an important and growing source of demand that has bolstered housing markets in recent decades,” Prof. Dowell Myers, of the University of Southern California’s Population Dynamics Research Group, said in a statement. “Growth in housing demand in recent decades has been more stable among foreign-born than native-born households.”

Homeownership among immigrant households has steadily increased, reaching 2.4 million by 2010, according to the report, and the number is projected to reach 2.8 million by 2020. In the gateway states of California and New York, immigrants account for most of the increase in homeownership rates. New arrivals represented more than 82 percent of the growth in homeownership in the Golden State over the last decade, and more than 65 percent of the increase in the Empire State. These real estate market trends were also pronounced in Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan.

Homeownerships rates rise with length of residency, according to the study. Slightly more than 15 percent of Hispanics who arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s were homeowners in 1990. The share rose to nearly 53 percent by 2010, and is expected to exceed 61 percent by 2020. The strong upward mobility of immigrants contributes to these real estate market trends.

A disproportionate share of the nation’s wealthiest citizens is made up of first- and second-generation Americans, according to a recent study from Spectrem’s Millionaire Corner. The most recent Census data shows that 12 percent of all Americans - roughly 36.7 people – were born in another county.
The share climbs to 18 percent among Americans with a net worth of $125 million or more.

These affluent investors are also more likely than the average America to have immigrant parents. More than one-fourth (28 percent) of $125 million plus investors are second-generation Americans. The share shrinks to 11 percent among the general population, according to our $25 Million Plus Investor 2012, which tracks a relatively high level of upward mobility among immigrant families.
“As the housing market continues its recovery, it is important to understand the demographic trends which are likely to impact housing demand in the years ahead,” Michael Fratantoni, executive director of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America.

Bay Area Real Estate Prices Predicted to Surge

Almost every corner of the Bay Area is poised for robust home-price appreciation this year in a surge that will outpace projected national growth, according to a forecast from real-estate information site Zillow.com.

Looking at 245 Bay Area ZIP codes, Zillow projects that 244 will see home values ratchet up by significant margins in 2013, with 27 ZIPs seeing double-digit appreciation. Only one of the ZIPs analyzed - 94515 in Calistoga - is forecast to see values recede, by a modest 1.4 percent.
"The forces of supply and demand seem to be exacerbated here right now," said Svenja Gudell, senior economist with Zillow in Seattle. "We're happily surprised by how well (the market) is doing and how much it's picking up steam."

Strikingly, some of the strongest percentage increases are likely to happen in both the cheapest and the priciest areas in the nine-county region, Zillow predicts. Low-end Solano County markets such as Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon and Suisun City, where values plunged during the real-estate downturn and are still half off their peaks, should see values bump up by more than 14 percent - admittedly easier to do off a low base.

At the same time, Portola Valley, Atherton and Palo Alto - with million-dollar-plus median values that now exceed their boom-time heights - should see appreciation above 12 percent, Zillow said.
Popular San Francisco neighborhoods such as Noe Valley, the Castro, Twin Peaks, the Mission and Bernal Heights are poised for double-digit appreciation, along with Menlo Park, Larkspur, Palo Alto, Alameda and North Berkeley, Zillow predicts.

Regaining value

One major way that the low-cost and high-end markets diverge is in where values are now relative to their peak. Zillow shows 25 ZIP codes where values have regained all the value lost during the downturn and then some. All are in pricey Silicon Valley or San Francisco neighborhoods where the median price is around $1 million. Meanwhile, about 100 ZIP codes are still 30 percent or more below their peaks - all in hard-hit, lower-end communities in Solano, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

"That is a really great number in the San Francisco metro," Gudell said. "It is rather special compared to the U.S. as a whole."

Zillow's projections take into account both long-term historical trends back to 1997, as well as current data on how markets have behaved in recent months. It also factors in information on employment, income and other economic factors to predict what housing values might do, she said.

Can't meet demand

Every market around the Bay Area - whether low-end, high-end or somewhere in the middle - now has one outstanding characteristic that is driving up prices: too few homes for sale to meet buyer appetite.

"There is no place where we see a steeper decline in listed homes (for sale) than the Bay Area," said Lanny Baker, CEO of ZipRealty in Emeryville, which has agents throughout the Bay Area and the country. "This time last year there were 13,000 homes listed here. Today we see about 5,000 homes - a 60 percent reduction."

Moreover, the mix of homes being sold has changed dramatically, something that particularly affects lower-end markets such as Solano County. Far fewer bargain-priced, bank-owned foreclosures are on the market.

In the low-cost markets, investors waving fistfuls of cash are snapping up properties, usually to keep as rentals, sometimes to flip. In the high-end markets, it's tech millionaires - armed with far bigger wads of cash - who are jostling to live in homes in Silicon Valley or San Francisco.

"As soon as something new hits the market, it's snapped up," said Sandy Rainsbarger, an agent with ZipRealty in Vacaville. That town's 95688 ZIP, where the median value is now $287,900, is projected by Zillow to see values rise 17.1 percent this year - the biggest price appreciation in the Bay Area. "There are multiple offers on every single property."

Buyers pushed aside

Meanwhile, "regular" buyers, especially first-time home buyers who are relying on Federal Housing Administration mortgages, are finding themselves shoved aside time after time in frenzied bidding wars.

"The Bay Area is one of the fastest-moving markets in the country," Baker said. "We see houses sell on average in 26 days here. One statistic we look at is what percentage of homes sell in just seven days; that's like a red alert. If it gets to 15 percent, we know we're in a zany market. In the Bay Area, it's at 13 percent. In Sacramento, 25 percent of homes sell in less than seven days.

"I think throughout this year, we'll see Bay Area markets continue to be very, very strong," Baker said. "On the lower end, the specter of foreclosures and 'Gosh, nobody's ever going to want to live this far out' has washed away, and there is more confidence in values recovering.
"On the high end, we've got Silicon Valley and the tech economy doing really well."