Calling All First Time Buyers!

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1 1/2-year drop in homes for sale halted

January 22nd, 2013, 11:15 am · · posted by Jeff Collins

The number of homes for sale in Orange County increased for the first time in 1 1/2 years, rising to3,249 for-sale listings as of Jan. 17, Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com reported this week.

That’s up from an 8 1/2-year low of 3,161 homes for sale on Jan. 3.

“The drop has stopped!” Thomas said in his report. “It simply had to eventually go up. … More homes are finally coming on the market, just not at the rate customary for the very beginning of the year. Over the past month, there were 16 percent fewer homes that were placed on the market compared to the same time last year.”

Thomas’ figures show that last week’s tally still was the second lowest number of homes for sale in records dating back to June 2004.

Listings have fallen from one report to the next every two weeks since early July 2011. In October 2007, Orange County had nearly 17,800 homes for sale.

Thomas believes that inventory will remain tight.

“The anemic levels are here to stay until the Spring market starts to rev its engine with more homes placed on the market, cyclically around the Super Bowl,” he said. “The inventory will not skyrocket higher though and will continue to be an issue throughout the year. Last year at this time there were 8,080 homes on the market, 4,831 more than today.”

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231,000 Calif. agents drop license during slump

January 11th, 2013, 1:00 am · · posted by Jeff Collins

Four out of every 10 Californians with a real estate license in 2007 let their accreditation lapse in the five years since the housing bubble burst, state figures show.

More than 231,000 agents either let their licenses expire or had their licenses revoked since November 2007, when the total number peaked at nearly 550,000 licensees, figures from the California Department of Real Estate show.

Just over 100,000 new licenses have been issued since then, bringing the current total to 418,000 as of October, the most recent figure available. The latest tally is down 24 percent from the November 2007 peak.

“A lot of people in that time just did not renew their license, and the number of people taking the license exam dropped, from 13,000 a month to 2,000 a month,” observed Duane Gomer, owner of the Duane Gomer Seminars real estate school in Mission Viejo.

State figures show that the number of license holders fell month to month in 56 of the past 59 months.
However, Gomer said that the pace of decline has slowed as the housing market picked up. License renewal rates have increased in the past year, he said.

“Now, it’s flattened,” he said of license declines. “They’re not dropping as fast.”

While only a fraction of licensees actively work as real estate agents – some are inactive, while others work as mortgage brokers — California Association of Realtors memberships have fallen at the same pace as licenses.

CAR figures show that Realtor membership in the state dropped 23 percent over the past five years, falling to 156,157 as of October. The association had 203,574 members in November 2007.

The number of people taking real estate license exams spiked to 2,788 in October – the highest number in 15 months. Still, 2011 and 2012 had the lowest monthly exam averages of the housing recession.

Len Herman, president of the Orange County Association of Realtors, said the number of new agents taking the association’s new agent orientation course has held steady at 80 to 130 in the past few years.

Herman said that 2007 statistics were “an aberration,” with ranks of licensees swollen by people who saw real estate a a way to get rich quick. Then the slump hit, and a lot of new licensees exited the business. First-year attrition rates typically are above 80 percent, he said.

“A lot of people tested the water a little bit and went out,” Herman said. “I think they were shocked at how hard it is.”

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New homeowner protections go into effect Jan. 1

The start of the new year brings more protections to California homeowners, mainly those who are trying to save their properties from being repossessed.
Making sense of the story

• The Homeowner Bill of Rights, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012, is a set of new laws that puts the onus on banks to help consumers through the foreclosure process. The legislation, which went into effect Jan. 1, forces banks to stop dual tracking and robo-signing, and assign one point of contact to borrowers who are trying to obtain a loan modification.

• Dual tracking is the process of starting the foreclosure process while a loan modification has been submitted or is being reviewed by the bank. Borrowers in the past have lost their homes to foreclosure as a result of this situation.
• Under the new law, banks must give loan-modification applicants a response before starting the foreclosure process. Banks now also have to inform consumers who don’t apply for a loan modification that they have the right to do so.

• Robo-signing, the process of approving foreclosure documents without proper review, also is prohibited.

• One of the laws also allows borrowers to sue loan servicers for violating any foreclosure laws.

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Housing: Year End Reports Reveal Market Coming Back

by The KCM Crew on January 2, 2013 · 0 comments

Every year-end housing report revealed that the real estate market is recovering quite nicely. Here is a quick synopsis of each:

Existing Home Sales Report

• Total existing-home sales rose 5.9 percent in November over last month
• Sales are 14.5 percent higher than November 2011
• Sales are at the highest level since November 2009
• The national median existing-home price was $180,600 in November, up 10.1 percent from November 2011
• Total housing inventory at the end of November fell to a 4.8-month supply; it was 5.3 months in October, and is the lowest housing supply since September of 2005 when it was 4.6 months

Pending Sales Report

• Pending home sales increased in November for the third straight month and reached the highest level in two-and-a-half years
• The index is at the highest level since April 2010 when buyers were rushing to beat the deadline for the home buyer tax credit
• With the exception of several months affected by tax stimulus, the last time there was a higher reading was in February 2007
• On a year-over-year basis, pending home sales have risen for 19 consecutive months

New Home Sales Report

• Sales of new homes rose 4.4% in November to a two-and-a-half-year high
• This is the highest level since April 2010, when a temporary tax credit boosted demand.
• Sales are now 15.3% higher compared to one year ago

Case Shiller Home Price Index

• Home prices rose 4.3% in the 12 months ending in October
• In nineteen of the 20 cities covered, annual returns in October were higher than September

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