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New home appraisal rules: Good or bad for customers, appraisers?

2009-05-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

New home appraisal rules: Good or bad for customers, appraisers?
BY COURTENAY EDELHART, Californian staff writer cedelhart@bakersfield.com Friday, May 22 2009 12:34 PM

A new rule intended to prevent fraudulent appraisals has many in the real estate industry fuming, and some complain it's boosting the cost of having an expert evaluate a home.
At the urging of the New York State Attorney General, as of May 1, McLean, Va.,-based Freddie Mac and Washington, D.C.,-based Fannie Mae will no longer purchase mortgages from loan originators that do not adopt the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.

That's no small thing, because together the Federal National Mortgage Association, otherwise known as Fannie Mae; and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, own or guarantee about half of the nation's home loans, or $5 trillion in mortgages.

The new code attempts to curb inflated appraisals by refusing reports from people selected, retained or compensated by mortgage brokers and real estate agents.

It applies only to conventional loans, not to Federal Housing Administration loans.
The idea is that brokers and agents have a vested interest in higher valuations because their pay hinges on a home's sale price or the size of the loan. During the housing boom, some unscrupulous people pressured some appraisers to say homes were worth more than they were. After the housing market crashed, those inflated valuations helped fuel massive foreclosures.
So now, appraisal management companies are acting as middlemen by hiring appraisers on behalf of banks and other clients, and reviewing appraisal reports.

"The idea is to build a firewall between brokers, Realtors and other third parties," said Freddie Mac spokesman Brad German.

That would seem to be a good idea, but some in the industry say it hurts consumers because adding that extra layer boosts the appraisal fee, and instead of rolling it into the mortgage with other closing costs, it may have to be paid separately.
Freddie Mac's German says he's heard "anecdotal evidence" that appraisals are more expensive now, but hasn't seen hard data.

Either way, many appraisers are angry.
"We're working about four times as hard for about half the money," said Jeff Sorrell of Accurate Appraisal Service in Bakersfield.

That's because appraisal management companies pocket much of the fee for appraisals, which typically cost $300 to $500. In some cases, the appraiser is only getting about half that fee.
Then, too, long-time appraisers are outraged that they've spent decades cultivating clients only to have those relationships washed away with the stroke of a pen.

"We're the only industry I know of that is not allowed to have direct contact with our clients," Sorrell said.

To add insult to injury, appraisal management companies often have contracts over wide regions, so appraisers they hire could come from anywhere and work in unfamiliar areas, said Kim Ryder of Kim Ryder Appraisal in Bakersfield.

"You could have some random appraiser from L.A. County or something, and they don't know this market. Even from city to city within the county, there's huge variation," she said.
Ryder also worries that the people reviewing her reports may not be local, and more than likely aren't licensed appraisers, so they may lack expertise to know if her work is fair and accurate.
But not all appraisers are unhappy with the change.

"I think, after everything that's gone on the last two years, it's a good idea," said Matt Anzaldo of Anzaldo Real Estate Appraising. "Let's be honest; there was pressure before to say certain things, and that pressure's not there anymore."

Anzaldo said his business has actually grown since the change took effect.

"I'm getting a little bit less than I was receiving before for each appraisal, but my volume is higher," he said.

Appraisers have merely traded one type of pressure for another, Sorrell said. Appraisal management companies charge him late fees if he doesn't file reports quickly, he said, so he feels rushed.

"If you're doing an older housing tract with only four models, it's easy to crank that out," he said. "But if you're doing a 5,000-square-foot house out on the river on five acres of land, there aren't a lot of comps for that, so you have to do a lot of research to do it right, and that takes time."
Sorrell said the new system penalizes good appraisers along with bad ones.

"A few bad apples are ruining it for all of us," he said.

Hope in the Housing Market: Lower Prices, Interest Rates Equal Opportunity for Buyers

2009-02-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

Hope in the Housing Market: Lower Prices, Interest Rates Equal Opportunity for Buyers

By Jenny Shearer, The Bakersfield Californian

Jan. 31--Guadalupe and Ariana Sanchez represent hope in the housing market.
The 28-year-old couple with four children just bought their first home.

"We got it pretty cheap. Right now is the best time to buy," said Guadalupe Sanchez, a carpenter.

Sanchez toured 20 homes, bid on four, and landed a deal with a three-bedroom, two-bath house on Sherman Avenue in the southwest for $160,000.

"I told my wife, we're just throwing our money away by renting. Let's try to get a house," he said.

Low home prices and low interest rates -- coupled with inventory agents say that they're quickly moving -- are positive news for Bakersfield's real estate market.

For example, Ken Carter, president of Watson Touchstone ERA, said his agents sold 241 homes in December, a 56 percent increase from the 154 transactions in December 2007.
About half of the 241 sales were foreclosures, Carter said.

Bakersfield has "a big pile of properties that we have to work through, those properties that are in some state of default," Carter said, adding the market "can't be in great health until we work through those. The good news is we're working through those at a record pace."

Homes are moving every day, and buyers have choices. Friday morning, for example, 3,636 properties in Kern County -- single-family homes, condos, mobile and manufactured -- were marketed on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Bakersfield Association of Realtors. Of those 3,636, there were 1,402 bank-owned properties and 1,126 were short sales, in which a lender accepts offers that are less than what a home is worth.

A TIME FOR INVESTORS
Real estate investor Mike Pope took a hiatus from buying in 2006 but returned to it last June. He looks for homes with solid structures in neighborhoods that could benefit from revitalization.
In June, he paid about $110,000 for a home on Teresa Court, near Pacheco Road and Hughes Lane, that last sold for $235,000 in 2005.

"It had graffiti inside and outside you would not believe," Pope, 55, said of the bank-owned house that needed new doors and windows.

Here's what Pope did: He spent $23,000 on materials for improvements and did most of the work himself. He has a tenant who wants to buy the house for about $180,000.
"My biggest reward on the one on Teresa (Court) is getting to know the neighbors. They would keep an eye on the house; I would have them over to see the progress," said Pope, who is on medical disability from a teaching job.

THE CYCLES OF REAL ESTATE
Those ready to buy may even be outbid on good buys as home prices approach pre-boom levels.
"What we have found in the association is that many of our membership are saying they're having a competitive bidding scenario again on some of these homes that are coming into the inventory ... that are REOs," said Nance Fillmore of Fillmore Realty and Financial Services. She's the president of the local Realtors Association.

Real estate experiences peak-trough cycles that take about eight years to 10 years to complete, said Mark Carrington, director of sales and support for First American CoreLogic, a Santa Ana-based real estate data firm.

It typically takes three years to four years for home values to decline, and six to seven for them to increase.

Home values peaked in July 2006, and "'07, '08 and '09 is the drop," Carrington said.
"So far right now, we're acting just like any other cycle has happened. It's a deeper, steeper drop than we've experienced in a long time, (but) the timeframe is pretty average so far."
Prices are down now, a benefit for buyers.

"That is of course an effect of the foreclosed properties that are pervasive in our market," Fillmore said. "If the homeowners can ride out this period of time, it will go back to a normal appreciation that we've experienced for many, many years in the past."

WHAT ABOUT CURRENT OWNERS?
Certainly, some homeowners were in over their heads, or got there after a job loss or illness.
"A person loses his or her home because some type of trigger happens that is overwhelming," Carrington said.

Fillmore urges those who have trouble making payments to consult their lenders and take advantage of programs such as the federal government's Hope for Homeowners.
Last year, Warren Ash, broker at Bakersfield Realty Group, handled about 330 bank-owned properties.

"I've been told by more than one company to expect my inventory from that company to double or even triple in 2009," he said.

The industry is also watching the impact of option adjustable-rate mortgages, popular from 2003-06, which allowed borrowers to make minimum payments, paying less than both the principal and the interest that was owed. Homeowners could choose to make small, medium or large payments.

It seemed like a great idea when home values kept increasing.
"That five-year period for most of those loans is going to peak in 2010," Carrington said, adding modifications and refinancing may be available to help some folks keep their homes.
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To see more of The Bakersfield Californian, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bakersfield.com.

10 worst real-estate markets for 2009

2009-02-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

10 worst real-estate markets for 2009

9. Bakersfield, Calif.

2008 median house price: $227,2702009
projected change: -20.9%2010
projected change: -2.5%

This city north of Los Angeles had the ninth highest foreclosure rate in November, as one of the country's largest real estate bubbles continues to burst. Including Bakersfield, six of the ten worst foreclosure markets were in California.

Media Source: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0812/gallery.worst_markets.fortune/9.html

Bakersfield No. 4 In 3rd Quarter Foreclosures

2008-10-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Bakersfield No. 4 In 3rd Quarter Foreclosures
Calif. Had 27 Percent Of Nation's Foreclosures

A new report says Bakersfield was No. 4 in the nation in foreclosure activity in the third quarter of this year.

U.S. Foreclosures Double as House Prices Decline

2008-10-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier as falling home prices left borrowers owing more on mortgages than their properties were worth.

One in every 171 households was foreclosed on, received a default notice or was warned of a pending auction. That was an increase of 121 percent from a year earlier and 14 percent from the first quarter, RealtyTrac Inc. said today in a statement. Almost 740,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure, the most since the Irvine, California-based data company began reporting in January 2005.

``Rising foreclosures are putting downward pressure on prices, increasing the possibility that homeowners will go upside- down on their mortgages,'' said Sheryl King, U.S. economist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. ``That will cause more losses in mortgage portfolios and less willingness from investors to securitize mortgages and therefore fewer mortgages.''
About 25 million U.S. homeowners risk owing more than the value of their homes, according to Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. That would make it impossible for them to negotiate better loan terms or sell their property without contributing cash to the transaction.

New Home Sales
The Commerce Department today reported that new home sales fell less than expected, and a Standard and Poor's measure of homebuilder stocks rose as much as 6.1 percent.
Sales of new homes fell 0.6 percent to a 530,000 pace from 533,000 in May, a reading higher than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The number of properties on the market dropped by the most in four decades, today's report showed, indicating builders are making some headway in clearing out inventories.
Economists had forecast sales would decline to a 503,000 pace, from a previously reported 512,000 for May, according to the median of 75 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 480,000 to 530,000. The Standard and Poor's Supercomposite Homebuilding Index rose 4.2 percent at 11:14 am, lowering its loss for the past 12 months to 42 percent. Pulte Homes Inc., a builder based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was the biggest gainer, climbing 80 cents, or 7.3 percent, to $11.83 at 11:16 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost 43 percent of their value in the past 12 months.
Doubling Projections

Falling home values, led by states such as Nevada and California that have the biggest default rate, have prompted RealtyTrac to almost double the projected number of foreclosures this year to about 2.5 million, said Rick Sharga, executive vice president for marketing.

``The big variable here is what effect the housing bill now being considered by the Senate is going to have on foreclosure activity in general,'' Sharga said in an interview. ``Based on market conditions themselves, we are nowhere near the end of this trip. Best-case scenario, we're looking at another year of this.''

The housing bill aims to help 400,000 Americans with subprime home loans refinance into 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages backed by the government. The measure passed the House of Representatives and President George W. Bush has said he would sign it.

Subprime mortgages were available to borrowers with bad or incomplete credit histories and default at five times the rate of prime mortgages, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington.

Bank Seizures Rise
Bank seizures in the first half of the year increased by 154 percent to 370,179 from the same period in 2007, RealtyTrac said. Last year's second-quarter data on bank repossessions was not available, according to RealtyTrac.

Forty-eight of 50 states and 95 of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas had year-over-year increases in foreclosure filings in the second quarter, RealtyTrac said.
Nevada was the state with the highest rate. One in every 43 households received a foreclosure notice in the quarter, four times the national average and an increase of 147 percent from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure filings tripled in California, where one in every 65 households was affected, the second-highest rate among states. Arizona had the third-highest rate, with one every 70 households, a more than threefold increase from the second quarter of 2007, RealtyTrac said.
Florida, Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts and Illinois rounded out RealtyTrac's top 10.

Fewer Mortgages Available
Lenders will cut in half the number of mortgages to purchase homes in 2008 compared with two years ago, said Guy Cecala, publisher of the Bethesda, Maryland-based trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

Bank repossessions, or REOs -- meaning ``real estate-owned'' -- accounted for 30 percent of total foreclosure activity in the second quarter, up from 24 percent of the total in the first quarter, RealtyTrac said.

Foreclosures push all home values down by an estimated 6 percent, and will contribute to national prices declining another 15 percent by the end of 2009, Ethan Harris and Michelle Meyer, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. economists in New York, said in a report yesterday.

Uncertainty
``I believe a big part of the problem we're facing in the market right now is uncertainty,'' Sharga said. ``Buyers aren't sure if this is the right time to get in, lenders aren't sure where to lend, investors aren't sure where to put their money in an environment of depreciating assets. The psychology of the market is as responsible as the financial part of the market.''
Seven of the 11 metropolitan areas with the highest rates of foreclosure filings in the second quarter were in California, according to RealtyTrac. The Stockton area, in California's Central Valley, had the highest incidence, with one in 25 households receiving filings.
In Riverside-San Bernardino, known as the Inland Empire, where the California Association of Realtors said home prices plummeted 35 percent in May compared with a year earlier, one in 32 households entered foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac.
Bakersfield, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and San Diego were the other California metro areas in the top 11.

The Las Vegas area, where home values fell 27 percent in May compared with a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, had the third-highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 35 households, RealtyTrac said.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Phoenix and Miami were the other metropolitan areas in RealtyTrac's top 11.

New York filings increased 62 percent from a year earlier to 16,025, with one in every 493 households in a stage of foreclosure, the 30th-highest rate.
New Jersey filings rose 140 percent. One in every 201 households in the state received notice, the 12th-highest rate in the U.S.

By http://www.bloomberg.com:80/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aomtw8.Pro2E&refer=home

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC, AND OFHEO

2008-04-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

News from Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo
Department of Law Department of Law120 Broadway The State Capitol
New York, NY 10271 Albany, NY 12224
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENew York City Press Office / 212-416-8060Albany Press Office / 518-473-5525nyag.pressoffice@oag.state.ny.us

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH FANNIE MAE,FREDDIE MAC, AND OFHEO~Nation’s Two Largest Purchasers of Home Loans Agree to Only BuyMortgages From Banks That Meet Requirements of New Home Value ProtectionCode~Independent Institute Established with $24 Million from Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac to Implement and Monitor Code~Senator Schumer Praises Agreement
NEW YORK, NY (March 3, 2008) – Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo todayannounced that the nation’s two largest purchasers of home loans,Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), have entered intocooperation agreements requiring them to only buy loans from banks thatmeet new standards designed to ensure independent and reliableappraisals.
The agreements, among the New York Attorney General, Fannie Mae,Freddie Mac and their federal regulator, the Office of Federal HousingEnterprise Oversight (OFHEO), also create an independent organization toimplement and monitor the new appraisal standards. Senator CharlesSchumer, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee’s Housing Subcommittee,praised the agreement and the reforms which he has supported.

“With this agreement, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become leadersin transforming the mortgage industry,” said Cuomo. “Now nationalbanks have a clear choice: immediately adopt the new code and clean upappraisal fraud in the mortgage industry or stop doing business withFannie Mae and Freddie Mac – it is that simple.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase roughly 60 percent of allhome loans originated in the United States, have agreed to thefollowing:

● Establishment of the “New Home Valuation Protection Code,”(the “Code”), which creates requirements governing appraisalselection, solicitation, compensation, conflicts of interest andcorporate independence, among other reforms. (Full Code Attached). Underthe new Code:
o Mortgage Brokers will be prohibited from selecting appraisers;
o Lenders will be prohibited from using “in-house” staffappraisers to conduct initial appraisals and
o Lenders will be prohibited from using appraisal managementcompanies that they own or control.
● Banks will be required to adhere to Code. Beginning January 1,2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will require that lenders represent andwarrant that appraisals related to mortgage loans originated on or afterJanuary 1, 2009 conform to the code or they will not be purchased.
● Formation of the “Independent Valuation ProtectionInstitute,” (the “Institute”), a new organization which willimplement and monitor the Code. The Institute, which will be funded with$24 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will also:
o Establish a complaint hotline for consumers nationwide to callif they believe the appraisal process has been tainted or if they havebeen harmed by appraisal fraud.
o Serve as a contact for appraisers themselves if they believetheir independence has been compromised. These complaints will behandled confidentially to protect appraisers from retaliation. TheInstitute will mediate complaints, or can forward them to theappropriate federal or state law enforcement agency or regulator.
o Report publicly on its activities to the New York AttorneyGeneral and OFHEA on a bi-annual basis.
o Appoint a Board of Directors which must be approved by both theNew York Attorney General and OFHEO.

“Today’s agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac begins to setright what had gone so horribly wrong in the mortgage industry –rampant appraisal fraud,” said Cuomo. “The integrity of our mortgagesystem depends on independent appraisals. Again and again ourindustry-wide investigation found that banks were putting pressure onappraisers to drive up the value of loans just to make a quick buck. Webelieve the new standards, and the new independent monitor agreed totoday, can begin to erase this problem from the industry. I want toparticularly thank Senator Schumer for all of his help in readying thisimportant agreement today.”
Senator Schumer worked with OFHEO to gain regulatory approval of theagreement. In January, Schumer wrote a letter to OFHEO Director JamesLockhart seeking the agency's cooperation with Cuomo's negotiations withthe GSEs. The final agreement reached today involves a major provisionof legislation introduced last May by Schumer that would imposefirst-of-its-kind regulations on mortgage brokers.

"This settlement represents one of the first major blows against thetypes of predatory lending that were so prevalent in the mortgagebusiness of the last few years. Appraisal fraud has left millions ofAmericans unable to afford their homes and has created a drag on theAmerican economy. This agreement will reduce the conflicts of interestand economic incentives that made appraisal abuse and fraud so easy andattractive to lenders," Senator Schumer said.
"Accurate, independent appraisals are very important to ensuring thesafety and soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the mortgagemarket," said OFHEO Director James Lockhart. “OFHEO is committed toworking closely with fellow regulators, the Attorney General, FannieMae, Freddie Mac, appraisers, lenders and other market participants toassure that the roll-out of the new code builds upon best practices,recognizes constructive comments to identify further refinements, andavoids unintended consequences."

“We are pleased to work with regulators to do our part to ensuresound, accurate, independent and reliable appraisals,” Fannie MaeGeneral Counsel Beth Wilkinson said. “As the nation’s leadingpurchaser of mortgage loans in the secondary market, Fannie Mae sharesthe interests of consumers in the integrity of the home valuationprocess, which is an important part of a well functioning market.”

"Accurate appraisals are fundamental to Freddie Mac's effective creditrisk management - as evidenced by our leadership in quality controlprograms and assistance with criminal prosecutions of mortgage fraud.The Code of Conduct announced today enhances the independence andaccuracy of the appraisal process. And it builds on our company'slong-standing efforts to fight mortgage fraud by providing strong newprotections for homebuyers, mortgage investors and the housing market.In addition, we look forward to working with the New York AttorneyGeneral, OFHEO, Fannie Mae and other mortgage market participants inlaunching the Independent Valuation Protection Institute. By fundingthe Institute, we are advancing the development and adoption of bestpractices in the appraisal process, " said Freddie Mac Executive VicePresident andGeneral Counsel Robert Bostrom.

For more than a year, the Attorney General’s office has conducted anindustry-wide investigation into mortgage fraud. On November 7, 2007,Cuomo announced he had issued Martin Act subpoenas to Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac seeking information on the mortgage loans the companiespurchased from banks, including Washington Mutual, the nation’slargest savings and loan. The subpoenas also sought information on thedue diligence practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and theirvaluations of appraisals.

The subpoenas came on the heels of the filing of a lawsuit by theAttorney General against First American and its subsidiary eAppraiseIt.The lawsuit, announced on November 1, 2007, detailed a scheme innumerous e-mails showing First American and eAppraiseIT caved topressure from Washington Mutual to use appraisers who provided inflatedappraisals on homes. E-mails also show that executives at First Americanand eAppraiseIT knew their behavior was illegal, but intentionally brokethe law to secure future business with Washington Mutual. Between April2006 and October 2007, eAppraiseIT provided over 250,000 appraisals forWashington Mutual. The lawsuit is still pending, and the industry-wideinvestigation into mortgage fraud continues.

New California Appraisal Law is Good First Step to Protect Appraisers and Homeowners

2008-04-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, Oct. 11, 2007-Last Friday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law, SB 223. This bill is an attempt to reform the system that puts pressure on appraisers to hit a predetermined value for a property, set by the mortgage brokers or homeowners to make a sale go through.

The American Society of Appraisers (ASA) believes that lender pressure is an ongoing problem for appraisers and is committed to supporting legislation to reform fraudulent practices in the mortgage lending industry.

The new law makes it a crime in California for any interested party in a real estate deal to pressure an appraiser to appraise a property for a predetermined amount.

“The new law in California is a good first step.” said Abel Morales, an Accredited Senior Appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers. “It recognizes that appraisers are often pressured from a variety interested parties in a real estate deal and they need to have some form of protection from that.” Morales continues “The system is so flawed that many appraisers risk being blacklisted, not paid for their work, or not being hired again if their appraisals are lower than the desired number.”

The reason it so important to have an unbiased appraisal is because the appraiser is the only objective third party involved in a real estate transaction. The appraiser can perform an important role in protecting the home buyer and financial institution by giving an accurate appraisal of a property’s value without pressure from the parties involved.

“Home buyers need to protect themselves by checking the credentials of everyone involved in the transaction and requesting that their assigned appraiser be state licensed and accredited by a national professional organization,” said Michael H. Evans, a Fellow of the American Society of Appraisers who practices in Chico, Calif. “Appraisers with advanced accreditations have more to lose if they succumb to pressure than appraisers who are new to the field or who only maintain the minimum certification required by law. They also have more experience dealing with this type of pressure and are not as affected by it.”

ASA reminds consumers to hire a qualified and professionally accredited appraiser. For information about real estate appraisals, or to find an accredited appraiser near you, log on to www.appraisers.org or call 1-800-ASA-VALU.

Foreclosure activity increased 9 percent nationally in January

2008-02-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

Foreclosure activity increased 9 percent nationally in January
Based on RealtyTrac U.S. foreclosure-market report

Staff Report
Foreclosure activity up 57 percent from Jan, 2007Bank repossessions (REOs) up 90 percent year over year

IRVINE, Calif. – Feb. 26. RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its January 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 233,001 properties during the month, an increase of 8 percent from the previous month and an increase of nearly 57 percent from January 2007.

“January’s foreclosure numbers demonstrate that foreclosure activity is continuing on its upward trend, substantially increasing from a year ago in many states,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “However, the 8 percent monthly increase in January is not as precipitous as the 19 percent spike we saw in January of 2007, and several key states actually experienced decreasing foreclosure activity from the previous month. It could be that some of the efforts on the part of lenders and the government — both at the state and federal level — are beginning to take effect. The big question is whether those efforts are truly helping homeowners avoid foreclosure in the long term or if they are just temporarily forestalling the inevitable for many beleaguered borrowers.”

Nevada, California, Florida post top state foreclosure rates
Despite a month-over-month drop in foreclosure activity, Nevada continued to document the highest foreclosure rate among the 50 states. Foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 6,087 Nevada properties during the month, a 45 percent decrease from the previous month but still a 95 percent increase from January 2007.California’s January foreclosure rate ranked second highest among the states, and Florida’s January foreclosure rate ranked third highest. Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 were Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Georgia, Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan.

California, Florida, Texas report highest foreclosure totals
Foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 57,158 properties in California in January, the most of any state. The state’s foreclosure activity was up 7 percent from the previous month and up 120 percent from January 2007.Despite a 3 percent month-over-month decrease in foreclosure activity, Florida’s total of 30,178 properties with at least one foreclosure filing was the nation’s second highest state total. The state’s foreclosure activity was up nearly 158 percent from January 2007.The nation’s third highest January total was in Texas, where foreclosure filings were reported on 14,698 properties — a nearly 20 percent increase from the previous month, but a slight decrease from January 2007. The state’s monthly foreclosure rate was below the national average and ranked No. 13 among the states.Ohio, Michigan and Georgia all documented totals of more than 10,000 properties with foreclosure filings reported in January.

Other states in the top 10 in terms of total properties with foreclosure filings reported were Arizona, Massachusetts, Illinois and Colorado.

California and Florida cities dominate top metro foreclosure rates
California and Florida metro areas accounted for eight of the top 10 metro foreclosure rates in January. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area documented the highest January foreclosure rate among the 229 metro areas tracked in the report. The other Florida metro area in the top 10 was Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce, which ranked No. 10. The Stockton, Calif., metro area documented the second highest metro foreclosure rate. Other California metro areas in the top 10 were Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 3, Modesto at No. 4, Merced at No. 5, Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 7 and Bakersfield at No. 9.Other cities in the top 10 were Las Vegas at No. 6 and Greeley, Colo., at No. 8.

Report Methodology
The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the state and national level. Data is also available at the individual county level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report.

America's Rapidly Rising Foreclosure Areas

2008-02-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

America's Rapidly Rising Foreclosure Areas
Matt Woolsey (Forbes.com)

Though delinquencies continue to mount in Detroit, Stockton, Calif., and Las Vegas, markets where the number of foreclosures are relatively low, but rapidly rising, are also causing concern.
Take the Washington, D.C., metro, the Baltimore metro and many spots that fall between the two. While the sheer number of foreclosure filings in Bethesda, Md., (a metro that includes Frederick and Gaithersburg) are about a quarter of those in Detroit, they're up a whopping 1,288% in 2007, according to a RealtyTrac's year-end report, released today. In addition, they're up 574.9% in Washington, D.C., which includes the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and up 544% in the Baltimore metro.

While Project Lifeline, the Bush administration's plan to give delinquent borrowers 30 days to renegotiate the terms of their loans, should help, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson, in announcing the initiative yesterday, said that "the worst is just beginning," as "the loans resetting over the next couple years--that vintage was done under the most lax underwriting standards."

Behind The Numbers RealtyTrac's report measures foreclosure activity, or homes in three phases of foreclosure: properties in default, those with a notice of trustee or foreclosure sale, and homes known as REOs (real estate owned), which have been foreclosed and repurchased by the bank.

These distinctions are especially important following Paulson's announcement Tuesday that the government's Project Lifeline would temporarily halt foreclosures and provide refinancing and rewriting assistance for homeowners in conjunction with JPMorgan Chase (nyse: JPM - news - people ), Wells Fargo (nyse: WFC - news - people ), Countrywide Financial (nyse: CFC - news - people ), Washington Mutual (nyse: WM - news - people ), Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) and Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ), who together hold about 50% of outstanding mortgages.

For example, a homeowner faced with a notice of default--or the subsequent "lis pendens," or suit pending--can still avoid losing his home by restructuring payments or simply catching up on overdue ones. For those with no equity as the result of a zero-down payment or piggy-back loans, it's going to be harder, since they have nothing invested in the home and may find it difficult to work with lenders.

It's important to note that these figures are the percentage change in foreclosures. In absolute terms, foreclosures in Baltimore only represent only 0.7% of the total households, while those in Detroit represent 4.9%.

What's more, foreclosures are not an invention of the last three years. Any jump in foreclosure rates is troubling, though in any healthy market there will be delinquencies.
"I always thought that an acceptable range was 1% to 3%," says Jonathan Miller, research director at Radar Logic, a New York-based real estate firm. Meaning that only a handful of markets on this list are significantly outside of what he calls the normal foreclosure range. "It's definitely a real issue in certain markets, but I think that it's being overhyped overall.

In Depth: America's Rapidly Rising Foreclosure Spots

In places that are beginning to see meteoric rises in foreclosure rates, such as the Washington, D.C., metro, a large share stem from the overbuilt ex-urbs, or commuter towns, where price drops have put people's mortgages into the red. When prices spike and then fall, the first areas affected are the "drive to qualify" exurbs.

"There's been a ton of development, and a lot of people just flat out overpaid in the ex-urbs," says Cullen Watson, a real estate broker and settlement attorney in Washington, D.C. "Those properties have become less valuable, and a lot of people found themselves upside down thanks to 95% or 100% financing."

Compounding the problem, says Watson, are banks asking market rates, or the full amount owed on a mortgage note, at foreclosure auctions, hardly a recipe for a quick sale.
"It's hard to say which bank ... it's all of them," he says. "It's gotten to the point now where I've stopped taking clients to auctions."

Among those cities in deep foreclosure trouble are Stockton, where the 2007 year-end foreclosure rate was up 271.3% over the year before. In Bakersfield, Calif., foreclosures jumped 244.8%. As a matter of perspective, foreclosures in Detroit grew by 68% last year.

Rate Rank Metro Area Foreclosure Filings Properties with Filings %Households % Change from 2006

1 BETHESDA/FREDERICK/GAITHERSBURG, MD
2 ALBANY/SCHENECTADY/TROY, NY
3 WASHINGTON/ARLINGTON/ALEXANDRIA, DC-VA-MD
4 BALTIMORE/TOWSON, MD
5 PROVIDENCE/NEW BEDFORD, RI
6 NEWHAVEN/MILFORD, CT
7 SACRAMENTO, CA
8 STOCKTON, CA
9 NORFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH/NEWPORT NEWS, VA
10 BRIDGEPORT/STAMFORD/NORWALK, CT
11 BAKERSFIELD, CA
12 SARASOTA/BRADENTON/VENICE, FL
13 HARTFORD, CT
14 NEW ORLEANS, LA
15 CAMBRIDGE/NEWTON/FRAMINGHAM, MA
16 BOSTON/QUINCY, MA
17 VENTURA, CA
18 OAKLAND, CA
19 ESSEX, MA
20 RIVERSIDE/SAN BERNARDINO, CA

Plan targets blight from foreclosures

2008-02-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

Plan targets blight from foreclosures
BY JAMES GELUSO (Bakersfield Californian, Feb. 19th)

Bakersfield code enforcers would work with local real estate agents to track foreclosed homes -- in an effort to limit blight -- under a plan approved Tuesday by a City Council committee.
Under the plan, the Bakersfield Association of Realtors would share its data on what homes are in foreclosure. That would help the city watch the properties and track down owners faster, said Phil Burns, city building director.

The plan will likely go to the full council for ratification in March.
Currently, the city uses Kern County's ownership listings, but when someone is foreclosed on, the listings can lag a few months, Burns said. Cleanup notices often go to owners who have been evicted instead of the lenders who have taken ownership.

And when the city tries to get a lender to clean up, it's difficult to penetrate the company's bureaucracy. The local association would help the city identify the local agent handling the property, who would be able to get the authorization to clean up the property faster than the city can through its legal process, Burns said.

The city discarded an earlier idea to create a registry of foreclosed properties. Burns said he and agents decided not to add more registration requirements to the foreclosure process.

Fed Cut: What It Means for Your Mortgage

2008-01-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

On days like this, I think it’s important to go back to the ol’ mortgage primer and figure out exactly what all this news means to you, to your mortgage, to your home equity line and to your home’s financial future. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the 30-year fixed is not tied to short-term treasuries.

Fixed mortgage rates are tied to long-term bond yields that move based on the outlook for the economy and inflation. And guess what? The long-term outlook for the economy isn’t exactly rosy right now.

Today’s rate cut does affect short-term adjustable rate mortgages, but not really as much as you might think. Why? Because this rate cut was already priced into the market, maybe not three quarter's point, but definitely a half-point. So if you are facing a reset on your ARM, you’re in much better shape today than you were just six months ago.

For example, if your rate adjusts Feb. 1st, and your ARM is pegged to the 1-year treasury, than your reset is going to be to 5.25 percent as opposed to the 7.5 percent that it would have been in August. That’s going to make the payment much more manageable.

So does this cut stem the foreclosure crisis? Maybe a bit on the margins, but not really, and here’s why: the bulk of the folks facing foreclosure because they can't make their monthly payments have no equity in their homes and no money to put down on a refinance.

While rates might be lower, this is a market where lenders and investors are much more aware of risk and will gravitate toward borrowers that represent less risk. So many folks will still find themselves in trouble. For people who are having trouble paying the initial rate on the loan, forget it. No help there.

As for those looking to buy a home, that is, get a new mortgage, while ARM rates may be lower, the mortgage landscape is still a far far different tundra than it was just a year ago. You can’t do a stated income loan anymore, and you can’t do 100 percent financing. Tighter standards don’t change with a rate cut.

And I want to add my two cents here about a home equity line of credit. Yes, the rates are lower now, but I really don’t think that means we should all start using our homes as ATM’s again, which is what got us all in trouble in the first place. This is a time to pay off debt, not to gather more. The housing market is still in trouble.

The statement from the Federal Reserve this morning: “incoming information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets.” We all know the price correction in housing is still underway with home prices across the nation (yes, I know, some markets worse than others) expected to fall further, so this is no time to put your home in more hoc. Just my two cents, which I’m putting in the bank as we speak.

by Diana Olick
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/104264/Fed-Cut-What-It-Means-for-Your-Mortgage

California November 2007 Home Sales

2008-01-14T01:04:00.000-08:00

A total of 25,578 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That's down 0.98 percent from 25,832 for October, and down 38.8 percent from 41,809 in November 2006. Last month's sales made for the slowest November in DataQuick's records, which go back to 1988. On a year-over-year basis, sales have declined the last 26 months.

The median price paid for a home last month was $414,000, down 2.4 percent from $424,000 the prior month, and down 11.9 percent from $470,000 for November a year ago. The median peaked last March/April/May at $484,000.

Price declines are greatest in inland areas such as the Central Valley and Riverside County, which absorbed spillover activity during the housing boom.
Prices in some core metro areas are off by a few percent.

DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers cover all sales, new and resale, houses and condos.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions.
Foreclosure activity is at record levels, financing with adjustable-rate mortgages and with multiple mortgages have dropped sharply. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity had edged higher, DataQuick reported.

Data Provided By: http://www.dqnews.com

California's October home sales slide 40%

2007-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 29, 2007 Inman News

Median resale home price falls 9.9%

The rate of sales for single-family, detached resale homes plummeted 40.2 percent in California in October compared to the same month last year, while the median price dropped 9.9 percent the California Association of Realtors trade group reported Wednesday.

And the California Building Industry Association reported that total housing starts in the state fell 30.9 percent from January through October in California compared to the same period last year.

Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the association, said in a statement, "We expect further weakness in sales over the next few months as the liquidity crisis plays out."
The group's Unsold Inventory Index was 16.3 months in October, indicating that it would take an estimated 16.3 months to exhaust the supply of for-sale homes at the October sales pace. The index stood at 6.4 months in October 2006.

A for-sale inventory of about six months is considered to indicate a market that is roughly in equilibrium, with a supply greater than six months generally indicating a buyer's market.
"Financing issues have dogged entry-level buyers since early 2007, but they spilled over into the middle- and upper-tier markets in the last few months," said William E. Brown, president for the Realtors group.

"The decline in sales at the upper end of the market contributed to a significant decline in the statewide median price as even well-qualified borrowers had difficulty securing financing."
The seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate for existing, single-family detached homes totaled 265,030 in October -- this rate is a projection of a monthly sales total over a 12-month period, adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in sales activity. That compares to a sales rate of 443,320 in October 2006.

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California was $497,110 in October, down 9.9 percent from the revised $552,020 median price in October 2006. The median statewide condo price dropped 2.1 percent.

It took a median 59.3 days to sell a single-family home in October 2007, compared with 56.5 days in October 2006, the Realtor group reported.

Freddie Mac reported that 30-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 6.38 percent in October 2007, compared with 6.36 percent in October 2006, and adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 5.68 percent in October 2007 compared with 5.56 percent in October 2006.
Home prices for all housing types decreased in about 86 percent of the 296 cities and communities tracked in a separate report prepared by the association and real estate research company DataQuick Information Systems.

The 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during October 2007 were Newport Beach, at $1,575,000; Santa Barbara, $1,275,000; Cupertino, $1,033,000; Danville, $1,017,500; Los Gatos, $1,005,000; San Carlos, $927,500; Redwood City, $912,000; San Ramon, $835,000; San Clemente, $832,500; and San Mateo, $829,500.

The 10 cities and communities with the greatest median-home-price increases in October 2007 compared to October 2006 were Santa Barbara, 24.4 percent; Arcadia, 21.3 percent; Redwood City, 20.6 percent; Newport Beach, 18.4 percent; San Ramon, 14.4 percent; Cupertino, 11.7 percent; San Carlos, 9.5 percent; Redlands, 8.8 percent; Redondo Beach, 8.7 percent; and Sunnyvale, 7.6 percent.

The 10 cities, city areas and communities with the greatest median home price decreases in October 2007 compared to 2006 were Palm Springs, down 64.6 percent; Los Banos, down 27.7 percent; Elk Grove, down 27 percent; Galt and Stockton, down 26.1 percent; Antioch, down 25.3 percent; Merced, down 25.1 percent; Salinas, down 25 percent; and Walnut Creek and Wildomar, both down 24.9 percent.

San Benito County had the largest drop in home prices from October 2006 to October 2007, falling 27.5 percent; followed by Merced County, down 26.7 percent; Monterey County, down 23 percent; San Joaquin County, down 19 percent; and Madera County, down 17.1 percent.
The three counties tracked in the report that experienced house-price appreciation in October 2007 compared to October 2006 are San Mateo County, up 4.7 percent; San Francisco County, up 2.9 percent; and Santa Clara County, up 2.2 percent.

The California Building Industry Association, in a separate announcement on Wednesday, reported that housing starts, as measured by building permits issued, dropped 28 percent in October compared to October 2006. There were 7,726 building permits issued for housing units in the state in October, according to the report.

The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., market area had the steepest year-over-year drop in building permits from January through October this year compared to the same period last year among markets with 200 or more permits issued.

Housing starts, as measured by building permits issued, dropped 46.3 percent in that market area from January through October this year compared to the same period last year, while falling 39.3 percent in the Bakersfield and Oakland areas, 35.1 percent in the San Diego area, 30.1 percent in the Sacramento area, 27.9 percent in Stockton, 23.5 percent in Modest, 20 percent in Los Angeles, 17.2 percent in Visalia-Porterville, 16 percent in Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, and rising 5.6 percent in Fresno.

Housing starts fell 56.4 percent from October 2006 to October 2007 in Bakersfield -- the steepest drop among markets with 200 or more permits issued in October.
Next on the list was Oakland, with a 48 percent drop; followed by Riverside, with a 43 percent drop; San Diego, down 41.1 percent; Sacramento, down 34.4 percent; Visalia, down 33.7 percent; and Los Angeles, down 32.3 percent. Anaheim was up 9.2 percent, followed by Fresno, up 13.7 percent; Stockton, up 59.6 percent; and Modesto, up 128 percent.
Single-family housing starts dropped 40.7 percent in October compared to October 2006, while multifamily starts dropped 10.3 percent.

Single-family starts dropped 36.4 percent during the first 10 months of 2007 compared to the same period last year, while multi-family starts are down 19.8 percent.
"Most areas saw modest losses in the multifamily sector, with very few experiencing the type of drop-offs evident in the single-family sector," said Alan Nevin, chief economist for the builders' group, in a statement.

He noted that much of the decline in the production of single-family homes this year has occurred in the Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento areas.
The CBIA report is based on data from the Construction Industry Research Board, a nonprofit research center.

Hot Market gets chilly in Bakersfield

2007-10-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hot real estate market gets chilly in Bakersfield

Housing inventory quintuples as boomtown of 2005 returns to Earth

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Just 12 months ago, this sun-baked Southern California city was one of the hottest real-estate markets in the country. With inventories at razor-thin levels, properties would sell in a matter of days, sometimes even hours, as multiple bids poured in on each home. "For Sale" signs were almost nowhere to be found.

Those days now are dust in Bakersfield's gusty winds. The housing stock nearly has quintupled and prices are virtually flat when compared to last year's levels. Home sale time-frames now are measured in months, not days.

"Yeah, we miss those times," Darrell Muhammed, a local agent, said of last year's market.
While average prices have yet to tumble, concern mounts that an ever-increasing housing inventory, coupled with coming hikes for variable rate mortgage holders, could send the market south in a hurry.

Trouble signs are everywhere. At Lennar Corp.'s (LEN:
Lennar Corporation

They compete with dozens of other new houses Lennar is building in later phases of the same development, which agents say makes the older homes tougher to sell. Six of the resales are within view of each other on the same street.

"It's very tough market," said Joginder Gill, the agent trying to sell one of the six houses. "If you look at past history, it's going to go way, way down."

Sudden rise
Tucked into the southeast corner of California's San Joaquin Valley about 90 minutes north of Los Angeles, Bakersfield suddenly became a hot real estate market two to three years ago when prices in the L.A. region skyrocketed out of reach for entry-level buyers. See full story.

Those variable mortgages with low initial interest rates catapulted most homes in the L.A. area past the $500,000 mark. Meanwhile, Bakersfield remained somewhat more affordable with a good selection of homes still under $300,000 for those willing to brave the long-distance commute, or others lucky enough to find work nearby.

The region also captured a lot of interest from investors looking to make a quick buck. As many as one in four homes bought during this time were from out-of-town investors interested mostly in flipping properties, experts say.

The city led the charge of eastern California towns like Fresno, Modesto, Visalia and Merced where home price hikes beat out more high-profile areas to the west such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego in percentage gains.

According to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Bakersfield edged out Las Vegas in the first quarter of 2005 for highest average property growth with a 33.7% increase. Las Vegas was up 33.3%.

More recently, OFHEO ranked Bakersfield 19th and Las Vegas 83rd during its survey for the first quarter of 2006. For the first quarter of 2006, OFHEO said Bakersfield's average home price rose nearly 27% when compared with the year before.
Flat pricing?

Local experts say those figures are outdated.

Gary Crabtree, a local appraiser who compiles a monthly report on Bakersfield market trends, says median home sale prices in the region rose 2% in July compared with the year before.
The time that unsold inventory remains on the market has jumped 400%, from 1.7 months to 8.5 months. And the time homes have spent on the market has more than tripled, from 12 days to 38 days.

Even that last figure can be deceiving, Crabtree says. He thinks agents are playing what he calls the "re-listing game," or taking a property off the market and then putting it back on again so that the "days on market" clock starts anew.

One property he was eyeing spent more than eight months on the market. But through several relistings, it appeared to buyers as though it never spent more than a couple of months up for sale.

Crabtree, though, says the market should be put in perspective. Last year was extraordinary, with property values skyrocketing in the face of high demand and extremely low supply.
"We're back to being normal again," he said. "We're tracking right along with the rest of the state."

Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, said sales are down 30% statewide from what they were a year ago. She said the market is correcting but it's not recession-fueled. The interest rate environment remains favorable.

Simply put, the market that saw 40% jumps in housing prices the past two years has gotten a wake-up call.

"It's been completely unsustainable," she said.

To many, the Bakersfield situation was inevitable.

"Why shouldn't there be retrenchment in housing?" said Stuart Gabriel, director of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "It's appropriate that housing take a breather."

Competing with builders
Karen Siggel probably wishes it wasn't happening now.
She's tried to sell her spacious, two-year-old custom home in an east Bakersfield development for almost five months now. She's competing not only with other resale homes, but the builder in the neighborhood, Corky McMillan Companies, is offering incentives to move the new homes it's building.

So she's looking to do the same, carrying some of the closing costs for buyers, as well as other options.

"We've drastically lowered the price, too," she said. Corky McMillan officials didn't return phone calls.

Many agents insist the Bakersfield market isn't crashing. To them, it's simply behaving like a normal market with a reasonable supply of homes - more than 2% of the housing market compared with last year's levels that were a fraction of a percent.

"It's what I would say is balanced," said Don Cohen, president of the Bakersfield Association of Realtors. "You're seeing what I saw in the '90s but you haven't seen since 2000."

Chuck Doremus, a longtime Bakersfield agent, said sellers are getting a reality check.

"We're seeing people put out their price based on what things have sold for," he said.

Others, however, wonder whether the Bakersfield real estate market adjusted too quickly and will keep heading down. Agent Ryan McDonald said the jump in inventory is disturbing.
"I don't think it's normalized," he said. "I definitely think it's reverted to the buyers."

Price cuts
Gill, the real estate agent trying to sell the home in the Lennar tract, says it was about a year ago that the market started turning. He's about to take over as agent for one home that was put on the market a year ago for $950,000 -- a high price for the region. It, like many other homes, has been reduced several times. He's about to re-list it for $785,000.

Another house listed in late 2005 was on the market eight months. It had to be reduced from $390,000 to $345,000.

The Artisan/Terra Vista home sits on a street where five other houses are on the market. It was an investment vehicle that the owner now is trying to flip for a profit, but may end up having to cut expectations.

Complicating his job is the fact that Lennar keeps building, as do other homebuilders in the area.
"People like to go to the new homes," Gill said.

Lennar spokesman Marshall Ames said in an e-mail that "we do not comment on individual markets in between our quarterly conference calls [with analysts]."

Lennar is seeking anywhere from $365,555 to $461,555 for homes ranging in size from 2,148 to 2,969 square feet. It has 19 homes listed as available for sale on its Web site, but it may find it difficult to sell those.

Just a few blocks away, a tract built by Centex Corp. (CTX: is offering a wider range of home sizes at lower price points. A home at 1,821 square feet starts at $279,990 while the largest Centex offering measures 3,518 square feet and tops out at $433,990.

Centex officials didn't return phone calls.

No building slowdown
Despite the more competitive climate, it doesn't seem as if builders intend to slow down at all. Jim Eggert, a city planner, says there only are about 300 to 350 fewer building permits taken out throughout Bakersfield when compared with last year.

They're still out building, but I don't know if they're selling," Eggert said. "These prices have to come down a little bit. They have to."

One impetus for builders is that the region's population continues to grow. Metropolitan Bakersfield had 451,800 residents at the beginning of 2005. That grew to 467,900 a year later and is expected to reach 483,800 on Jan. 1, Eggert said.

Does it all mean that current trends will continue to snowball, sending the Bakersfield market crashing? The next 12 months should be revealing, said Crabtree, the appraiser.
He said the bulk of variable-rate loans issued three years ago will start to mature. That means buyers will start paying several hundred dollars more each month for their homes.

"I do think we're in for a period of some foreclosures in 2007," Crabtree said. A flood of resold homes could also hit the market.

"It could very well be that some of these people are looking at these interest rate increases and are trying to get out," he said.

City got financial bump during boom

2007-09-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Officials planned for reversal, spent funds on one-time expenses

BY VANESSA GREGORY, Californian staff writere-mail: vgregory@bakersfield.com Saturday, Sep 1 2007 8:45 PM

Last Updated: Saturday, Sep 1 2007 8:51 PM
As new homes went up in Bakersfield during the recent real estate boom, so did city revenues.

Bakersfield expects to take in $63 million in property taxes for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
The taxable value of Kern County property increased 12 percent for that period, according to the assessor-recorder.

Sales tax revenues -- the single largest contributor to the city's general fund -- spiked as well, rising $11.7 million, or 21 percent, between fiscal years 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Then the real estate market dipped, and sales tax revenues fell by about 5 percent to $63 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to city estimates.
"We expected it," said the city's finance director, Nelson Smith.

Put together, sales and property taxes contribute $130 million to the city's $175 million budget, he said.

They fund the police and fire departments, Public Works, Recreation and Parks and other city services.

The city funneled most of the real estate windfall into one-time capital projects, such as road improvements, Smith said.

"We don't want to commit ourselves to ongoing annual costs if we aren't going to get ongoing revenues," he said.

But the city did hire new employees in recent years.

During the building boom, strapped city staffers worked weekends to keep up with the flood of building permit requests pouring into the city.

"We staffed up," said Planning Director Jim Movius.

He expects the city will manage to keep its new hires as the market cools, in part by bringing projects outsourced to consultants back to city staff.

While the building permit requests have slowed, the city continues to be busy and is now working on 18 environmental impact reports -- a record number, Movius said.
The city also beefed up the police force and firefighting staff, according to Assistant City Manager John Stinson.

Statewide, the real estate boom gave a much-needed boost to local governments, said Bill Higgins, senior staff attorney with the Sacramento-based League of California Cities.
"We kind of caught up," Higgins said. "We've been playing catch-up over the past couple of years because housing hasn't been paying for itself, especially lower- and moderate-priced housing, in connection to the amount of services they consume."

The incremental property tax increases allowed under California's Proposition 13 mean many older homes consumed more services than they paid for in taxes, he said.
Today's leveling off in the housing market won't necessarily batter local property tax bases, Higgins said.

The assessment roll -- which is used to determine property taxes -- is unlikely to drop, even if property values were to fall by 15 percent, said Assistant Assessor Tony Ansolabehere.
But a worsening economy could strain local governments in coming years.

"In downturns, there's a greater need for public services," Higgins said. "The pull
is on the demand side more than it is on the supply side."

Kern County New Home Sales Prices

2007-09-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Kern County New Home Sales Prices reach Thirty Six Percent in the $250,000 - $300,000 Range

MarketPointe Realty Advisors(WebWire) 9/7/2007 1:08:58 PM

Kern County, California- In the second quarter of 2007, sales in Kern County ranged from a low of $192,900 for a 1,095 square foot detached home in McFarland, to $659,990 for a 3,003 square foot detached home in Bakersfield. According to ResidentialTrends quarterly publication by Marketpointe Realty Advisors, Inc., an analysis of sales by price range shows that the largest percentage of sales (36 percent) occurred in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, with the $300,000 to $350,000 range capturing 26 percent. There were only 13 sales or 2 percent priced under $200,000, of which three of the sales were attached, while on the other end of the spectrum, 5 percent of the sales were priced over $400,000.

Arvin, McFarland, and Rosamond had positive price movement this quarter, while over the last year only Rosamond has experienced positive price movement. In Bakersfield, the detached weighted average price decreased 10 percent this quarter and is down 6 percent over the last year.

Fed cut could give housing market a boost?

2007-09-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Fed cut could buoy housing markets
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK -- The Federal Reserve's aggressive half-point cut Tuesday could provide support for a slumping housing market.

A quarter-point drop had already been priced into the market for Treasury bills and other instruments tied to mortgage rates, according to Richard DeKaser, chief economist for National City Corp. The deeper cut means mortgage rates may have a little more room to fall, giving support to prices.

Home prices are expected to slump through 2008

The Fed Funds rate affects a range of consumer loans including home equity and mortgages. Lower mortgage rates would add to the number of home buyers able to afford to make purchases, increasing demand for properties and buoying home prices. Buyers generally care less about the actual purchase price than they do about the size of their payments. If rates drop, so will monthly debt obligations

Interest rates for conforming loans -- those of no more than $417,000 -- are already reasonably low, averaging 6.31 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate loan.
But there's an important class of loans that might benefit from the big cut: the high-ticket home mortgages known as non-conforming or jumbo loans. These loans have no guaranteed secondary market because they exceed the $417,000 cap, and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will not buy them.

With investors wary about any loan perceived as carrying the least bit of risk, jumbo rates have risen in recent months. They carry rates about a full point higher than conforming loans. Jumbos are especially important in high-priced housing markets such as New York, California , Washington D.C. and Boston.

Jumbo rates may come down if the cut makes consumers more confident, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.

However, the real problem in the housing market is not interest rates, according to Keith Gumbinger, vice president for HSH Associates, a mortgage industry publisher. It is that there is not enough money available for making loans.

"The liquidity problem hasn't changed," Gumbinger said. "The primary issue is trust between buyers and holders of debt." Investors holding worthless or heavily discounted paper are not eager to buy more.

As a result, Gumbinger said problems in the housing market problems are too entrenched for a Fed rate drop to have an immediate impact.

Trust can take time to rebuild. Something that might speed the rebuilding process is better-than-expected earnings from the major Wall Street banks. Tuesday, Lehman Brothers' reported higher-than-forecasted profit, which allayed fears about the wallop that the mortgage crisis may inflict on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns are due to report earnings later this week.

Home prices in many parts of the country remain out of reach for average Americans, leading to slow sales and lengthening inventories of houses on the market. Also adding to listings is a flood of new foreclosures hitting the market.

That inventory is weighing heavily on housing markets, according to Zandi, and much of it will have to sell through before prices start to rise again.

It didn't help market confidence that venerated ex-Fed head Alan Greenspan came out and opined on the possibility of double-digit housing price declines, according to Dean Baker, an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy.

"That has to be very worrisome for anyone lending into these markets," said Baker.

Regional Spotlight: Bakersfield, Calif.-area real estate professionals face tough market positively

2007-08-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, July 18, 2007—(MCT)—The homes are no longer selling themselves.But local real estate professionals admit no fear. Surviving in a slow market just takes experience and a few solid business tactics, they say.

“The companies that are successful are the ones that do good business, regardless of whether the market is up or down,” said broker Scott Tobias.

He had enough confidence in that principle to strike out on his own in June, leaving Watson Realty ERA to open Scott Tobias Real Estate. He now manages a small staff that he thinks is hungry for guidance in a tough market.

Houses still sell if they are priced right, said Tobias, a 30-year veteran of the real estate business. He tells his agents to be wary of taking overpriced home listings. He holds weekly meetings to pour over the latest statistics on sales and housing inventory.“You have to know the market’s going down,” Tobias said.

Agent Jon Busby, of Bakersfield Premier Realty, was equally adamant about the importance of accurate pricing. Busby said most sellers are realistic, but others are “trying to latch on to an equity amount that’s no longer there.”

On the flip side, buyers have gotten pickier, he said. And some have unrealistic expectations of scoring nonexistent bargains.

Other firms have downsized. Scott Rivera Real Estate Team released a receptionist and a marketing staffer.

“We do more with less,” president and broker Scott Rivera said. “You have to, to keep it profitable.” In addition to good pricing, Rivera advocates aggressive marketing. Color fliers, advertising, an enhanced presence on REALTOR.com and a nightly television show, “The Best Buys of Bakersfield”, all help his company to sell homes faster, he said.McKinzie Nielsen Real Estate lost some of its agents as the market softened.

Many in town who snapped up real estate licenses during the boom were unprepared, said partner Karen McKinzie.

“They didn’t have a true conceptual idea of how difficult this business is, and some of them went away,” she said.

When McKinzie opened the residential arm of her firm with partner Dave Nielsen in 2004, she could hardly hire agents as the market went wild. And sometimes the wait for an appraisal was three weeks.

“It was just a different set of challenges,” McKinzie said. “The job wasn’t any easier.” The new work includes a lot of expectations management, McKinzie said.

Sellers have to understand that a house might take a bit longer to sell and that it won’t garner as much as it might have just two months earlier.

Experience handling foreclosures for banks has helped broker Darrell Sparks make up for diminished standard sales. He estimates that foreclosures make up about 50% or 60% of his business now. But he cautions against jumping into the field just because foreclosures are increasing.

“The foreclosure business is not something you just kind of sign up for,” said Sparks, who runs Sparks Realty. “It’s something you handle for the bank in both the good times and the bad times.” Working for the bank requires delicate negotiations, like making sure previous owners leave the property in good condition, he said. Then there are the “trash outs,” where Sparks arranges to clean up a home left littered with junk.

One of Tobias’ agents, Denise Martin, is focusing on what she considers the basics of her profession: staying in touch with past clients to gain new ones. Then she attends to the details with sellers. No musty cigarette smells, no trash — a house has to stand out, she said.
“I’ve got people out planting flowers, greening up the grass and making the inside look nice,” Martin said.

Copyright © 2007, The Bakersfield CalifornianDistributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Skyrocketing foreclosure rate ripples across industry

2007-07-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

Skyrocketing foreclosure rate ripples across industry

Posted 7/25/07

BAKERSFIELD - The skyrocketing foreclosure rate in Bakersfield is rippling across the real estate industry.

Many home buyers are staying on the sidelines until the market corrects itself, and home sellers are caught in a market that could be several years away from staging a comeback.

A trustees sale in downtown Bakersfield has homes that have been foreclosed on the auction block.

It’s something we’re seeing more and more these days. The auctioneer asked that we not use his name.

“There's a lot of over encumbered properties going to sale,” he said, “and a lot of people are struggling to make a profit on these sales. I get a lot of people showing up, but most of them go away empty handed. There are quite a few foreclosures going on right now and it seems like it's increasing.”

The numbers tell the story. In the second quarter of 2006, there were just eight single family home foreclosures.

Second quarter of 2007, there were 461 foreclosures—nearly six times the foreclosure rate for all of California.

The Daily Report tracks the housing market in Bakersfield, and Anne Marino, the owner, has an opinion on what’s behind the downward spiral.

“I think a lot of borrowers were naive, young kids and older folks excited about getting a new home, and they fell for the fancy financing,” said Marino. “We call it creative financing.”
Marino’s referring to tactics employed by lenders during the housing boom.

Adjustable rate mortgages and 100 percent financing designed to help cash-poor borrowers in pursuit of the American Dream.

Now, countless homeowners are living real estate nightmares.

“You have a buyer who's not really ready to purchase a home, being offered to buy more home than he can purchase on terms he can afford when it starts, but if there's any hiccup, or when the rate goes up, they can no longer afford the home,” said Real Estate attorney Richard Monje.

What does the spike in foreclosures mean to you? It depends on whether you’re in the market to buy or sell, but in both cases, most analysts agree—mounting foreclosures are depressing home prices.

“If you're selling right now, you're going to experience delays in how long it will take to sell,” Monje said, “and if you have pressure to move, because of a transfer or something, you're going to drop the price ... and now you've sort of set a market for everyone else.”

Monje and other analysts agree that with all things considered with Bakersfield’s slumping real estate market, it is a buyer’s market.

“I think it's a pretty good time to buy,” Monje said. “Prices may go down more, but there's a good selection right now, and you can wait, and maybe prices will go down, but you'll be left with what's left.”

As for the person looking to upgrade in a home, the upside is there’s a lot of inventory to choose from.

Prices are going down, but lenders are getting tougher and the creative financing craze we saw during the housing boom is less creative with more qualifying guidelines.

July 25, 2007 9:00 PM
Posted By: brynn galindo

Real estate market perks up

2007-07-12T07:09:00.001-07:00

Real estate market perks up

The clouds may be breaking over Bakersfield's gloomy winter real estate market, though the number of home sales has tumbled in recent months.

About 1,380 existing houses were sold in the first three months of 2006, a 13.2 percent drop from last quarter, according to a report released this week by local appraiser Gary Crabtree. The decline was even larger when compared to the same time last year, showing a 24.7 percent drop.

The dip in sales mirrors what's been happening throughout the state and country, Crabtree said.
"It wasn't like Bakersfield was the Lone Ranger," he said.

Bakersfield's median house price also took a hit during the winter months, dropping by about 6 percent, Crabtree said. March's median price was $295,000.

But new signs of growth this spring have local real estate agents hopeful. February and March brought modest home price increases, but agents say the phones are starting to ring again.

"The buyers have started calling and coming out," said agent Nancy Harper with McKinzie Nielsen Real Estate. "I'm actually very encouraged, but I do know that it's going to require a little more patience."

It's a matter of getting sellers to price their houses realistically and coaxing nervous buyers back into the saddle, Harper said.

Not everyone's convinced, however, that Bakersfield's current prices are here to stay.
The plunge in sales and rise in the number of homes on the market -- currently about 2,900 -- should be driving prices down, said Robin Ablin, owner-broker of RSC Realty.
Houses are now staying on the market an average of 45 days, up from 26 days last year, according to Crabtree's report.

People just haven't been calling, Ablin said. He recently had to reduce the asking price of a well-kept house in east Bakersfield's Hillcrest neighborhood by roughly $15,000 because only four people had looked at it since September.

Even if prices dip, though, demand will grow again, he said.

"As long as people keep moving here, Bakersfield's going to keep growing," Ablin said.
Commuters from Southern California will keep turning to Kern County as an affordable option, said Russ Valone, president of San Diego-based MarketPointe Realty Advisors. A leveling in prices is healthy, he said.

Buyers now have more to choose from and won't be entangled in bidding wars. Local agents say sellers need to set more realistic asking prices.

Bakersfield's market was long undervalued, and houses have reached a price where they should be, said agent Alice Profeta with Watson Realty.

"(Buyers) might as well go out there and buy now while we have a decent interest rate," she said.

An agent from Florida recently told Profeta, "It took longer to sell a house than it does to have a baby," she said. Compared to that, Bakersfield's still in good shape.

BY MISTY WILLIAMS, Californian staff writere-mail: mwilliams@bakersfield.com Friday, Apr 21 2006 10:10 PM

Bakersfield & Kern County History and Location

2007-07-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Bakersfield & Kern County History and Location

Bakersfield, incorporated in 1898, is located in the County of Kern and is the county seat.

The City of Bakersfield covers approximately 114 sq. miles, (metro area is 224 sq. Miles) and is 492 ft. above sea level.

It is located at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. The valley is partially surrounded by three mountain ranges.

The Temblor Range is to the west, the Tehachapis to the south and the Sierra Nevadas to the east. The Kern River flows through the valley adding natural beauty to the area.

Bakersfield was designated an All America City in 1990 by the National Civic League.

Source: Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce

Bakersfield, CA Real Estate Market Bakersfield

2007-07-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Bakersfield, CA Real Estate Market Bakersfield
by http://www.real-estate-bakersfield-kern-county.com/
7/4/2007

California is located in between two of the biggest cities in the state – Los Angeles and Fresno.

The city has experience economic and social growth over the past ten years and has become comparable to other large American cities. The real estate market in Bakersfield is currently a buyers market. The number of buyers exceeds the number of sellers in the area. Additionally, there are a large number of houses on the market right now. This gives the buyers a number of choices when they are choosing a home. Prices have been falling during recent years, which also works in favor of buyers.

In Bakersfield real estate, houses have been staying on the market longer. This is due in part to the fact that there buyers have so many different choices of houses in the area. They do not feel pressure to sign a contract or close a deal because there is a great chance that they will find something better in another part of down. Sellers find themselves forced to bring prices down. In recent years, there is been a sizeable amount of appreciation on Bakersfield real estate. Because of this, sellers are still able to make profits even when they have to reduce the price of their offerings. Even though buyers have such a tight control over the market, there investors still have an opportunity to make a profit on Bakersfield real estate.

Investors that are looking for get-rich-quick deals won’t find much success in this area. On the other hand, the investor that is willing to put a little extra time and effort into Bakersfield real estate can receive sizable profits. Both investors and home sellers alike can sell Bakersfield real estate by making sure that it is priced right. Since buyers have so many choices for real estate, they will be quickly turned away by prices that are too high. Sellers will be forced to drop prices leaving potential buyers wondering why the priced has been dropped. Even when you drop the price of the property, buyers will shy away from homes that have stayed on the market for too long. Whenever a piece of real estate stays on the market for too long it becomes stagnant. This makes the property difficult to sell. The right pricing is vital for selling Bakersfield real estate.

The best way to price Bakersfield real estate is by comparing to other homes that have sold in the area. Many investors and sellers are inclined to price Bakersfield real estate based on the price of homes currently on the market. However, this isn’t the best way to determine the price of your property. Since buyers have control of the Bakersfield real estate market, you must make sure that you price homes according to what the buyers want.

Don’t let what’s going on in other parts of the Bakersfield real estate market fool you into thinking that you can’t make money in this area. The appreciation of homes counters the control that buyers have on the market.

USA Home sales hit slowest pace in 4 years

2007-07-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

USA Home sales hit slowest pace in 4 years

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER Monday, Jun 25 2007 3:39 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jun 25 2007 3:59 PM

Sales of existing homes fell for a third straight month in May, dropping to the lowest level in four years as the median sales price declined for a record 10th consecutive month.

In a troubling sign for the future, the inventory of unsold homes shot up to the highest level in 15 years, meaning more downward pressure on prices in the months ahead until the inventory glut is reduced.

Sales fell by 0.3 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. Sales now stand 10.3 percent below where they were a year ago.

The median price of an existing home sold last month fell to $223,700, down 2.1 percent from a year ago. It marked the 10th straight price decline compared with a year ago, the longest stretch on record.

After rising more than 100 points earlier in the day, the Dow Jones industrial average lost those gains to finish down 8.21 points at 13,352.05.

The drop in home sales was in line with expectations, providing relief on Wall Street where analysts had been braced for an even worse showing.

Economists predicted home prices would likely head lower in the months ahead because of continued troubles in reducing the stockpile of unsold homes, which rose 5 percent in May to 4.43 million units. That was an 8.9 months supply at the May sales pace, a level that has not been seen since July 1992, the last time the country went through a serious housing slump.
"The only way we are going to chip away at this Mount Everest-sized pile of inventory is by price cuts and so far, sellers haven't been aggressive enough," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research. "Don't look for a lasting bottom in the housing market anytime soon."
The sales decline was led by a 3.4 percent drop in the South. Sales also fell in the West, dropping 0.8 percent. Sales rose by 5.8 percent in the Northeast and 0.7 percent in the Midwest.
Economists predicted further sales declines in coming months as housing is affected by recent troubles in subprime mortgages, which have caused banks and other lenders to raise their qualification standards, making it harder for potential buyers to obtain financing. Rising mortgage defaults also mean more homes dumped on a glutted market.

Some analysts said they believed the once high-flying housing market was going through a crisis of confidence. Sales of both new and existing homes set records for five-straight years, prompting what many believe was a speculative bubble in some parts of the country as investors rushed in to buy properties in hopes of a quick resale to take advantage of home prices that were climbing at double-digit rates.

Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the Realtors, noted that household formation had slowed. He said that implied many people had decided to put off buying a home and were doubling-up in rental units or moving back home with parents.

"It appears some buyers are simply waiting for more signs of stability before they get serious about getting into the market," he said. "The lack of buyers' confidence is a major factor in the lower sales."

He said activity in the existing home sales market, which accounts for about 86 percent of annual sales, would continue to suffer until builders were more successful in trimming their production levels for new homes, which make up the other 14 percent of annual home sales.
The National Association of Home Builders reported earlier this month that builder sentiment dropped in June to the lowest reading since February 1991, reflecting the spreading troubles with subprime mortgages, which go to borrowers with weak credit histories.

Trimming their forecasts, the Realtors now expect existing home sales will fall by 4.6 percent this year, down from a previous forecast of a 2.9 percent drop. They expect the median price of a home to fall by 1.3 percent this year, which would be the first annual price decline on record.
Adding to the problems in housing, mortgage rates have recently begun to rise, although they remain well below their historic averages. According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for 30-year mortgages was 6.26 percent in May, up from 6.18 percent in April.

Not all doom and gloom for local real estate

2007-06-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

Not all doom and gloom for local real estate
Slow but steady job growth keeps some construction going

BY JENNY SHEARER, Californian staff writere-mail: jshearer@bakersfield.com Saturday, Jun 9 2007 8:30 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Jun 9 2007 8:33 PM

What's up with Bakersfield's housing market?

New home construction has slowed, but it hasn't stopped.

Where there's job growth, there's new home construction, said Delores Conway, a real estate economist at the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California. Bakersfield had 5 percent job growth in 2005 and about 4 percent to 41/2 percent in 2006.
Bakersfield's job growth has dipped to 3 percent year over year. But that's still significant, Conway said, ahead of the national average, which is about 1 percent.

From January 2000 to April 2007, Kern's workforce has grown 19 percent, from 287,900 to 342,400, state labor figures show.

Sectors such as service, professional services and government have roughly kept pace with the county labor force's growth.

Construction jobs have nearly quintupled that growth. Meanwhile, farming jobs have decreased.
As job growth has tapered slightly, so has new construction.

The number of single-family home building permits filed in the first quarter of 2007 was 1,187, compared with 1,874 in the first quarter of 2006, a 37 percent decline, according to the Construction Industry Research Board, a nonprofit that tracks statewide building activity.
Phil Burns, Bakersfield's building director, said some residential developers are holding off pulling building permits or delaying their projects.

As of May 31, 883 permits have been pulled this year. Burns said 1,692 permits were issued during the same period in 2006.

Statistics show sales of existing homes in Kern County have dipped.

First quarter 2007 sales were about 800, compared with 1,230 in the first quarter of 2006, Conway said.

In April, 204 new homes were sold in Bakersfield, compared with 256 homes in April 2006, according to information from Gary Crabtree, a local real estate appraiser.

The new home median price for April was $297,250 compared with $342,000 in April 2006.
When the number of people buying homes decreases, builders reduce "the numbers of new homes that they are building to match the reduced demand," Conway said.

Dale Casey, division office president of Standard Pacific Homes in the Central Valley, said the company is building more than 600 homes here. The national builder has been in Bakersfield since March 2005.

"We're here to stay in Bakersfield," Casey said.

Although the company isn't doing so now, "we might sell some lots and reinvest somewhere else in Bakersfield or trade some lots with another builder," Casey said.

James Manley, a Santa Monica-based developer, said he believes Bakersfield may add 3,500 to 4,000 units a year, which he sees as sustainable.

"We like Bakersfield. (It has) affordable housing, reasonable government," Manley said.
Manley plans to build nearly 800 homes along Panama Lane, closer to Highway 43.
But his construction dates may change depending on the market.

"Our best guess is the marketplace in Bakersfield will be right in 2008 and 2009 to bring our product online," Manley said.

A commercial real estate executive with Castle & Cooke said there's a demand for retailers.
"Buildings that have been empty for quite some time (are) being remodeled for new tenants coming to town" and for businesses looking to expand, said Bill Sampson, senior vice president, commercial properties.

In December 2002, Bakersfield's commercial vacancy rate was 9.9 percent, Vincent Roche said, and 11.6 percent in southwest Bakersfield. Roche is senior vice president, retail properties at CB Richard Ellis.

By December 2006, Bakersfield's overall vacancy rate was 4 percent and 2.2 percent in the southwest.

These figures don't include the Valley Plaza or East Hills malls, Roche said.
Commercial properties take longer to build because of required environmental reports and the entitlement process -- zoning, city council approval, air quality and traffic studies. Those approvals can take two to four years, Roche said, or even longer.

Castle & Cooke sees a strong pace to the residential market. "Although the market has changed considerably, individuals are still seeking to purchase new homes," said Renee Massey, communications manager.

A development executive with the Corky McMillin Cos. says the Bakersfield market is a good one.

"I have had my license for about 20 years," said Carrie Williams, vice president for new home sales. "Besides the last four to five years, Bakersfield has never really experienced that type of a market. The market that we are in right now feels like a more normal, typical market."
The slowdown in the housing market doesn't concern Stanley Grady, the city's development services director. He predicts Bakersfield will see more cottage projects, smaller lots with common areas, such as what Castle & Cooke is doing with its University Park development at Gosford Road and Ming Avenue.

"There's plenty of time for a housing cycle to go through its adjustments and readjustments to market conditions," he said. "It's never on or off. There's always a cycle; we don't know how long this one is going to last."

How to choose a Real Estate Appraiser

2007-04-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

People who want to get a professional estimate done on the market value of a piece of property will often choose to hire a real estate appraiser. Because of the importance of getting an accurate and detailed appraisal in the selling or purchasing of real estate, it is important to choose a qualified and experienced real estate appraiser. When choosing a real estate appraiser, you should look for one that has a large amount of professional experience and that meets all national licensing requirements and professional standards for the appraisal industry. You should try to avoid choosing an appraiser that has been recommended or is affiliated with you real estate agent because of the conflict of interest issues that can often arise. Because getting an accurate estimate of your real estate’s market value is an important step in determining your property’s listing price, it is important to choose a reliable and independent real estate appraiser. Before choosing a real estate appraiser, you should make sure that they have the qualifications and experience that is needed to do a good job. Some things to look for when choosing a real estate appraiser are whether or not they are a member of a professional organization such as the Office of Real Estate Appraisers (OREA), or various state and local certification board. Since most professional real estate appraisers will be a member of some professional organization, you should find out exactly how much professional experience they have in real estate appraisals. Real estate appraisers with many years of professional experience will usually have a track record of providing accurate and detailed appraisals.

Because the process of appraising a piece of real estate is usually done at the location of the property, most appraisers will be able to meet their clients at their homes or offices in order to discuss their services. Although some real estate appraisers may have offices where they do research on a property and customers can come and discuss their needs, most interactions with a real estate appraiser will happen at the location of the property. When meeting with a real estate appraiser to discuss your needs and their services, take note of how helpful they are in answering your questions regarding the appraisal process and the services you will receive for your payment. Real estate appraisers may offer a variety of different features associated with their services, so you should find out before hand exactly what you will receive in regards to your appraisal. Some real estate appraisers will offer digital signatures and color photographs along with their final report, as well as computer generated floor plans, replacement cost reports, and email and electronic delivery of appraisal reports and related documents. Depending on your specific appraisal needs, you should find out exactly what services a real estate appraiser offers before deciding to hire them. Because getting an accurate and detailed appraisal is an important part in determining the market value of your property, choosing an experienced and independant real estate appraiser is an important decision.