Scary graphs showing what is still to come in the foreclosure market…
And another, equally scary chart…
We’ve all heard about short sales and how incredibly hard and frustrating they are, but Wachovia is swooping in to save the day! Their model is wonderful, and it’s quick and painless to get a short sale through their process! We can get them done and closed in approximately 30 days – with minimal hit to your credit!
Contact me to find out how!
The hot topic in the real estate market right now is loan modification. It has it’s place, but unless your lender gives you a principal reduction, it’s probably not going to help you out much. This site is a government sanctioned site that can help you determine whether you qualify for loan modification:
http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/
Whatever you do, don’t pay anyone to modify your loan for you! See this site for advice that can help you avoid the scams that are out there:
http://dre.ca.gov/cons_protect.html
As for the up front fees the companies are trying to charge?? See this link:
http://dre.ca.gov/cons_adv_fees_alert.html
As always, feel free to contact me for more information on this, or any other real estate related questions.
Bringing the Dream of Homeownership Within Reach
As part of its plan to stimulate the U.S. housing market and address the economic challenges facing our nation, Congress has passed legislation that grants a tax credit of up to $8,000 to first-time home buyers.
Here is more information about how the 2009 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit can help prospective home buyers become part of the American dream.
Who Qualifies?
First-time home buyers who purchase homes between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009.
To qualify as a “first-time home buyer” the purchaser or his/her spouse may not have owned a residence during the three years prior to the purchase.
Which Properties Are Eligible?
The 2009 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit may be applied to primary residences, including: single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops.
How Much Will the Credit Be?
The maximum allowable credit for home buyers is $8,000. Each home buyer’s tax credit is determined by two factors:
The price of the home—the credit is equal to 10% of the purchase price of the home, up to $8,000.
The buyer’s income—single buyers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000—may receive the maximum tax credit.
If the Buyer(s)’ Income Exceeds These Limits, Can He/She Still Get a Credit?
Yes, some buyers may still be eligible for the credit.
The credit decreases for buyers who earn between $75,000 and $95,000 for single buyers and between $150,000 and $170,000 for home buyers filing jointly. The amount of the tax credit decreases as his/her income approaches the maximum limit. Home buyers earning more than the maximum qualifying income—over $95,000 for singles and over $170,000 for couples are not eligible for the credit.
Will the Tax Credit Need to Be Repaid?
No. The buyer does not need to repay the tax credit, if he/she occupies the home for three years or more. However, if the property is sold during the three-year period, the credit will be recouped on the sale.
from www.realtor.org
82 homes participated in the garage sale! *82* That’s crazy! I hope you all made tons of money out there! Stay tuned for next year – perhaps we should do it in tandem with the Summerset annual sale?? Or do you prefer having your own?
OK guys – huuuuge garage sale tomorrow. Those of you who know me know I do this every year. Last year I had 77 homes that participated! It was truly amazing. I’ll have balloons, signs, etc everywhere – you can’t miss us! It will be in the neighborhood behind the Safeway at Balfour and Fairview. The bounding streets would be Balfour, Fairview, Arlington, and Claremont. Come out and pick up some bargains!
Taken from www.earthday.net — check it out to see what YOU can do to make a difference!
History of Earth Day
Earth Day — April 22 – each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Apollo 13, the Beatles’ last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, the birth of Mariah Carey, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina — an incident not acknowledged for 18 years.
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Participant in Earth Day, 1970. |
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It was into such a world that the very first Earth Day was born.
Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. ” “It was a gamble,” he recalls, “but it worked.”
At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.
Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.
On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
Denis Hayes – Honorary Chair, Earth Day Network
Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.
Sen. Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest honor given to civilians in the United States — for his role as Earth Day founder.
As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues on to the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Events varied: A talking drum chain traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, for example, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA.
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EPA Administrator William K. Reilly with former Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day 1990. Photo: EPA History Office |
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Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world ’round wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.
Now, the fight for a clean environment continues. We invite you to be a part of this history and a part of Earth Day. Discover energy you didn’t even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grass roots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.
Learning to Do Historical Research: A Primer for Environmental Historians and Others
So, I guess since I am now linking to this blog from my web site, I’d better start updating it more than once a year 
Have you heard the news? It’s a sellers market in East County now! There are, as of today, 348 homes pending in Brentwood alone. That doesn’t even include the homes that are still showing active in the MLS, but have multiple offers in negotiation. Inventory is down to 237 homes, again, artificially high because of the back and forth negotiations on most of the bank owned property.
This will soon change, once the banks start releasing their pent up inventory of foreclosed homes, but for now, inventory is low, and buyers are out there! Almost every home is getting multiple offers now, and even the “stale” inventory is starting to fly off the shelves!
As always, drop me a line or send me an email if you’re going to be buying or selling, or know anyone who is.
Cheers,
Jodi
From the Wall Street Journal Online:
The company that cooks up credit scores for millions of Americans is changing its recipe — and that could affect how easily you get credit in the future.
Fair Isaac Corp., maker of the popular FICO credit score used by most lenders, says its new scoring model will do a better job predicting the likelihood of a borrower defaulting on a loan. For one thing, the new model, dubbed FICO 08, will be more forgiving of occasional slips by consumers, but will take a harder line on repeat offenders. Fair Isaac predicts its new system will help lenders reduce default rates on their consumer credit by between 5% and 15%.
| More From The Wall Street Journal Online:• 12 Ways to Make Your Kids Financially Savvy |
The rollout of the new credit-scoring system comes at a time when lenders say they are eager for more-accurate measures of credit risk, in part because of rising loan defaults as subprime mortgages go bad and housing prices fall. And there are signs that delinquencies are creeping into other types of consumer debt, including auto loans, further prompting lenders to tighten up on credit.
The FICO score, which Fair Isaac says is used by 90% of the 100 largest banks, and other similar scores hold sway over the lives of millions of people. Financial institutions use them to determine the granting and pricing of credit, insurance, cellphone usage and, in some cases, employment and utility services. Some consumer groups have raised concerns about whether credit scores are being used properly and whether they are valid measures of credit risk for some groups of consumers, especially minorities and lower-income individuals, says Travis Plunkett, the legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America.
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Credit scores, which are calculated using proprietary models, also are criticized for a lack of transparency. “This is a product, per se, but it’s a product that has inordinate influence on the financial lives of hundreds of millions of Americans,” says Mr. Plunkett. Fair Isaac, based in Minneapolis, says it believes it does a good job of explaining the factors that go into calculating the FICO score and in guiding consumers on how to manage their scores.
Consumers could start seeing the new FICO scores by the spring, though some lenders may take additional time to test the system to see how it works with their business and loan portfolios. Fair Isaac, which last revamped its scoring model earlier this decade, says it is accelerating its FICO 08 rollout, partly in response to lenders’ demand for better risk-management tools.
Specifically the post about the Americans walking away from their loans. I thought I’d get some comments on that one. I’m struggling with that whole idea a bit, because while I see the logic behind it (why should I keep paying for something that won’t be worth nearly what it’s mortgaged for until probably 2010 or longer?) it disgusts me that people have no qualms about walking away from their responsibilities! I just read about someone the other day who lived in a house they bought for $800,000, no money down, in 2005. The house across the street from him just came up for sale – bank owned, and only $500,000. He plans to buy it and then walk away from his old house/loan. Voila! He’s now wiped away $300,000 of debt leaving the original bank high and dry. I am sure we’ll see more and more of this as time goes on. Thoughts? Do you think that, as the previous article stated, that people walking from their homes will become a socially accepted norm? The guy in my previous example who walked from his home, thereby cutting his debt substantially isn’t technically doing anything illegal. It’s fraudulent to be sure, but he isn’t really breaking any laws really. There are no laws against being foreclosed on. What should his punishment be, if anything?
