Posts Tagged with ‘Real Estate News’
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California Home Sales Up, Prices Down
17 Feb 2012Home sales were up slightly in January across California as investors flooded Southern California. Short sales and foreclosures made up more than half of the market last month. The median home price fell to $260,000, down 3.7% from a year earlier, and sales were mostly flat, increasing 0.4%. Foreclosures, tight mortgage credit and high unemployment in the state remain significant impediments to a housing recovery, though experts warn that the first month of the year rarely is an indicator of where the market is going because of the small pool of buyers involved. Statewide sales of previously owned and newly built homes were up 1.5% in January, marking the sixth consecutive month that year-over-year sales in California have improved. January sales fell 25.5% from December, though a decline from December to January is normal. – LA Times
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RE Bits: California Home Sales Up in December
27 Jan 2012An estimated 37,734 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That was up 15.5 percent from 32,669 in November, and up 4.2 percent from 36,215 for December 2010. California sales for the month of December have varied from a low of 25,585 in 2007 to a high of 66,503 in 2003, while the average is 44,063. The median price paid for a home last month was $246,000, up 0.8 percent from $244,000 in November, and down 3.1 percent from $254,000 for December 2010. The median has decreased on a year-over-year basis for the last fifteen months. The bottom of the current cycle was $221,000 in April 2009. The peak was $484,000 in early 2007. Distressed property sales – the combination of foreclosure resales and “short sales” – once again made up more than half of California’s resale market. Of the existing homes sold last month, 34.2 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was up from 32.9 percent in November but down from 38.1 percent a year earlier. The all-time high for foreclosure resales was 58.5 percent in February 2009. Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short…
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FLIPPERS: FHA to Continue Funding Flips
26 Jan 2012Great news for flipping operations like ModOp and budding Jeff Lewis‘, the Federal Housing Administration is overriding its “anti-flipping” rule and will continue funding loans on properties that have changed hands in the last 90 days through 2012. For investors, this means another banner year of snapping up deep discount properties, rehabbing and selling for profits not seen since 2005. The benefit of an FHA-backed loan is that a larger pool of borrowers can qualify since it requires minimal down payment. Since the extension of the waiver, the FHA has doubled the number of 90-day property flip loans from 21,000 in 2010 to 42,000 in 2011 totaling more than $7 billion that would have ordinarily not qualified. – Inman News
