We’ve been actively engaged is selling these two listings over the last 45-60 days, and then found buyers for both houses this weekend.
The Bridge House went pending just ten days after a 10% price reduction, which got us down into the next lower bracket of buyers who might not have seen us. The second listing was purchased by people who had their house in escrow, and needed to find a replacement – movement in the move-up market!
Interesting similarities:
Both buyers saw the house during our open houses, and then went to get their realtor.
Both relied on advice from long-time veteran realtors.
Both offered under list, but were willing to come up.
Most importantly, we are on duty and pushing the product, which makes it easier and more convenient for buyers and agents to see the potential!
The Trump Administration is cracking down on national affordable housing programs because of concern over growing risk to the government’s almost $1.3 trillion portfolio of federally insured mortgages.
The effort targets providers of money for borrowers who can’t afford the 3.5 percent down payment typically required on Federal Housing Administration loans. Such help — from government agencies and families — enables 4 in 10 FHA loans. Borrowers in government down-payment assistance programs become delinquent at about twice the rate of those who put up their own money.
A new U.S. Housing and Urban Development guideline, published on its website late last week, would be particularly harmful to the Chenoa Fund, one of the largest down-payment programs in the U.S.
A Utah mortgage entrepreneur named Richard Ferguson runs the Chenoa Fund on behalf of the Cedar Band of the Paiutes, a tribal government in Utah. It is providing about $100 million a month in loans to borrowers who can’t meet FHA down-payment requirements.
While many cities, counties and state housing finance agencies also provide similar help, they typically limit the loans to local residents. Chenoa operates nationally. HUD said government agencies must document that they are helping borrowers buy property only within their jurisdictions. Tribal governments, it said, may only offer assistance to members living on tribal land or elsewhere.
“This is obviously very concerning,” Ferguson said in a phone interview. “It appears that HUD is trying to put the tribe back on the reservation.”
Let’s compare today’s statistics to the fourth reading in April, 2018:
NSDCC Number of Active/Pending Listings
Price Range
2018 ACT
2018 PEND
2019 ACT
2019 PEND
0-$1.0M
59
96
94
78
$1.0M – $1.5M
162
117
201
117
$1.5M – $2.0M
149
78
145
72
$2.0M+
482
70
491
98
Totals
852
353
931
353
We have the identical number of pendings this year, in spite of a 9% increase in listings – and it’s the high-end that is carrying us, with 40% more pendings this year priced over $2,000,000!
The lower-end is surprising too, with nearly 60% more homes available for sale, yet fewer pendings. Buyers can’t believe how little you get for almost a million dollars these days.
There is some overlap due to the value-range listings at the cutoffs.
Hat tip to CB Mark for sending in another article on people leaving California – I added the U.S. Census stats for San Diego County at the bottom:
People have long dreamed of moving to California, but increasingly the people in the state are looking to get out.
According to recently released data from the US Census, about 38,000 more people left California than entered it in 2018. This is the second straight year that migration to the state was negative, and it’s a trend that is speeding up. Every year since 2014, net migration has fallen.
California’s population did still increase in 2018 by almost 160,000 people, largely due to the 480,000 people born in the state. But while migration out of the state has accelerated over the past few years, the number of annual births has been steady. The trend suggests in the next decade California’s population will begin to decline.
Besides births, the main reason California’s population hasn’t already started falling has been international migration into the state. Every year since 2011, net domestic migration has been negative—i.e., more people leave California than move in from other states. But from 2011 to 2016, the number of international migrants moving into California was larger than the number of locals who were moving out.
Since then, however, domestic departures have outstripped international arrivals. In 2018, 156,000 locals left the state, compared to 118,000 international who came.
The exodus from San Diego County is picking up steam. Where the cumulative total of domestic migration over the last eight years was only 46,596 (avg. 5,825 per year), we had 10,835 leave in the most recent 12 month segment – and the international arrivals have slowed considerably too:
Here’s a steamy new real estate video that isn’t as sexy as the previous ones we’ve seen, yet the reaction was so strong that the brokerage took it down and cancelled the open house.
The big complaint was that the woman featured wasn’t the woman in the photo, but the guy was visiting her, not the other way around.
The original video was copied before it was taken down, and now this version has over 1M views and 300+ comments:
Remember when I mentioned the Carlsbad homeowner who told me that his plans for an ADU had gone six months without approval at the City? Didn’t it make you think, “There has to be a better way”?
For those who are interested in pursuing an accessory dwelling unit for their property and want assistance, consider the service that Dave Probst offers.
Whether it’s a property you already own, or one you might buy, Dave will prepare a report for $655 that will include a preliminary plan and estimate of building costs. For an additional fee, he can also deal with the city on your behalf, and, in most cases, he can get you ready for permits within 60 days.
I haven’t seen him in action myself, but other realtors around town have spoken of him highly. He has a seminar scheduled at 4:00pm on May 11th at the Lexus Center in Escondido, and you can find more information at his website:
Realtors are fighting the idea of open bids? Agents prefer no rules:
Ontario real estate agents are lobbying the province against the mandatory disclosure of offers among competing home buyers in transactions involving multiple bids.
The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) sent a bulletin to its 78,000 members this week urging them to contact their MPPs to oppose the compulsory sharing of offer prices and conditions among competing buyers. That’s something the province has said it is considering as part of its planned update to the 2002 Real Estate Business Brokers Act (REBBA).
“Buyers and sellers should have the choice of using an open, transparent process,” said the OREA email.
It says that sharing information about competing bids could lead to the disclosure of personal financial information to any interested parties.
“The government should not force consumers to gamble their life savings in an experimental, mandated open offer process,” said the OREA email signed by association president Karen Cox.
“Hard working realtors like you would face increased red tape,” it warned.
Under the current rules, a real estate agent can only share the details of offers with the property seller.
But consumers should have a choice if all the buyers and the seller agree, said OREA CEO Tim Hudak.
Making the disclosure of offers mandatory “would be a radical change in the real estate market that does not exist anywhere else in North America,” he said.
“This would invoke a brand new process for every real estate transaction where brokers would have to distribute offers to all the other buyers,” said Hudak and that means sharing prices, deposit and closing information, right down to who gets the fridge.
The buyers’ addresses would be included in each of the offer documents, as well as conditions around the need to sell another home or the amount of cash that buyer has on hand for a deposit.
Some sellers would agree to share offer information based on their ideas of fairness for buyers, said Hudak. But all sellers should seek the advice of their realtor, he added.
At least one Toronto agent says his advice would depend on whether he was representing a buyer or seller.
“If I were representing my seller I’d say, ‘no.’ Unless I was mandated to do it, I wouldn’t do it. It’s our job to protect our clients,” said Royal LePage’s Desmond Brown. “If I had a buyer I would want to know as much information as possible.”
Among its 28 recommendations for modernizing the real estate act, OREA is proposing that the government eliminate bully bids — offers that pre-empt the time the seller has set to look at bids on their home. It is also recommends the elimination of escalation clauses, offers that specify the buyer will exceed the best bid by a certain amount.
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) said it understands, “the fairness angle,” of disclosing competing offer details. “But this will also be a tricky area for the government to attempt to legislate,” said a statement attributed to board CEO John DiMichele.
“Disclosing bids puts realtors in conflict with their seller clients,” he said.
In regard to bully bids, the government would need to either require sellers to look at all offers as they come in or not accept any until a certain date.
“We prefer less government intervention in the marketplace,” said the statement.
