# of Bank-Owned Homes on the MLS are Declining.

Below is a graph showing the number of Bank-Owned residential properties listed for sale on the MLS in the Truckee and north Lake Tahoe areas:

Notice: The information contained herein is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Verification is recommended.

# of Short-Sales on the MLS are Declining.

Below is a graph showing the number of residential Short-Sales on the Multiple List System for the Truckee and north Lake Tahoe areas:

Notice: The information contained herein is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Verification is recommended.

Sales Analysis for the year of 2009

Below is the Sales Analysis for year of 2009:

2009 Sales Analysis by Area

Below is a Sales Analysis by Area for the year 2009:

4th Quarter 2009 Sales by Area

Below is a Sales Analysis by Area for the fourth quarter of 2009:

4th Quarter 2009 Sales Analysis

Below is a Sales Analysis for the fourth quarter of 2009:

2010 Sales to Rise 15 Percent

Home sales will increase 15 percent to about 5.7 million units and REALTOR® income will be up 20 percent in 2010, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told a packed room of REALTORS® today in a residential economic update at the 2009 NAR Conference & Expo.Yun credited the home buyer tax credit with unleashing sales on the lower-end of the housing market this year, bringing up to 400,000 first-time buyers into the market who wouldn’t have bought otherwise. That influx tightened inventories of starter homes, shored up prices, and helped reduce households’ fear over continuing price drops.

This virtuous cycle will continue now that the federal government has extended the credit to mid-2010 and expanded it to make a smaller credit available to repeat buyers and to households with higher incomes. “The key is stabilizing prices and preserving household wealth,” he says.

Yun predicts the supply of homes to stabilize at the historic norm of six to seven months. Homes above $500,000 will remain elevated in the near-term, but that weakness will be offset by a hefty drop in starter-home inventories, which are running at about a five months supply.

The tightening inventory at all price points will help improve market performance by bringing supply into better balance with demand, but the added sales, particularly on the higher end, will also increase the number and quality of the market comparables used by appraisers to assign valuations. Once appraisals improve, foreclosures will ease, blunting their drag on the market and making it less likely that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and even FHA will need help from the taxpayer.

“Then we’ll be set for a durable economic expansion,” he said.

New-home sales, which comprise about 10 percent of the market, will continue at suppressed levels–about 550,000 units, down from more than a million during the boom–mainly because builders have scaled projects way back, in part because financing isn’t available.

“Weakness in new-home sales shouldn’t be viewed as tepid demand,” he said.

Even under the most positive economic scenario, unemployment will remain elevated through 2010. Yun is predicting unemployment to stay near double-digits going into 2011, qualifying this recession, as some economists have, as the “Great Recession.”

For the longer term, the huge deficit run up by the federal government to shore up the economy remains the big question mark. Although the deficit is expected to improve each of the next three years, it will remain at historic highs. Unless the federal government releases a credible plan for shrinking it, investors will start to balk and interest rates will need to rise to bring them back. Should inflation be the result, the housing recovery will be set back.

Source: Robert Freedman, REALTOR® magazine

3rd Quarter 2009 Sales Analysis

Below is a Sales Analysis for the third quarter of 2009:

Source: Tahoe Sierra Board of Realtors - infomation contained herein is believe reliable but not guaranteed - verification is recommended.

CA Association of Realtors Calls for Extention of Tax Credit

C.A.R. calls for swift adoption of Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment to extend home buyer tax credit.

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 23) - The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) today called for the U.S. Senate to swiftly adopt the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment, which would extend and amplify the hugely successful first-time home buyer tax credit until June 30, 2010.

“The success of the home buyer tax credit and its positive impact on the real estate market is clear,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak. “According to our research, nearly 40 percent of first-time buyers said they would not have purchased a home if the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers was not offered. This underscores the significance of the federal tax credit to the housing market’s recovery in California.

“The Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment would expand the credit by removing the first-time buyer requirement and instead would apply to all home buyers,” he said. “The amendment also would increase the qualifying income limits to $150,000 for single buyers and $300,000 for those filing joint income tax returns.

“We urge Senators Feinstein and Boxer to demonstrate their support for home buyers in California and quickly adopt the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment,” Liptak said.

Under additional provisions in the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment, taxpayers would be able to claim the credit on purchases completed in 2010 on their 2009 income tax returns. The amendment maintains the provision that home buyers do not have to repay the credit provided the home remains their primary residence for 36 months after purchase, and waives this requirement for active duty military personnel who move due to a military order.

Leading the way…® in California real estate for more than 100 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with nearly 163,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.

Big Rebound in Existing-Home Sales Shows First-Time Buyer Momentum

Washington, October 23, 2009

Existing-home sales bounced back strongly in September with first-time buyers driving much of the activity, marking five gains in the past six months, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Existing-home sales - including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - jumped 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.57 million units in September from a level of 5.10 million in August, and are 9.2 percent higher than the 5.10 million-unit pace in September 2008. Sales activity is at the highest level in over two years, since it hit 5.73 million in July 2007.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said favorable conditions matched with a tax credit are boosting home sales. “Much of the momentum is from people responding to the first-time buyer tax credit, which is freeing many sellers to make a trade and buy another home,” he said. “We are hopeful the tax credit will be extended and possibly expanded to more buyers, at least through the middle of next year, because the rising sales momentum needs to continue for a few additional quarters until we reach a point of a self-sustaining recovery.”

Even with the improvement, Yun said the market is underperforming. “Despite spectacular gains in the stock market, principally from the financial sector recovery, most of the 75 million home owning families have more wealth tied to their homes. Home values could soon turn consistently positive and help the broad base of middle-class families, but we are not there yet,” he said. “We’re getting early indications of price stabilization, but we need a steady supply of qualified buyers to meaningfully bring inventories down and return us to a period of normal, steady price growth and to fully remove consumer fears, which would then revive the broader economy. Without a firm foundation for middle-class wealth recovery, the post-recession economic growth likely will be one of the weakest in U.S. history.”

Early information from a large annual consumer study to be released November 13, the 2009 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, shows that first-time home buyers accounted for more than 45 percent of home sales during the past year. A separate practitioner survey shows that distressed homes accounted for 29 percent of transactions in September.

NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, said affordability conditions remain historically high. “Potential first-time buyers can take heart in that affordability conditions this year are the highest on record dating back to 1970, but with the first-time buyer tax credit scheduled to expire at the end of next month, people could hold back from entering the market,” he said.

“Our read is that housing overshot on the downside because homes are selling for less than replacement construction costs in much of the country, and the home price-to-income ratio has fallen below the historical average,” McMillan said.

Total housing inventory at the end of September fell 7.5 percent to 3.63 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 7.8-month supply2 at the current sales pace, down from an 9.3-month supply in August. Unsold inventory totals are 15.0 percent below a year ago.

“The current housing supply is the lowest we’ve seen in two and a half years,” Yun said. “If we could continue to absorb inventory at this pace, home prices would return to normal, modest appreciation patterns next year.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.06 percent in September from 5.19 percent in August; the rate was 6.04 percent in September 2008.

The national median existing-home price3 for all housing types was $174,900 in September, which is 8.5 percent lower than September 2008. Distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes in the same area.

Single-family home sales rose 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million in September from a pace of 4.47 million in August, and are 7.7 percent above the 4.54 million-unit level in September 2008. The median existing single-family home price was $174,900 in September, which is 8.1 percent below a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales jumped 9.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 680,000 units in September from 620,000 in August, and are 9.7 percent above the 561,000-unit pace a year ago. The median existing condo price4 was $175,100 in September, down 11.7 percent from September 2008.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast increased 4.4 percent to an annual level of 950,000 in September, and are 11.8 percent higher than September 2008. The median price in the Northeast was $234,700, down 7.0 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest jumped 9.6 percent in September to a pace of 1.25 million and are 7.8 percent above a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $147,600, which is 1.0 percent below September 2008.

In the South, existing-home sales rose 9.0 percent to an annual level of 2.06 million in September and are 10.8 percent higher than September 2008. The median price in the South was $153,500, down 7.6 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the West surged 13.0 percent to an annual rate of 1.30 million in September and are 5.7 percent above a year ago. The median price in the West was $219,000, which is 15.0 percent below September 2008.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

List / Sale Price Gap Diminishes

Home buyers still are paying less than a home’s asking price, but had slightly less negotiating power in August than they did in July, according to the August Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. Buyers paid a median $6,525, or 3 percent, less than the last listing price on homes bought in August, down from $7,018, or 3.3 percent, less for homes bought in July, according to the report. Negotiating power peaked in January 2009, when buyers were paying 4.5 percent less than last listing price, a median of $10,096.

Sellers also continued to cut prices on unsold homes. One quarter (24.7 percent) of all homes listed for sale on Zillow had at least one listing price reduction as of Oct. 1, 2009. For the U.S. as a whole, the median U.S. price reduction was 6.6 percent off the original listing price.

Several Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in Florida made the top 25 list of markets nationwide with the greatest gap in list price to sale price; no MSA in California made the list. In two California markets, buyers paid more than asking price during August, according to the report: In the El Centro MSA, buyers paid 2.2 percent, or a median $2,479, more than asking price; in the Stockton MSA, buyers paid 1.3 percent, or $2,515, more.

“Negotiating power is a clear reflection of inventory levels, which dropped nationally in August. Tighter supply in some markets is translating into less of a discount off listing price,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. “Unfortunately, the brisk spring and summer home shopping season is drawing to a close now, and with foreclosures on the rise again, inventory levels will likely head back up in the coming months, leading buyers’ negotiating power to regain the ground it lost in August.”

Source: California Association of Realtors

 

Green Building Code Goes Into Effect

The state’s green building code, the first of its kind in the nation, took effect August 1st, the California Building Standards Commission has announced. This new code standardizes practices for reducing the environmental impact of buildings in a variety of ways. It encourages the use of renewable, recyclable, and recycled material in the building process. It also encourages the reduction of a building’s potable water use by 20 percent, and it establishes a two tiered 15 or 30 percent energy savings above current levels for all buildings through a combination of more efficient appliances and windows, better insulation, and other performance enhancing measures. Application of the code is currently voluntary. It was adopted last year as a step toward mandatory green building standards, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for by 2010.

10 Best Places for Condo Deals

Daily Real Estate News | August 5, 2009 |

10 Best Places for Condo Deals
Thanks to a huge inventory, many condominiums are bargains these days.

Forbes magazine took a look at the nationwide condo market to determine where the best deals could be found. Because financing can be hard to get, prices on luxury models have fallen the most.

The magazine suggested that the best deals come from paying cash or at least putting down enough cash so the property can be purchased with a federally-backed loan.

It also suggested that buyers bid low. Since these properties are moving so slowly, even a lowball offer might be accepted.

Here are the top 10 best places for condominium deals and their ZIP codes, as determined by Forbes:

1. Olympic Village (Squaw Valley), Calif., 96146
2. Tahoe City, Calif., 96145
3. Terra Linda, Calif., 94903
4. Fisher Island, Fla., 33109
5. Dallas, 75205
6. Malibu, Calif., 90265
7. Bal Harbour Fla., 33154
8. Key Biscayne, Fla., 33149
9. Lake Forest, Ill., 60045
10. New York (Upper West Side), 10069

Source: Forbes, Matthew Woolsey (07/29/2009)