Boker's Blog

“Glass Half Full” Perspective

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER REAL ESTATE SECTION 11/14/2011
Jeff Collins
“OPTIMISTIC”
NAR Chief Economist Yun “Everything is moving in the right direction”, projecting an 8 to 10 percent gain in U.S home prices.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER REAL ESTATE SECTION 11/8/2011
Jeff Collins
“CALIFORNIA HOME-PRICE RECOVERY EXPECTED IN 2012”
UCLA economists forecast that California home prices will rise steadily over the next 6 years. The UCLA Anderson Forecast predicted that the median price will increase 52.5% by 2017.

Home prices are projected to turn around in 2012 – jumping 11.5 % next year, then rising 10 more in 2013. The recovery is expected to run through 2017.

Sales will climb from 2013 through 2015, hitting a high water mark of 547,945 transactions that year.

“Glass Half Empty” Perspective”

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER REAL ESTATE SECTION 11/13/2011
Jeff Collins
“DISTRESSED SALES”
National Association of Realtors predicts that a third of all U.S. sales will be distressed homes through 2013

1,533 new escrows were opened to by distressed O.C properties in the past 30 days. That is 54 percent of the 2,854 new pending sales countywide.

19% of distressed listings are REO’s and 81% are “short sales”

LOS ANGELES TIMES BUSINESS SECTION 11/5/2011
Alejandro Lazo
“FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY IS UP 7% OVER SEPTEMBER”
Banks are reasserting themselves against troubled borrowers, sending close to 78,000 properties into the first stage of the foreclosure process in October after a nearly yearlong slowdown brought on by increased scrutiny from regulators.

Foreclosure actions were filed on 230,678 US homes in October, up 7% from the month before

77,733 Notices Of Default were filed, a 10% increase from the previous month

Lenders repossessed a total of 67,627 homes, a 4% increase from September

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER REAL ESTATE SECTION 11/5/2011
Jonathan Lansner
“IN MID-OCTOBER, HOME PRICES HIT 10-MONTH LOW IN O.C.”
Only 14 of 83 O.C. ZIPs had both rising sales and prices in the period. The median selling price for all residences is $414,000. That is off 5.7% vs. a year ago. Pricing hit $445,000 in June