Buyers/Sellers
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Here We Go Again – December 2008 California Housing Outlook
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009This is an update of my November 2008 Blog reporting on the state of the real estate market. The California Real Estate Association (C.A.R.) has just released a report stating that the number of single-family homes sold in California increased 84.9% in December from the same period one year ago, with year-to-date sales nearly 27% [...]
Protecting the Palm Springs Lifestyle – Keeping Palm Springs Beautiful – Stamping Out Neighborhood Blight
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009As we all know, the number of foreclosed houses has dramatically increased over the past year. With these foreclosures have come an equal number of vacant properties. Like a big magnet, these vacant properties all too frequently attract vandals. If you have ever searched for a lender owned “bargain”, you will know that they are often [...]
Financing a Fixer with the 203K Program
Monday, January 19th, 2009Today’s blog is a follow-up to my blog on November 24, 2008, regarding a rather obscure FHA program that offers financing on the purchase of distressed properties. With so much attention focused on the escalating rate of home foreclosures, the FHA is really pushing this particular program. The result, I’m told, is that more of [...]
How to Finance BOTH the Purchase AND Repairs of Your Next Fixer-Upper
Monday, November 24th, 2008If you are considering buying a foreclosed fixer home as (a) your primary residence, (b) a second home, or (c) an investment property, there may be some new financing alternatives now available to you. I just learned about this from a mortgage broker associate with whom I work on HUD homes. He tells me that [...]
Foreclosures Temporarily Halted by Fannie Mae
Friday, November 21st, 2008Yesterday, Fannie Mae announced that it was temporarily suspending foreclosures and evictions which have been scheduled to take place from November 26, 2008 until January 9, 2009. This temporary halt is designed to allow time for positive actions to reduce the growing number of foreclosures presently taking place in the U.S. It will allow affected [...]
Update on Real Estate Sales in the Valley
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008A recent article in our local newspaper reminded me that I hadn’t updated this blog recently on the state of the housing market here in the valley. Well, guess what? Sales are up and prices are down. No real surprise! BUT in fact, sales are WAY up and prices are WAY down. We and [...]
For Real Estate Investors – A Measure of Value?
Sunday, October 26th, 2008I read an article recently in the New York Times entitled “Home Prices Seem far From Bottom”; one part of the article struck me as particularly interesting. It described a way of determining the relative value of a home by calculating the property’s “price-to-rent ratio”. This ratio is determined by taking the asking price of [...]
For Qualified Investors Only
Monday, October 13th, 2008All right, you have heard this here before. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY REAL ESTATE. So if you are tired of hearing this message and think it’s just a self-serving diatribe, just stop reading now. The banking and financial crisis that we are [...]
Palm Springs Style Lures Vacationers – An Afterthought
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008As a followup to yesterday’s article on Palm Springs Style, if you are thinking about buying a home in Palm Springs, it’s good to know that the rental market here is strong. Renting your home seasonally is a one good way of offsetting your fixed costs. A possible downside is that rentals here are quite popular, and you [...]
“Palm Springs Style” Lures Vacationers
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008One of the pleasures of taking a vacation is having the time to read the New York Times in a leisurely fashion. Recently we were at the airport, leaving Palm Springs for a few days on the East Coast, and Dick purchased a copy. I immediately leafed through to pull out a Life Style section called Escapes, and there we were [...]
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