California Housing Rises

Home sales increased 63.8% in March in California compared with the same period a year ago.

“The March sales figure of 522,980 homes indicates that the market continues to be very active,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak. “All of the regions in the state experienced increases in month-to-month raw sales, with the smallest gain in the Sacramento region at 9.7% and the largest gain in the Riverside/San Bernardino region at 32.2%.”

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 522,980 in March at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local Realtor® associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity increased 63.8% from the revised 319,290 sales pace recorded in March 2008. Sales in March 2009 decreased 16% compared with the previous month.

“The statewide median price showed the first monthly increase since August 2007, and has remained in the $250,000 range over the past three months,” said C.A.R.’s Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “A number of regions around the state also have registered monthly gains for one or more months since the beginning of this year.  … Low mortgage rates and house prices, coupled with the federal first-time home buyer tax credit, is having a definite impact on the California housing market,” Appleton-Young added.

Highlights of C.A.R.’s resale housing figures for March 2009:
-C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in March 2009 was 5 months, compared with 12.2 months (revised) for the same period a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.
-The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 48.3 days in March 2009, compared with 56.8 days (revised) for the same period a year ago.
-Statewide, the 10 cities with the highest median home prices in California during March 2009 were: Santa Monica, $755,000; Danville, $738,500; Santa Barbara, $735,000; Mountain View, $700,000; Redondo Beach, $630,000; San Ramon, $621,000; San Clemente, $620,000; San Francisco, $617,000; Santa Cruz, $610,000; and Yorba Linda, $561,500.
-Statewide, the cities with the greatest median home price increases in March 2009 compared with the same period a year ago were: Lemon Grove, 18.6% and Rancho Santa Margarita, 3.1%.

“Every one of my agents is very busy”

So says Phil Jones, a broker with Coldwell Banker Coastal Alliance in Long Beach.

From CNN MOney

But there are signs that California’s housing market may be coming out of this tailspin: Sales volume is increasing, investors are returning and inventory is shrinking

Bottom line is the areas that harbored the housing mess is cleaning itself up:
February saw buyers buy more than 600,000 homes, some 80% more than they bought in February 2007, according to CAR.

John Dugan of San Francisco is using his IRA to purchase homes in Sacramento. The salesman is using a portion of his Entrust Group-managed IRA to buy townhouses in the Sacramento area.

So far he’s purchased three 840-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath duplexes. He paid just $35,000 to $80,000 a piece – down from their $180,000 to $200,000 selling prices a few years ago.

“This kind of pricing is something you only think of as Midwestern, not Californian,” he said.

Leslie Aplleton Young of NAR is calling the market as normalized fitting in with the rest of the nations home supply which runs at 9.7 months.

Cali Jumps 83% in Feb.

Ten Best Places to Retire

From  US News & World Report

The criteria they used was that by picking a low cost local you can boost your retirement prospects.

1. Binghamton, NY
2. Chattanooga, Tenn.
3. Cocoa, Fla.
4. Eau Claire, Wis.
5. Montgomery, Ala.
6. Omaha, Neb.
7. Pittsburgh, Penn.
8. Roswell, NM
9. San Antonio, Tex.
10. South Bend, Ind.

There are plenty of places where you can scale back your cost of living without reducing your quality of life. If you move to a city with a lower cost of housing than where you live now, it’s a quick boost to your nest egg. In some cases, retirees can even get a better house for less money and reduce their tax bill, both of which will help your remaining retirement dollars stretch farther. “There’s two factors that account for most of the difference in cost of living between two areas: housing and taxes, and housing more than taxes,” says David Savageau, author of Retirement Places Rated. “You could flip a house in D.C. and go to Albuquerque or Iowa City and be better housed for one third the money and bank the rest and fund your retirement.”

CAR Offers $1500 For Mortgage

From California Association of Realtors:

Dear C.A.R. Member,

I am very pleased to announce that this Thursday, April 2, C.A.R. will launch a new program designed to provide peace of mind to first-time buyers who are hesitant to enter the housing market due to concerns about potential job loss, and subsequently being unable to meet their monthly mortgage obligations.

Through the C.A.R. Housing Affordability Fund Mortgage Protection Program (C.A.R.H.A.F. MPP), first-time home buyers who lose their jobs due to layoffs may be eligible to receive up to $1,500 per month for up to six months to help make their mortgage payments. A qualified co-buyer also can participate in the program, for a reduced monthly benefit of $750 per month for up to six months in the event of a job loss. Program benefits also include coverage for accidental disability and a $10,000 death benefit. C.A.R.’s Housing Affordability Fund is dedicating $1 million to the program this year, and estimates that as many as 3,000 families will benefit from the program throughout 2009.

To qualify for the Mortgage Protection Program, applicants must:
. Be a first-time home buyer – someone who has not owned a home in the last three years
. Open escrow April 2, 2009, or later, and close on or before Dec. 31, 2009
. Use a California REALTOR® in the transaction
. Purchase the property in California
. Be a W-2 employee (cannot be self-employed or military personnel)

First-time home buyers must request an application for the H.A.F. Mortgage Protection Program from their REALTOR®. For applications and other information on this exciting new program, go to www.car.org/aboutus/hafmainpage/ or contact Monica Rodriguez at (213) 739-8380 or monicar@car.org.

The Mortgage Protection Program is a proactive approach by C.A.R. to address consumers’ concerns about the real estate market and their ability to make their mortgage payments should they loose their jobs. I encourage you to take full advantage of this new program by sharing information about the C.A.R.H.A.F. Mortgage Protection Program with your clients. There is no cost to either you or your clients to participate.