Just as the Christmas season, and all the shopping it already brings in Roseville, begins Big Lots is opening a new location in Roseville (I see it almost every day off of 65 going to and from my house). This is the 12th Big Lots in the area and the 2nd in Roseville (Harding Boulevard being the other).
The 24,000 sq ft former Circuit City location on Fairway Drive opens at 9AM next Friday (11.18.11) with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a financial donation to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School located right across the street.
Like all of its locations the Roseville Big Lots will sell name brand products in categories from food to furniture to TVs and seasonal goods for what they say is 40-70% off of what other retailers sell the same item for.
The Keep Your Home California program has increased benefits and expanded eligibility in order to help more homeowners having trouble making their mortgage payments keep their homes.
The program has not only relaxed some restrictions on who qualifies but has extended the length of time currently unemployed homeowners can receive assistance on their home loans to 9 months, from 6 (the program is intended to help people stay in their homes if they are temporarily unemployed by subsidizing some or all of their monthly payment for a period of months).
Claudia Cappio, Executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency said, “this expanded eligibility will allow more families to qualify and receive greater assistance.”
Program officials have also increased the cap on the mortgage reinstatement program from $15,000 to $20,000. The reinstatement program provides a one time assistance grant for homeowners that have fallen behind their payments due to financial hardship.
According to the agency Keep Your Home California has already helped more than 7,000 homeowners statewide and has provided more than $128 million in benefits since launching in February. The funds come from $2 billion in 2008 Federal Stimulus money and the state has until 2017 to use it for this purpose or the remainder is returned.
A quarter of monthly double digit sales increases? Might be hard to believe with all the bad news we’re bombarded with every day, but it is 100% true. It’s been three straight months of at least 10% sales increases, that’s monthly, for the greater Sacramento area.
1,746 homes were sold in Sacramento County in September, a 13% increase from a year ago. Volume in Placer and Yolo Counties both increased by 22% while closings in El Dorado County beat them all at 23%.
This is great news for our local housing market and overall economy, but it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. Prices in many areas are still not appreciating yet and things probably won’t change for a while still. However the simple fact that more people are buying homes is going to change that sooner than later. Supply and demand is the rule and with local inventories as low as they are (less than two months in some local areas) prices simply have to start inching up in the not-too-distant future.
Roseville’s project of retrofitting 16,000 homes with water meters has finally come to an end. Mayor Roccucci installed the final meter at a celebratory event calling the ten year project completed. “Becoming a fully metered city helps define Roseville and the region as leaders in water use efficiency in this state,” said the mayor in a written statement.
The big question these days, the one people in my profession get on a near daily basis, what is it?
If you answered anything with a “how long after”, you’re probably right. The question we hear almost every day is asking how long after a foreclosure, short sale, bankruptcy, or deed-in-liu, etc, can someone be qualified to buy another house, and the question is becoming more common as people with legitimate issues that lost their home or filed BK in 2007-2009 are wanting to take advantage of today’s real estate opportunities and historically low interest rates. The good news is; a lot of them already can.
The thing is, there isn’t just one answer. There are many answers that depend on factors like; how did one lose their home (foreclosure or short sale, ect), what have they done since then, and what kind of loan are they looking for now? The answers to these questions can make a big difference. I’ll try and break it down and make it as simple as possible for everyone below…
Conventional
2 Years after short sale, pre-foreclosure sale, or deed in liu with a 20% down payment on the new home
4 Years after short sale, pre-foreclosure sale, or deed in liu with a 10% down payment on the new home
7 Years after foreclosure in most other circumstances
4 Years after Bankruptcy, regardless of if it is a Chapter 7 or 13
FHA
3 Years after Foreclosure (after the actual deed transfer date)
3 Years after short sale or pre-foreclosure sale
1 Year into a Chapter 13 bankruptcy (there is actually no waiting period after a CH13, only that 12 on-time payments to the trustee have been made, can be verified, and the purchase is approved by the court)
2 Years after Chapter 7 bankruptcy has been discharged
VA
2 Years for all, foreclosure, short sale, or bankruptcy
(There are a few exceptions to these rules, call me with any specific scenarios)
Of course all of these loans would require reestablishing credit and qualifying for the loan program applied for, these are just the general timelines. Please give me a call if you have any questions…
The most recent report from Real Estate data reporting firm, DataQuick, shows the number of single-family homes sold in Sacramento County rose over 15% last month (August). The report also shows at least 10% gains in both Placer and El Dorado Counties, and over 9% in Yolo County as well.
Much of the increased activity at the low-end of the housing market but not entirely, as sales across the board picked up as well.
DataQuick’s president, John Walsh, said: “The sliver of positive news here is that, no matter how you look at it, last month’s sales beat the year-ago numbers, which were pretty lousy,” and “lower prices and mortgage rates lured some homebuyers off the sidelines last month, but too many others lacked the confidence to step into the game.”
As we’ve been talking about for a while market trends are volatile month to month, with every slow month seeming to be followed with a month like August, but most of the data shows that things have flattened out overall, and are even picking up in some local markets (such as Roseville). I know the media has turned to selling nothing other than negativity and sensationalism for the last few years (and why not, it’s what gets people’s attention) but it’s not always the way they make it seem…
Most housing professionals and trade organizations doubt there will be a significant double-dip recession. For example, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Economic and Mortgage Finance Forecasts, released recently, projects $1.1 trillion in residential mortgage origination volume in 2011, roughly $100 billion more than earlier forecasts, as low mortgage rates have brought in higher than expected refinance volume, while home purchase volume has been less than anticipated.
However, despite lower forecasted mortgage rates, weaker projected economic growth in 2012 led to a reduction in MBA’s origination forecast for that year to $931 billion, which would be the lowest volume originated since 1997.
Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s senior vice president and chief economist said, “We have lived through a series of unprecedented events over the past month: the debt ceiling crisis, S&P’s downgrade of US Treasury debt, the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, a commitment by the Fed to keep rates near zero for the next two years and stock market volatility that has reached levels not seen since the fall of 2008.
“While there is substantial uncertainty about how these events will impact consumer and business behavior, we do not believe that the economy is facing the same types of risks as in 2008. Were the US economy to enter a recession, it would likely be the result of an external shock, and would be shallow and relatively brief.”
Homes sold within Sacramento County increased by 12.5% last month per the most recent DataQuick report. 1,676 sales closed in Sacramento County in July compared to last year’s 1,490 sales.
According to the report home sales in Placer County are up by more than 10% as well (as they are in El Dorado and Yolo counties too) while at the same time sales volume across the entire state was down a tad (1.4%) for the same period.
This isn’t quite the end of the market as we’ve known it for the last few years but it is a good thing and points to a more normal/stable market in the near future. As always real estate is entirely local and it’s nice to see our market, long battered by the media, beating the rest of the state in sales volume.
A few weeks ago Bank of America agreed to participate in a state-run program to reduce mortgage balances for struggling homeowners in California. This announcement makes them the 7th to do so and also the biggest mortgage lender to be part of the aid program.
BofA’s participation was almost necessary for the $2 billion program, called ‘Keep Your Home California’, which originally rolled out in February but was not able to reach many homeowners with the small lenders that were participating at the time.
Keep Your Home California provides a number of forms of help to homeowners, from interest rate modification all the way up to reducing the actual principal balance of the mortgage. The principal-reduction program requires the lenders to match the program’s assistance dollar for dollar. Meaning if the Keep Your Home California program were to offer $20,000 in assistance, the lender/servicer (BofA in this case) would also have to contribute $20,000, reducing the mortgage balance by $40,000 in total.
California Housing Finance Agency’s (CalHFA) program manager,Diane Richardson, said $94 million worth of aid has been committed to over 5,000 homeowners so far. Of those, about 10% have received some amount of principal reduction.
Foreclosure activity in the greater Sacramento real estate market is down more than 20% for the first six months of 2011. This closely follows a deep trend in decreasing foreclosure filings around the country…
According to real estate data company RealtyTrac, Notice Of Default (or NOD) filings dropped to 21,721 for the Sacramento market in the first half of the year, from 27,275 for the same period in 2010. RealtyTrac’s CEO, James Saccacio said; “Foreclosure activity continued to slow in the first half of 2011, especially in the most foreclosure-saturated markets.”
If any of you remember me talking about first payment defaults being down in 2009 and 2010 I predicted exactly this. 21,721 foreclosures is still not a pretty picture but the number is still getting better as less homeowners have been going into default on their mortgage payment for the last two years (as compared to the crisis year of 2008 and the first half of 2009). As this trend continues the number of foreclosures will continue to decline as well.
Foreclosure filings are down even more nationwide, decreasing 29.3% across the board. The Roseville/South Placer market is down even more than this (where we’re seeing a real stabilization and a return to a more normal housing market already).
Just as the Christmas season, and all the shopping it already brings in Roseville, begins Big Lots is opening a new location in Roseville (I see it almost every day off of 65 going to and from my house). This is the 12th Big Lots in the area and the 2nd in Roseville (Harding Boulevard being the other).
Homes sold within Sacramento County increased by 12.5% last month per the most recent DataQuick report. 1,676 sales closed in Sacramento County in July compared to last year’s 1,490 sales.
BofA’s participation was almost necessary for the $2 billion program, called ‘Keep Your Home California’, which originally rolled out in February but was not able to reach many homeowners with the small lenders that were participating at the time.
Foreclosure activity in the greater Sacramento real estate market is down more than 20% for the first six months of 2011. This closely follows a deep trend in decreasing foreclosure filings around the country…