July Newsletter
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Staging Tips
Sometimes when a buyer is looking at a house they may potentially purchase – especially if it is vacant – they just can’t visualize their own furnishings fitting in the space allotted.
Or, the space looks smaller than it actually is.
Debbie Muccillo with Laguna Beach-based Interiors Within Reach shows us how staging tricks can address these issues by showing us a cottage she staged in Laguna Beach:
“Everyone who previewed this home believed this home’s third bedroom wasn’t a bedroom! With a twin sized bed, impact on the wall and having ample space to incorporate a bed, a functioning nightstand, a built in desk and chair…it’s clear to see that this room is a great bedroom for a child.
Remember the rule, vacant always appears smaller!
Prior to staging, the buyers thought the living room wasn’t ample to furnish appropriately for lounging and TV viewing while having a fully functioning space.
After the staging was installed, there is now seating for 5 to enjoy the fireplace or TV viewing…a relationship with the dining space being ample space to seat 6 and talk with the chef!
When designing your space, make a floor plan showing your furniture in the space and you’ll see how much easier it is to create the space you want and need.”
Read more...
Friday, July 23, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
HOME SALES HIT FOUR YEAR HIGH
A temporary deadline for a federal homebuying tax break helped boost the Orange County home market last month.
In June, DataQuick says 3,423 Orange County residences closed escrow, up 15 percent from a year ago. And, it’s the busiest June for deal closings since 2006.
The median selling price for all Orange County residences — resales homes and condos plus new homes of all types — sold in June was $445,000. While that was up 6.5% in a year it is also down from $450,000 in May and the fourth month-to-month drop in the past eight months. All told, the median price is up 2.3% in the first half of the year.
However, the recovery looks meager when a historic perspective is applied:
-June buying is 21.7% below the average sales activity of June from 1988 through 2009. (See chart above comparing sales activity of the most recent 12 months compared to their respective 1988-2009 monthly averages.)
-In the 12 months ended in June, Orange County home sales totaled 32,813 – that is 26% below the average sale activity of 44,344 for a year from 1988 through 2009.
-For the second quarter, there were 9,349 Orange County homes were sold — that was 44% above the first quarter. Historically, Orange County sees a 33% sales bump from the first quarter to the second quarter, the heart of the so-called spring selling season.
-However, sales in 2010’s second quarter sales were 24% percent below the 1988-2009 average.
Uncle Sam likely had a hand in this sales bump. House shoppers who entered escrow by April 30 were told they had to close the deal by June 30 to possibly collect up to an $8,000 federal tax credit. Just after the June 30 deadline — which spurred a deal-closing flurry — that deadline was extended by Congress to Sept. 30.
“This is good news, even if part of it is due to stimulus programs such as tax credits and very low interest rates,” says Kerry Vandell, director of real estate studies at the Merage School of Business at UCI. “Consider how we all would feel if, after all the stimulus activity, sales and prices continued to drop. The fact that a broad array of economic indicators — including Wall Street hiring — is pointing toward recovery is a very good sign. However, in the end, recovery will not be complete until job growth in the private sector turns solidly and significantly positive. We are not there yet. However, I anticipate solid job recovery by year end.”
And post tax break, the market is cooling.
Steve Thomas of Altera Real Estate calculates a “market time” benchmark tracking how many months it theoretically takes to sell all the inventory in the local MLS for-sale listings at the current pace of pending deals being made. By this Thomas logic, as of last Thursday, it would take 3.78 months for buyers to gobble up all homes for sale at the current pace. This is slower pace than the 3.37 months of inventory found two weeks earlier or 2.66 months of a year earlier.
Holly Schwartz of Torelli Realty in Costa Mesa concurs, saying her firm sees a drop in activity as tax-break deadlines passed. “The first half of 2010 was strong; the tax credit incentive helped,” she said.
But Carolynn Santaniello of Seven Gables Real Estate hasn’t seen that much buyer drop-off: “I have seen a slow down in the under $450,000 range since the tax credit expired. In the mid and upper range, I have not see as much as a drop in buyer demand. The first half of 2010 has been very busy and I don’t see an end in sight for me, personally. Serious buyers are still buying.”
Information Provided By The Orange County Register
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
ANAHEIM HILLS APARTMENTS REOPEN
The Cascades, an Anaheim Hills apartment complex partially devoured in a 2008 wildfire, has been rebuilt, the owner has announced.
The Cascades was one of several communities to feel the brunt of a swift-moving blaze that hopscotched from Corona through the Santa Ana Canyon. Sixty units in six buildings were damaged or destroyed, leaving dozens of families homeless.
The 60 restored apartments are part of a 292-unit complex just south of the Riverside Freeway.
“We have several residents who have moved back in after their apartments were burned,” said complex manager Pat Caldwell. “We’re thrilled that so many of our residents were not driven off by this disaster. It was terrible but could have been far worse. Now, the property is as beautiful as before.”Apparently sparked early Nov. 15, 2008, by a car’s catalytic converter in Corona, the wind-whipped fire quickly spread to Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills and Brea. By evening that day, a colossal column of black smoke churned skyward above the eastern end of the 91 freeway.
The blaze blackened nearly 30,000 acres, destroyed at least 155 homes and damaged another 104. In Anaheim Hills, 48 apartments were destroyed and 48 were damaged, fire officials said.
At one point, the fire jumped the freeway and ignited the Cascades’ 20-year-old wood-framed buildings.
Officials with the complex’s property management firm, Sares-Regis Group, said they made dozens of calls to operators of nearby apartment complexes to relocate many of their tenants.
In addition to the new buildings, amenities were added along with the renovation of several common areas. The Cascades has two pools and spas, a new sports court with a basketball hoop. It has a new and larger clubhouse with a fitness center, kitchen, big-screen TV, a business center, play area and an outdoor fireside lounge.
“There’s not a trace of damage,” Caldwell said. “Today, the challenge is the market, which is more competitive than ever.”
Information Provided By The Orange County Register
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