My credit card company called me last month and inquired about some charges.  One of them happened to be a $1.00 charge from iTunes.  I could confirm the other 8+ charges they asked about, but that $1.00 charge I could not confirm. 

Last week I was speaking to a few people and told them what had happened.  Interestingly, friends of theirs had experienced the same issue.  What we determined was that these crooks are checking various card numbers with small purchases and at stores like iTunes that the majority of people (dad, mom, kids) purchase from.  Most people would not question a $1.00 charge for their children but who’s to say it was actually their child that made the purchase????

BE CAREFULL, especially with the holidays upon us!

Tony Fisher

Real Estate Consultant

c.  707-344-2799

TonyFisher@GatewayRealty.com

www.TonyFisherRealEstate.com

I have heard many people talking of the banks withholding properties from the market for various reasons.  Although the banks have gone through a severe re-structuring and reduction in staffing, their workload has increased dramatically. 

My personal thought is that the businesses are operating at their “best”.  Looking back on the market in general, the housing market started self-correction in ‘05/’06 and adjusted quickly over the next 3 years.  VERY small in the grand scheme of time.

Here was an interesting article at CNBC “What Banks Are Really Doing with Foreclosures“.  The article suggests that this trend will continue.  In my opinion, the following will be the key issues moving forward for the banks:

1. The banks are operating with a smaller staff than previously.
2. The volume of foreclosures and loan modifications has increased without a corresponding increase in support staff.
3. Volume is projected to continue to rise.

Finally, for the time it takes for a bank to foreclose on a home, the current trend seems to indicate that the market is still self correcting.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Best regards,

TF

www.TonyFisherRealEstate.com

TonyFisher@GatewayRealty.com

Sixty-eight percent of buyers said price decreases motivated them to buy a home, while 39 percent reported low interest rates helped them move to a better location.  Twenty-three percent claimed the likelihood that rates will move up as the motivating factor.

     The last couple years of the real estate market has been a correction which was long over due.  Many people have asked “What got it started”.  I found an interesting article from the NY Times where the Clinton Administration pressured Fannie Mae to expand mortgages to “less than income and credit worthy” individuals.  In my opinion, this was the start of the issue as people tried to match the previous run in technology stocks.  Unfortunately, their fate was the same:  CRASH….

     A recent article found on CNBC  indicates that the Bush administration fueled the housing market crash.  Having been there, there was more of a frenzy on all participants in the early 2000’s to “get rich quick”.  My heartburn with the media spin is that it started with the previous Clinton administration.  Not to mention, the current administration handing out BILLIONS of dollars at the tax payer’s expense to correct “poor” decisions and policies.

     The media has elected to not place blame on those who truly fueled the fire in my opinion.  Furthermore, they have overlooked the fact that the market is robust in the sense that it has made a great self correction within a relative short period of time, excluding all the “FREE” money the banks have received.  The market is certainly not fixed but is starting to show signs of stability; demand seems to be higher than the current inventory, price decline rates and slowing and consumer confidence appears to be strengthening.

     Only time will tell if all the money pumped in (that you and I, or our children will pay for) will make a difference.  Regardless of that, the Bay Area housing market remain robust with remarkably low interest rates!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Tony Fisher

www.TonyFisherRealEstate.com

TonyFisher@GatewayRealty.com

I found an interesting article on CNBC, talking about

http://www.dqnews.com/News/California/Southern-CA/RRSCA081020.aspx

September 18, 2008
La Jolla, CA.—-The pace of Bay Area home sales reversed its July uptick and dropped again last month, marking a return to the long-running waiting game that many potential buyers and sellers have been playing for more than a year. Parts of the East Bay are bucking the trend with active bottom-feeding in foreclosure-stressed neighborhoods, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 7,232 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county Bay Area in August. That was down 4.7 percent from 7,586 in July, and down 0.9 percent from 7,299 in August 2007, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
Last month’s sales total was the second-lowest for an August, behind 6,688 sales in August 1992, in MDA DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. An “average” August had 10,031 sales, while the peak August in 2004 had 13,940.
“Mortgage money for homes above the half-million-dollar mark is hard to come by right now, even for well-qualified buyers. Because homes are more expensive in the Bay Area than elsewhere, this issue will have a bigger impact on home sales there. Mortgage availability will eventually loosen up, we just don’t know when, especially after the past few days,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
The use of so-called jumbo mortgages, until recently defined as over $417,000, has plummeted since the credit crunch hit in August 2007, making jumbo loans more expensive and harder to obtain. Last month mortgages over $417,000 made up 32.3 percent of all home purchase loans, down from 58.6 percent in August 2007.
August home sales jumped in Contra Costa and Solano counties as bargain hunters scooped up distressed properties at prices not seen in more than five years. Across the Bay Area, foreclosure resales made up 36.1 percent of all resales last month, up from 33.3 percent in July and 4.4 percent a year ago. The figure represents the percentage of homes resold in August that had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months.
At the county level, foreclosure resales ranged from 8.6 percent of resales in San Francisco to 61.3 percent in Solano County. In the Bay Area’s other seven counties, August foreclosure resales were as follows: Contra Costa, 54.4 percent; Marin, 13.5 percent; Napa, 39 percent; Santa Clara, 24.7 percent; San Mateo, 16.6 percent; Sonoma, 41.6 percent.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area last month was $447,000, down 4.9 percent from $470,000 in July and down a record 31.8 percent from $655,000 in August 2007, according to MDA DataQuick.
Last month’s median stood at the lowest point since January 2004, when it was $440,000. The median peaked at $665,000 in June, July and August of 2007.
MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $2,121 last month, down from $2,218 the previous month, and down from $3,171 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 18.5 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 38.7 percent below the current cycle’s peak in June 2006.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions.  Foreclosure activity is at record levels, financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near the all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages.
Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity appears flat but might be emerging, MDA DataQuick reported.

   I find it very interesting that each day you can read the news and it seems like reporters and are saying “Things are improving”  OR  “We’ve got a lot of negatives bringing the markets down”.  I find it even more entertaining when you see both headlines on the same day from the same source.  And, I’ve seen that a lot lately…..

   I found this interesting story on CNBC that was indicating that sales volume is increasing.  One thing for sure is that sales volume in Solano County has been on the rise for a while, possibly signalling that we’re nearing the bottom.  Solano County “single family” sales volume has been increasing since last year:

1. 2008 Q1 at 528 homes
2. 2008 Q2 at 1,009 homes
3. 2008 Q3 at 1,372 homes
4. 2008 Q4 at 1,690 homes
5. 2009 Q1 at 1,600 homes

   2008 4th quarter sales volume outpaced 2005’s 3rd quarter volume of 1,638 sales, the recent peak of the market and home prices.

   In addition, we are starting to see the decline in sales prices starting to taper off.  There is no doubt about it, there is a lot of negativity out there but the Solano County housing maket is surging forward!

Tony Fisher

Real Estate Consultant

Gateway Realty

TonyFisher@GatewayRealty.com

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