Santa Clarita Real Estate

In a report issued earlier this month, National home prices fell 8.9% in the full-year 2007, according to figures released recently by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Home prices fell 13.7% in Los Angeles. The median price of entry-level homes in Los Angeles County is $433,200, with a typical monthly payment of $2,890, according to the California Association of Realtors. One would need a household income of about $86,700 to purchase here, even despite the drop in home values.

Project Lifeline Hope Now alliance of mortgage lenders and servicers have agreed to adopt guidelines for a 30-day "pause" in foreclosure proceedings to help seriously delinquent borrowers modify their mortgage terms, the alliance and the Treasury said Tuesday.

The initiative, called Project Lifeline, offers homeowners who have missed three months of mortgage payments a 30-day delay in foreclosure proceedings if they seek help in working out new, more affordable loan terms.

"This is a last-ditch effort to get to people that are 90 days delinquent in their mortgage payment," Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said. "The industry leaders came in last week, now the rest of the industry has come in behind them. "The Treasury-backed Hope Now alliance was created in October to bring together mortgage lenders, servicers, investors and counselors to help sub-prime borrowers modify their loans, including freezing some rates at their initial "teaser" levels.

Some U.S. lawmakers criticized the Project Lifeline effort last week, saying it did not go far enough to stem a rising tide of foreclosures caused by the resetting of adjustable-rate mortgages to unaffordable levels.

An estimated 1.5 million sub-prime mortgages will reset to higher rates this year.

Los Angeles City Council members express disapproval of the Newhall Ranch proposed development of 21,000 homes. The vote on Tuesday was the last chance the city council had to state their case, with this project on the books for the last 10 years and having gone through many County level public hearings it may be a last ditch effort on the City’s part.

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Short sales are just about the topic of the day here in Southern California - with many local market areas leading in short sale and foreclosure properties available for purchase.

Just what is a short sale? and how can you buy one?
The first part of that question is much easier to answer than the second part!
Short sales happen when the owner of the property cannot make his payments and is forced to list and sell his home for less than the amount of the mortgage. Generally, a hardship of some type usually leads to short sale, job loss, being a common cause and in todays real estate market the matter of properties dropping in value leads to short sale - a seller can’t sell for the amount of his mortgage.

If you are considering a short sale, it will be to your advantage to work with an agent that knows the short sale process.
Many short sales are sold in their present condition - "as-is" the seller wont do any repairs so you are literally buying the house as it is. A buyer should have a home inspection done by a reliable company before committing to purchase any short sale - that goes for the purchase of any home whether it be regular sale , short sale or foreclosure properties.

The process of short sale purchase your agent will be dealing with the company who holds the note - usually a bank, notoriously slow in responding to agents regarding offers - be patient, though don’t wait too long  for a response to your purchase offer - have your agent put that in writing with the offer otherwise you will be tying yourself up waiting to hear, taking your self out of the running on other properties available.
Your agent should prepare comps for the neighborhood, that way you will know what homes have been selling for in the neighborhood and judge this homes potential against the price of homes that have sold.

(More coming soon …)

Ninety-six homes in the Patina neighborhood of the West Creek development will each be equipped with solar panels, a tankless water heater, a monitoring system and other energy-efficient features.

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After news reported earlier this week by The Signal, local Assemblyman Cameron Smyth and Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith are requesting the state to investigate documents filed by Dan Palmer Land Developer.

Quoting from The Signal;
In a news release issued jointly Thursday, they say they want investigated "whether committed perjury when he submitted official city and county documents stating he was the sole owner of the property to be developed into Las Lomas."
Both politicians stated in their news release that they want the state attorney general’s office involved due to the "size and scope and multi-jurisdictional issues involving this controversial development."

Palmer has been trying to build a "mini city" on 555 acres of land in the Newhall pass. The Signal broke a story this week that Palmer did not have full ownership of all the parcels involved in his proposed development. 14 parcels are listed in the original application, land records that show he owns 251 acres of the 555 acres of land. Ownership being held by 4 other individuals. 2 of the parcels had been sold to Palmer but it still leaves a question of Palmer having any right to file documents on the McHaddad property - one which has not been sold to Palmer.  More to come on this story that is for sure.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Santa Clarita sales stats for 2007 were relased by the Southland Regional Association of Realtors.
The entire number of homes sold was just under 2,000. Down 31.3 percent from 2006 housing stats - The lowest annual total since the board started keeping the annual housing statistics in 1998.
This represents just how low our market has been particularly when you compare the annual housing stats closed in 2004 a whopping 3,869 housing units closed.

The Signal reported here today that the Las Lomas project parent company Palmer Investments has been attempting to develop land - part of which he has no legal ownership in. This new information will provide a huge breakthrough for the City of Santa Clarita, the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles to hopefully kick this proposed development to the curb.

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A homeowner in Ontario, California whose home was in foreclosure had started taking the home apart and selling the items on ebay and craigslist. Apparently a neighbor had seen the items leaving by the truck load and alerted city officials.

A number of the features were advertised for sale online - fixtures, baseboards, tile, grates, a sink, almost the whole house.

Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad right? it’s hers till the bank knocks right?

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