According to the Las Vegas Assoc of Realtors, the real estate market is making a comeback driven more by short sales than REO or bank owned sales in 2009. In Santa Cruz County, it is just the opposite. According to stats posted by the Santa Cruz Assoc of Realtors, there were over 570 REO sales in 2009 [...] read more

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t speak with a homeowner who has contacted a company claiming to help them with a loan modification. Not only is it against the law in California to charge an upfront fee for doing this but so many companies just don’t perform on what they promise. I [...] read more

In February, 70% of all single family residence pending listings in Santa Cruz County were bank owned (REO) and/or short sales. This is down from January 2010 but still 40% above 2009.  Once again 28% of the available inventory is priced over $1M yet less than 7% are pending. Still a continuing trend is that 49% of [...] read more

More and more I hear of homeowners deciding to walk away from their homes because they are upside-down, some as much as 50% or more. Why are homeowners deciding that this tactic is better than hanging on for a recovery that may or may not happen. In our area of Northern Ca, prices have declined 40% or more in [...] read more

January’s average sales price increased 3.69% over the 2009 year end average in Santa Cruz, Ca. Overall unit sales of single family homes declined from the previous month, most likely due to the time of year when sales traditionally decline, but were stilll 18% above January 2009. Bank owned (REO) properties accounted for 34.4% of the [...] read more

The amount of borrowers all over the country who are falling seriously behind on loans backed by FHA have increased considerably since last year. According to most of the lenders I work with in Santa Cruz County, they rarely made an FHA loan due to the high prices in our area and therefore didn’t qualify. As a [...] read more

More than 900,000 homeowners have begun trial modifications under the new foreclosure prevention program, but documentation issues are hampering efforts to convert those to permanent fixes. Last month, the administration gave many borrowers in the program an extension until Jan. 31 to provide the documents. But the administration said last week that it doesn’t plan to [...] read more

By now it is well documented that today’s affordable housing prices, historically low interest rates and federal home buyer tax credit have combined to create one of the most attractive first-time buyer markets in recent memory. What many Americans might not realize is that a recent expansion of the buyer tax credit has created an [...] read more

Rising defaults on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) have led the agency to impose future policy changes to its home loan program.   The FHA is federally mandated to maintain reserve funds at 2 percent or greater.  As of November, the agency reported that its fund had declined to .53 percent.  The funding is [...] read more

Is your home worth less than you owe? Do you qualify for a short pay refinance? Are you headed toward a foreclosure? IT’S NOT TOO LATE…YOU STILL HAVE OPTIONS.  Take control and get the answers you need to keep your home or avoid foreclosure . HOME RETENTION WORKSHOP, January 21st, 5:45PM – 7PM Learn about: Short Pay Refinance, Mortgage Modification, [...] read more