Trang’s Weekly Real Estate Wrap-Up for 2/5/2010

California home permits declined 44 percent in 2009
California homebuilders pulled 36,209 permits statewide in 2009, a 44 percent decline compared with 2008, and 83 percent lower compared with 2004, the peak of the current cycle, according to the California Building Industry Association (CBIA).  Last year also marked the second consecutive year of record-low housing production [...]

Trang’s Weekly Real Estate Wrap-Up for 1/8/2010

California’s Median Price: First Year-to-Year Gain in Two Years
Median price has been an improving situation: Following a 59% peak-to-trough decline, California’s median price surpassed the $300,000 thredhold in November, an increase of 2.4% in month-to-month comparisons, and the first year-to-year increase since August 2007.
Sales also in healthy territory: Home sales in California returned to pre-peak [...]

Trang’s Weekly Real Estate Wrap-Up for Oct 30th, 2009

Homebuyer Credit Gets New Life
Key lawmakers in the Senate have tentatively agreed to extend the existing $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and also offer a new $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who have lived in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years.
Read more: WSJ Online
Digging yourself out [...]

Trang’s Weekly Real Estate Wrap-Up for Oct 2nd, 2009

New rules coming soon
Beginning Oct. 1, new rules adopted by the Federal Reserve will go into effect, requiring greater diligence on the part of mortgage lenders and brokers who issue high-cost loans for borrowers with less than favorable credit.  The interest rates on these loans are at least 1.5 percentage points greater than the average [...]

Trang’s Weekly Real Estate Wrap-Up for Sept. 18th, 2009

This weeks wrapup is all over the place. Everything from a remark from Ben Bernanke about the recession being over, to increases in foreclosures. It’s really hard to understand anything that is happening in the market.