Santa Clarita Real Estate

When the rich feel the pinch - Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winning actor had his home on the market recently actually last year…he listed his Bel-Air mansion for a cool $35 Million in the Fall of 2006.  Seems he bought the home in 1998 for $7 Million.  In early December he took the house off the market. I guess it takes a year to realize that asking 5 times more than you paid is too much.
Local Realtors called the home “overpriced”.

Activist Wants to Split up L.A. County

Carl Boyer - resident who helped found the city of Santa Clarita has bigger fish to fry. On his agenda…breaking up Los Angeles County.
Boyer, says Los Angeles County is simply too big now. Among his complaints, quoting from the Signal "You can’t just call a county supervisor and talk to them. They have more than two million constituents each - they just can’t take everyone’s calls," Carl Boyer said. "When I was on the (Santa Clarita) City Council, my home phone number was always listed."
From the article it sounds as Boyer would like to see the County split into six or seven smaller Counties.
Boyer traveled to a Board of Supervisors meeting to tell the elected county officials about his idea.

…. He has not heard back from the supervisors.

The tranquil hills over the Newhall Pass, they wont be that way if the development company of Plamer Investments wins and this project is still very much on the mind of the developer who plans to build a mini-city there. In a battle that involves three municipal governments.

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Annexation Studies Delayed Again

Studies aimed at helping plot the future for the Santa Clarita Valley’s west side communities- Stevenson Ranch, Westridge and Castaic originally due last fall have been delayed again and won’t be available for public comment until February 2009, a county official said Thursday.

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Economic analysts say the fall out from the mortgage meltdown will be getting bigger - risky loans made to people with good credit.

For much of this decade option ARM’s also known as pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages were the easiest and the most profitable home loans for brokers to make for many buyers…buyers with excellent credit.

So popular that last year alone they accounted for 9% of the volume of all mortgages made in the U.S. Many of these loans were for mortgages in California, Florida and Nevada, states where home prices rose the most during the housing boom and are now falling most sharply.

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President Bush signed into law today a new measure giving tax breaks to homeowners who have mortgage debt forgiven.  Under preexisting law, the debt forgiven by a lender, such as for short sales and refinances, was generally taxable to the borrower as debt discharge income.  With the passage of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, a taxpayer does not have to pay federal income tax on debt forgiven for a loan secured by a qualified principal residence.

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California Quick Stats

California median home price: $497,110
California highest median home price: Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,325,000
California lowest median home price : High Desert $265,880
California First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Third Quarter 07: 24 percent
The above are from C.A.R regions for the period of October 2007 (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates - week ending 12/13:
30-yr. fixed: 6.11%; Fees/points: 0.5%
15-yr. fixed: 5.78%; Fees/points: 0.5%
1-yr. adjustable: 5.50%; Fees/points: 0.6% (Source: Freddie Mac)

Too little too late say homeowners and some agents of Bush’s mortgage relief plan.
In Antelope Valley just North East of Santa Clarita many home owners are feeling the pain of their streets turning into run down neighborhoods, homes left behind as struggling owners felt they had no other way out. These once prime homes now show signs of disrepair, broken windows and overgrown yards full of weeds, some come with an eviction notice in their window as a "Substandard Property".

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Court Strikes Down Bond Requirement For Home Equity Sales Contract
The case of Schweitzer v. Westminster Investments involved a homeowner, Schweitzer who sued to reclaim real property he voluntarily sold to an investor the day before a scheduled foreclosure sale. The plaintiff in this case tried to reclaim the property by arguing that his sales contract was voidable because the buyer’s agent failed to comply with the bond requirement. The trial court agreed and awarded the title of the property to the plaintiff.  The buyer appealed that decision.  One of the statutory requirements is for the buyer’s agent to be bonded by an admitted insurer in an amount equal to twice the fair market value of the subject property.

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This is a very important video about homeowners protecting their homes from foreclsoure scammers. It is so important to be informed about your real estate and home owner protection.

This video was created by FreddieMac.