Live, Love, Yoga & Real Estate

I think I'm going to rename this blog, "Live, Love, Yoga, Real Estate." It kind of goes hand in hand with my old "mind, body & business" motto. I've grown a lot since then though, and I'm much more than just mind, body and business these days. I'm also spirit, love, health and laughter. On a side note, I really wish I could add music to this blog. I have a great Muse song playing in the background, and it sets the mood perfectly. Anyway, not to digress, I am changing things. I'm not just going to do what I think everybody else wants me to do. I'm going to try being me for a change. I started this blog to be purely business related. But, then I got bored. I'm much more than just that, so now I'm just going to post whatever moves me at each moment. Don't worry, there will be plenty of real estate updates, but lots of other stuff, too. And yes, I'm going to add yoga into the equation. This may or may not work, but my next question is for who? My potential prospective clients? Well, being that I have 3 followers so far and one is my husband (and I've probably had this blog for about a year), I'm not sure what I've been doing up to this point has been working so well. So, now I'm just going to have fun, and make this a true Web Log. I'll say this in advance, if I offend anyone ever...view something else. Finally, if anyone is ever looking for a different kind of Realtor, give me a call: 949-922-1708.

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I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!!

My listing at 526 Riverside is now ONLY $1,999,999. This is unbelievable. This property was originally listed at 3 million dollars! This home is now priced lower than the bank owned distress sales. This property boasts over 6,075 square feet of living space, 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, and it's located in the highly desirable enclave of Newport Heights. It will be held open every Saturday from 11 am - 3 pm. Please stop by, take a look, and make us an offer.


526 Riverside Ave
Newport Beach, CA 92663

On a more personal note:  after taking a short break from real estate, I'm diving back in head first. Only this time, I'm wearing protective eye wear, ear plugs, and a wet suit. I'm doing it differently. I plan on taking everything I know and that I've learned throughout the years and integrating it into everything that I do. I will make real estate work for me instead of me working for real estate. Most of all, it's got to be fun, because if it's not, I won't do it. I believe that the work you do can be very fulfilling. Once it stops being fulfilling, then something's got to change. Even the best job in the world can become cumbersome if you're not careful. Part time, I teach yoga (my dream job), but even that can feel like work sometimes. This time around, I want all of my work to feel less like work, and I plan on making this happen by setting boundaries. I'm not going to go into much detail about this, but so far so good. I'm smiling a lot lately. I hope you do, too.

New Lower Price & New Look

My Listing on 526 Riverside is the BEST value in Newport Heights. It has been improved from the inside out and has a new sexy look as well as a new sexy price. At 6075 square feet, it now is only $2,350,000. We have not seen prices this low in decades. It really is an outstanding deal. MUST SEE. For more information, please call 949-922-1708.

Home Prices in 20 US Cities Fall Less Than Forecast

Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fall Less Than Forecast

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Home prices in 20 U.S. cities fell in June at a slower pace than forecast, signaling the real- estate crisis that triggered the worst recession since the 1930s is dissipating.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home-priceindex declined 15.4 percent from a year earlier, the smallest drop since April 2008, the group said today in New York. The gauge rose from the prior month by the most in four years.

Lower prices and government stimulus efforts have made homes more affordable to first-time buyers, spurring increases in sales that will eventually stem the slide in property values. Gains in housing and stocks will speed the process of restoring the record loss of wealth that has shackled consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.

“The sharp freefall in prices is over,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York. “People are entering the market and that is starting to normalize prices. It’s a clear positive.”

A report from the Conference Board showed consumer confidence rebounded this month more than economists forecast. The New York-based private research group’s measure climbed to 54.1 from 47.4 in July as Americans became less concerned over job losses would keep mounting in coming months.

Stocks rose and Treasury securities fell after the reports provided additional evidence the economic slump was easing. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 1.1 percent to 1,036.97 at 10:01 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was 3.51 percent compared with 3.48 percent late yesterday.

The index was forecast to fall 16.4 percent after a 17 percent drop in the 12 months ended in May, according to the median forecast of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from declines of 15.7 percent to 17.1 percent.

Year-over-year records began in 2001 and the gauge has fallen every month since January 2007.

From a month earlier, home prices climbed 1.4 percent in June, the second consecutive gain and the biggest since June 2005, today’s report showed. The figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal effects, so economists prefer to focus on year-over- year changes instead of month to month.

“We are seeing some positive signs,” David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, said in a statement. “There are hints of an upward turn from a bottom.”

All of the 20 cities in the S&P/Case-Shiller index showed a year-over-year price decrease in June, led by a 32 percent plunge in Las Vegas. Dallas showed the smallest decline at 2.2 percent.

Compared with the prior month, 18 of the 20 areas covered showed an increase, while two showed a decrease. Cleveland and San Francisco had the biggest monthly gains.

Nationally, prices fell 14.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the smallest drop in a year, today’s report also showed. The measure increased 2.9 percent from the first quarter, the first gain in three years.

Foreclosures represent the biggest risk to a sustained improvement in values as more properties are thrown into an already flooded market. Americans fell behind on mortgage payments at a record pace last quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Aug. 20. The inventory of homes in foreclosure rose to the most in three decades of data, it said. Rising unemployment also may limit demand for housing.

At the same time, there are signs the worst of the crisis is over. Existing home sales in July jumped to the highest level in almost two years, boosted by lower prices, tax credits for first-time buyers and near-record-low borrowing costs, according to figures from the National Association of Realtors.

New-home sales, due tomorrow from the Commerce Department, probably rose in July for the fourth straight month, economists surveyed by Bloomberg project.

Demand has already improved enough for some construction companies to consider cutting back on discounts and incentives. Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder, said contracts rose in the third quarter from a year earlier for the first time since 2005.

“As the supply of unsold housing inventory shrinks nationwide, and if consumer confidence continues to improve, we should see stronger demand,” Robert Toll, chief executive officer of the Horsham, Pennsylvania-based company, said on an Aug. 12 conference call. “It has already positively impacted our pricing power as we are reducing incentives in many markets.”
Builder Index

The S&P builder supercomposite index is up 37 percent since the beginning of July as the housing outlook improved. The yield on Treasury securities has been little changed over that time even as the government sells more debt to finance its stimulus effort. The U.S. is auctioning $109 billion in notes over three days starting today, matching a record.

A home-price measure from the Federal Housing Finance Agency will also be issued later today. The national gauge has shown smaller losses than the S&P/Case-Shiller figures because it excludes houses bought with non-conventional mortgages. S&P/Case-Shiller includes those bought with non-conventional mortgages loans such as jumbo loans.

Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and a professor at Yale University, and Karl Case, an economics professor at Wellesley College, created the home-price index based on research from the 1980s.

By Shobhana Chandra
To contact the reporter on this story: Shobhana Chandra in Washington at schandra1@bloomberg.net

New Federal Law Affecting Distressed Properties

This week, President Barack Obama signed into law the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 to help homeowners and lenders avoid foreclosure. Previously included in this bill was a measure to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage loans for principal residences, but the U.S. Senate did not pass this "cram-down" legislation.

The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 contains various new laws to address the national foreclosure crisis. Major provisions that may affect California REALTORS® and your clients include the following:

HOPE FOR HOMEOWNERS (H4H) REVAMPED: The new law loosens the H4H program requirements to help homeowners refinance out of their troubled mortgages and into more affordable, fixed-rate FHA-insured loans. Originally launched in October 2008, the H4H program intended to help 400,000 distressed homeowners, but in the program's first seven months, it only helped one family stay in its home. The maximum loan-to-value ratio for an FHA refinance is 96.5% of the appraised value. If refinance proceeds are insufficient to pay off existing liens, the existing lienholders must voluntarily agree to a short payoff, but a new inducement is an opportunity for them to share in the homeowner's equity. Other changes to the H4H program include monetary incentives for both the participating servicers of the existing loans and originators of the FHA refinance. Millionaire borrowers (with net worth over $1 million) are now excluded from the program. HUD will establish the requirements and standards to implement the H4H program as revised.

LONGER STAY FOR TENANTS OF FORECLOSED HOMES: Effective immediately, an REO lender or buyer who acquires title through a foreclosure sale must give at least a 90-day notice to terminate a bona fide tenant as defined. A 90-day notice to terminate is sufficient for a month-to-month tenant or if a new owner will occupy the property as a primary residence at the end of the 90 days. Otherwise, a tenant with a one year or other fixed-term lease with a remaining lease term exceeding 90 days can stay in the premises until the remaining lease term ends. This new 90-day notice requirement applies to foreclosures of a federally-related mortgage loan or residential real property, except for properties under rent control, rent-subsidized programs (such as Section 8), or other state laws that provide additional protections for tenants. This law expires on December 31, 2012.

NOTIFICATION OF TRANSFER OF MORTGAGE LOANS: The Truth in Lending Act now requires a lender to whom a mortgage loan is sold or otherwise transferred to notify the borrower in writing of such transfer within 30 days. The notice must include the new lender's identity, address, telephone number, authorized representative's contact information, and other relevant information. This measure should help alleviate the problem borrowers often face in determining who owns their mortgage loans.

Other provisions of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act include a 4-year extension of the $250,000 FDIC deposit insurance to December 31, 2013, protection for loan servicers who establish qualified loss mitigation plans from liability for an alleged breach of duty to maximize mortgage values for their investors, $130 million for foreclosure prevention counseling and education, and $2.2 billion to strengthen homeless programs.

President Obama has also signed into law the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) which authorizes the Department of Justice to prosecute mortgage fraud crimes against private mortgage brokers and companies that previously were not regulated by the federal government. FERA also earmarks almost $500 million for federal enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud and other fraud crimes.

Realegal® is published by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, a trade association representing more than 175,000 REALTORS® statewide. Edited by: Stella Ling, stellal@car.org

April Consumer Confidence Jumps!

Consumer confidence rose more than 12 points in April to 39.2 (1985=100), compared with 26.9 in March, according to a recent Conference Board report. The Board’s Present Situation Index increased to 23.7 in April from 21.9 for the previous month, while its Expectations Index jumped more than 19 points to 49.5 in April compared with 30.2 in March."Consumer confidence rose in April to its highest reading in 2009, driven primarily by a significant improvement in the short-term outlook,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “The Present Situation Index posted a moderate gain, a sign that conditions have not deteriorated further, and may even moderately improve, in the second quarter. The sharp increase in the Expectations Index suggests that consumers believe the economy is nearing a bottom, however, this Index still remains well below levels associated with strong economic growth." Consumers' short-term outlook improved significantly in April. Those anticipating business conditions will worsen over the next six months declined to 25.3 percent from 37.8 percent, according to the report, while those expecting conditions to improve increased to 15.6 percent from 9.6 percent in March.

Courtesy of the California Association of Realtors