Instant Winner
There is something unusual here that’s never happened before in any of the previous 100+ JtR videos. Can you pick it out?
Bubbleinfo.com T-shirt to the first to catch it!
Trying to Sell an REO
The Padres are red hot, how about another contest?
Check out this video tour, and guess how much my new REO listing sells for, and the winner will receive four tickets!
For those of you who saw the photo in the paper, and the banter on the radio about the 83-year old lady who attends every game and knits while she watches, she sits a couple of seats down from where you’ll be sitting, if you win. Don’t mess with her!
Squatters on the Move
from the nyt:
MIAMI – When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.
What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.
Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend’s couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000.
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes — some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.
In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.
The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters.
“We’re seeing sheriffs’ departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions,” said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. “They’re up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone’s overwhelmed.”
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Omega sat on the tiled floor of her unfurnished living room and described plans to use the space to tie-dye clothing and sell it on the Internet, hoping to save some money before she is inevitably forced to leave.
“It’s a beautiful castle, and it’s temporary for me,” she said, “and if I can be here 24 hours, I’m thankful.” In the meantime, she said, she has instructed her adult son not to make noise, to be a good neighbor.
‘A modern-day underground railroad’
In Minnesota, a group called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven “human rights houses” shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the group’s work to “a modern-day underground railroad,” and said squatters could last up to a year in a house before eviction.
Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.
Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said her group had been looking into asking banks to give it abandoned buildings to renovate and occupy legally. Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. “People who used to say, ‘That’s breaking the law,’ now that they’re living on a block with three or four empty houses, they’re very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families,” she said.
SD March Sales
from sddt.com
Resales for attached and detached homes in San Diego County were up 25 percent from February to March. Median prices for homes sold were down month to month, with detached homes falling 3 percent to $325,000 and attached units falling 5 percent to $175,750.
According to the San Diego Association of Realtors (SDAR) on Wednesday, the 2,507 homes sold last month brought the total number of homes sold in the first quarter up to 6,922, a 53 percent increase from the same quarter in 2008.
The median price for a detached home sold in March 2008 was $440,000 compared to last month’s $325,000 — a difference of 26 percent, and 44 percent less than the median price in March 2007.
Despite the median prices being down, Tim Sullivan, President of Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors, said the housing numbers show positive signs overall.
“Demand has been reignited,” he said.
“The good news and the most important thing is that the first stake in the sand for a turnaround is that we start to see an increase in sales. And the reason we’ve seen that is because of that continual decline in pricing.”
While an increase in home sales may take off some of the inventory on the market, last month’s record high notice of default filings in San Diego County will likely result in more foreclosures and short sales.
“In 2009, we’re going to be bringing foreclosures on almost as fast was we’re selling them,” said Sullivan.
The foreclosures are coming from a different source than people unable to pay off loans due to their mortgages resetting at high interest rates, said both Sullivan and Tony Pauker, chair of the Urban Land Institute’s San Diego Tijuana District.
“You heard all the drama about subprime and all this other stuff we’re now seeing a second bump on individual homes with the good borrowers with good credit with real mortgages are just going ‘I spent $600,000 on this home and it’s now worth $400,000? I’ve lost $200,000 of equity. Why bother?’ They’re just walking away,” said Pauker, who is also a principal at Encompass Urban Developers.
Sullivan, conversely, thinks the spike is likely due to job loss — a factor that he said will play a major role in the recovery process.
“We’re seeing foreclosures that are economically driven,” he said. “People are losing their jobs so they stop paying the mortgage.”
Job loss is the biggest threat to the stabilization of the housing market, said Sullivan.
However, he added that other factors for stabilization include consumer confidence and bringing down the amount of inventory in the market.
Many of the individuals buying lower-priced homes and foreclosures are investors.
Some market observers think investment homes paid for in all cash cannot be a true gauge for recovery.
However, some local real estate experts, like Norm Miller, have said it is possible a floor could be forming as long as there are sales.
“I can rent a place I couldn’t own before and an investor can get a good return. That’s two people who are happy,” said Miller, who is the director of real estate academic programs at the University of San Diego.
RSF – You’re Surrounded!
The sellers in Rancho Santa Fe have been holding strong, but there have been some inching closer to the exits, led by the banks.
First those on the outskirts:
| Street Address | Previous Sales Price/Date | Current List Price | % below last SP |
| 7819 Cam De La Dora | |||
| 6973 Corte Lusso | |||
| 17466 Luna De Miel | |||
| 16501 Via Lago Azul |
*Amount of mortgage lent, later foreclosed
*******************************************************************
“But Jim, those aren’t the Covenant!!! There’s a difference!!!!!!!!”
Oh really? The Covenant has its own cracks in the armor:
| Street Address | Previous Sales Price/Date | Current List Price | % below last SP |
| 5840 Lago Lindo | |||
| 6368 La Valle Plateada | |||
| 17925 Avenida Alondra |
There are 324 active listings of detached homes in 92067 and 92091, a number that has been growing all year.
Last month, TEN closed escrow!
Rancho Santa Fe sellers – you should lower your price!
(hat tip to Aztec)
Jim Klinge
Klinge Realty Group
Broker-Associate, Compass
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home?
Contact Jim the Realtor!
- 682 S. Coast Hwy 101, Suite #110
Encinitas, CA 92024 - (858) 997-3801 call or text
- klingerealty@gmail.com
CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
