Archive for the 'San Diego County Community News' Category
Save money, time and your credit
September 6th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News
SAN DIEGO– I was recently surfing the net looking for something to perk my interest for my blog. I happened to go to the Department of Corporations website, not sure why, and what I found there is encouraging.
I am working on a market campaign, the pictured is a rough idea, reaching out to homeowners in trouble. The worst thing homeowners facing a money crunch can do is hope the problem goes away and it seems their biggest hurdle is reaching out for help. I realize it is hard to talk about these things, but you HAVE to and the sooner the better.
There is a huge window of opportunity right now to get either a loan modification or a short sale.The government, federal, state and local are all over lenders to do everything they can to help homeowners stay in their homes. Currently it is estimated that up to 60% of the homes banks have already foreclosed on are NOT on the market. The average monthly case load
for a full time loss mitigation manager in the state is approximately 150 files a month. Again there is a huge incentive for financial institutions to try to help as they are getting buried.
What the survey showed to my surprise is that approximately 20% of all loan workouts initiate in the state are granted loan modification or forbearance. This is GREAT news. Another 25% close escrow through foreclosure/REO sale or short sale. However, short sale closings are less than 10% of this group. This tells me homeowners have a GREAT chance of getting a loan modification if they initiate the process soon enough and have a real reason for the need.
Lastly, I am here to confidentially help you with your situation. We will work together to try to come to the best solution for you. I am working with a lender that can help with the loan modification process. Feel free to email me or call 760–415–3329.
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San Diego’s free shade tree program in jeopardy
September 3rd, 2008 Categories: San Diego County Community News, San Diego county Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO– What does a New Zealand Christmas, a Chinese Flame and a London Plane have in common? They are three of the up to 19 varieties of shade trees available for free from the California Center for Sustainable Energy Cool Communities Shade Tree Program. This program is now in jeopardy due to a loss of funding.
Started in 2002, the shade tree program was designed to provide homeowners with free trees to plant strategically on their property. With proper placement, homeowners could save energy by using shade trees to help keep their homes cool in San Diego’s year round summers. An added benefit of course is that trees help beautify the homes and help our environment. Since the programs inception over 36,000 trees have been distributed.
Prior to 2006, the program had been funded by the California Public Utilities 
Commission with funds collected for the public purpose program charge. This charge is tied to to our SDGE based on natural gas usage. While the monies will still be collected, it is the shift in oversight of the funds to SDGE that has caused the program to loss its funding. SDGE is looking to use the funds for more immediate energy efficiency benefits.
The program is funded through 2008 and unless new funding is found, it will most likely be terminated then. Here’s your chance to beautify your home, neighborhood, save energy and help the environment all at once.. FOR FREE!!
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Carlsbad’s desalination plant unanimously approved
August 23rd, 2008 Categories: San Diego County Community News, San Diego county Real Estate News
CARLSBAD– The States Land Commission unanimously approved the desalination project slated to be built on the Encina power plant site in Carlsbad. This was the final regulatory approval the project needed in order to start construction next year with the goal of water production starting in 2011.
The plant, which will produce about 50 million gallons of freshwater from 200 million gallons, will be the largest desalination in the western hemisphere according to Reuters. The 50 million gallons equats to approximately 10% of the San Diego county region current water usage.
With the Carlsbad project receiving final approval, this helps clear the way for approval of approximately 20 other desalination project proposed for the California coast.
Earlier this week the first of what will probably be several legal challenges was rejected by the State Water Resources Control Board. The suit filed by the Surfrider Foundation said plans to minimize environmental damage the plant would cause were 
insufficient.
The Coastal Commission also this month approved a second plant to be built on the Monterey Peninsula to provide water for a development near Cannery Row. This plant is much smaller and will produce about 25,000 a day.
While I believe these projects are necessary and I support the idea, I fear not much good will actually come from them if they are tied to development such as the Monterey project. We need new water sources to help meet our current needs. This is evident by the state’s current drought situation.
“It is easy for Sacramento to put off dealing with the water infrastructure,” Schwarzenegger said. “But as we now see, there is no more time to waste, because nothing is more vital than to protect our economy, to protect our environment, and to protect our quality of life.” -CNN.com, June, 5, 2008
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San Diego’s busy weekend of endurance sports
August 17th, 2008 Categories: Aquathlon and Duathlon Race Reports, San Diego County Bike Rides, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Triathlon Race Reports, San Diego County run routes, Triathlon Club of San Diego Race Reports
SAN DIEGO– Well we are in the heart of the thoroughbred season currently running at the Del Mar fairgrounds, but this weekend was all about endurance junkies. Young and old!!!
Saturday, the Triathlon Club of San Diego hosted 170 triathletes at Glorietta Bay for our monthly San Diego Running Institute race series. Behind the scenes, the race was experiencing some hiccups as TCSD race director Cory Osth, timing guru John Hill and big time race volunteer, TCSD VP Dave Huff were both absent. This left TCSD member and co Race Director Karam Gill with a pretty large task. The beauty of the tri club is that it only took Karam one email to round up a solid group of 
volunteers and the race went off perfectly!!!
A couple notables at the race were Triathlete Magazine President Mitch Thrower as well as Brennan Lindner of Generic Events and founder of the Playa Del Run series.
The bay was perfect, no one crashed on the bike and everyone was greeted with a wonderful breakfast buffet, croissant sandwiches, parfaits with Kashi granola and fresh fruit, taken care of by Denise Pitre and her crew. If you are not a member of TCSD, you are missing the VERY BEST part of the San Diego Triathlon scene.
Y-TRI youth triathlon
While the grown ups were doing their thing at Glorietta Bay, tri club member 
Troy Cundari with ZEAL Optical, was putting on the first annual Y-TRI youth triathlon.
The race featuring approximately 80 kids, took place within the grounds of Mt. Carmel high school and was open to kids ages 8–13. The kids 8–11 did a 75 meter swim, a 1.5 mile bike and a one mile run while the 12–13 year olds did a 175 swim, a 2.5 mile bike and finished off with a one mile run.
Look for another larger edition of this race next year.
Playa Del Run Solana Beach
The ZOOT Playa Del Run series rolled into town for the second time this year. The six race Aquathlon, swim/run, series kicked off in San Diego’s Mission Bay on April 27th 2008.
Sponsored locally by Solana Beach’s own BnL Bikes, this race features a 1000 meter ocean swim followed by a 5K run. Starting at the newly redesigned Fletcher Cove beach, the weather was perfect with some surf, but not too much. As always Triathlon Club of San Diego volunteers were on hand as swim buddies to help those get through their first ocean swim. Every week TCSD hosts a swim at Fletcher Cove Friday mornings, so there was a lot of local knowledge working to help newer swimmers.
Personally the best thing about this race was seeing ZOOT sales representative and former TCSD beginner coach Sonja Johnson Doherty. Back in April, Sonja was hit by truck on a training ride and shattered her lower leg. Because of the work of great doctors, a great healthy, fit and positive patient and a whole lot of hardware, Sonja was swimming today and has been back on the bike. The run is still in the future, but it was FANTASTIC to see Sonja back competing and wearing that ear to ear grin!!!
AFC Half Marathon
I told you it was a weekend for endurance junkies and the America’s Finest City half marathon closed the weekend. 
This 13.1 mile run starts with a nice downhill from Cabrillo National Monument and finishes with a strong uphill into San Diego’s famous Balboa Park. Along the way runners race along the San Diego Bay and briefly visit sites such as the Embarcadero and the Star of India.
Now in it’s 32nd year, make sure that you do this race at least once.
Well that’s it. Tired?
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Carlsbad desalination plant gets coastal commission approval
August 6th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News
SAN DIEGO– After a 10+ hour meeting today held at Oceanside city hall, the California coastal commission gave final approval to the desalination plant that was proposed to be built on the Encinas power plant site.
The plant will produce approximately 50 million gallons of freshwater a day from 100 million gallons of seawater. The plant will actually pump in excess of 300 million, what is is not sent through the reverse osmosis process is used to dilute the brine left over from the 
process.
To offset damage to marine life from the plant operation there will be 55.4 acre habitat restoration site to be built in two phases. One the size of Poseidon’s proposed 37 acres in the first two years and then an additional 18.4 acres added within the next five years.
With regard to a carbon offsets requirement, Poseidon stated that they will use as much solar power as possible. Also, there may be an actual carbon reduction if you take in to account that pumps, theoretically, will no longer be necessary to bring 50 million gallons of water to San Diego daily from northern California.
As usual we had the Sanders v Aguirre thing going on with Mayor Sanders on one side and the city attorney on the other. It just won’t be regional politics with out it.
“We must diversify our region’s water-supply portfolio,” said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “We cannot conserve our way out of the water crisis.”
San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre testified in opposition to the project, arguing that it was the wrong approach to solving the region’s water shortage.
“The primary way to gain new water is through reclamation,” he said, referring to the process by which waste water is converted back into drinking water.”– San Diego Union, 8/5/2008
The project now goes to the California State Lands commission which next meets August 22nd in Los Angeles. If approved then, expext construction on the project to start in mid 2009.
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San Diego regional Mayors back Carlsbad Desal Plant
August 2nd, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News
SAN DIEGO– Seven regional Mayors, including Carlsbad’s Bud Lewis, got together at Mayor Sander’s office and held a news conference Friday to ask the California Coastal Commission to finalize the conditional permit it approved in November of 2007 for the Carlsbad desalination plant. The plant would be built on the site of the current Encinas power plant which I have written about here and here.
Funny thing, but in one of the posts I have linked above I stated that, while I think the plant needs to be built, it will create an attitude in city government that the Pacific Ocean is an unlimited supply of fresh water and in turn this philosophy will fuel continued area population expansion. Well, that and an economic turnaround.
“First, more building will take place because the thought that the Pacific Ocean is huge and we can always build another plant will permeate the governmental minds.”– Brian Long, 11/18/2007
Well how about this quote from Jerry Sanders from the San Diego Union Tribune article dated 8/1/2007.
“Seawater desalination will provide a drought-proof water supply,” Sanders said
NICE!!!
The commission will be meeting this Wednesday, 9:00 at Oceanside City Hall which is located at 300 N. Coast Highway. I would be VERY surprised if this did not get approved. Besides the water it will add much needed jobs and dollars to our community.
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Just how accurate is the Case Schiller home index for San Diego
July 31st, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week
SAN DIEGO– It was reported that the most recent Standard & Poor’s/Case-Schiller index showed a a one year price decline in San Diego of 23.2%. This ranked San Diego fifth worse of the 20 metro areas covered by the index. Now this is in no way good news, but more importantly I do not believe it is accurate news.
This index differs from other pricing surveys by looking at repeat sales of the same house which seems like a more accurate way of tracking trends as it does not bring new homes sales into the equation. The problem with this system however, and increasingly more so now, is it does not take in to account the condition of the home and I will explain why that is more important now than ever.
See in June foreclosed homes made up 40% of home sales in San Diego and since the majority of these homes would have a recent sale history they would be used in the index. Now the depreciation would be easy to figure out, but again, the condition of the home being sold in foreclosure would 
be a completely different animal than the home sold 2–5 years ago.
Take the example of this Carlsbad home pictured above that I wrote about here. It sold in December of 2003 for $500,000 and is now back on the market as a REO home that has been foreclosed on. I believe it will sell for somewhere in the low 400’s so not while the close to the 23% reported by Case/ Schiller, certainly a loss. But what is not taken into account is the home has been stripped of all its appliances including the garage door opener, the hot water heater and all kitchen appliances including the garbage disposal. Additionally sinks have been removed, a builtin vanity, plumbing, all the light fixtures, and more. The fences are now falling over, the back fence is gone, molding has been stripped away from the sliders and carpet has been cut out. 
So my question here is, is this depreciation an accurate indicator of the overall real estate market or the damage and cost of a foreclosed home? When buying a used car, mileage and condition are taken into account and should be in this case. If you plugged this theory onto cars, you could say Honda Civics are now worth $6500 based on same car sales which would not be true. Remember 40% of home sales were FORECLOSURES.
This is not a unique situation that I am using to make a point. I have been in foreclosed homes that had actual fungus growing out of the walls because the owner took all the shower fixtures and water was dripping down the interior wall. In past market downturns I have heard stories of owners doing very destructive thigs such as pouring cement in the tolets and sinks to try to ruin the in slab plumbing. In fact one of the main provisions of the Housing Bill that President signed into law yesterday establishes a fund for communities to use to buy and maintain foreclosed properties to try to limit blight.
“As a $4 billion package to help municipalities deal with foreclosure-related blight hangs fire in the US Senate, US mayors met last weekend in Miami to vent about the scourge of abandoned homes. Cash-strapped cities are now scrambling – often using on-the-fly ingenuity – to rescue neighborhoods suddenly vulnerable to crime and stunned by millions of dollars in lost equity wrought by loose credit, opportunistic
speculators, and predatory lending.”
“Some 44.5 million homes in the US now stand next to an empty house, resulting in a drop of at least $5,000 in property value per house. By that calculation, a total loss of home value of $220 billion across the US can be attributed to the vacancy problem.”
“‘This is a man-made disaster that’s had more dramatic impacts on real estate markets than natural disasters [have],’ says Bruce Katz, a housing analyst at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. ‘In a way, we have a lot of mini-Katrinas across the country.’”– Christian Science Monitor, July 1, 2008
Is the real estate market in the midst of a down turn? Absolutley. Is it as bad as it is being made out? I think not. Sure some areas are getting hit very hard, but I beleive it is more a reflection of the product not the market. For all you buyers that were waiting for prices to come down, now is your time.
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How the housing bill may effect San Diego
July 28th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week, San Diego county Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO– Well congress pulled a weekend session and passed the housing bill intended to buoy our sinking housing market. President Bush has already indicated he would in turn sign this in to law. I have been asked by quite a few people what I thought about the bill over the last several weeks, but have withheld any real opinion until I could read more about it and digest that information. So here are my thoughts.
Probably the real impact of the bill nationwide will be the portion that allows the FHA to insure and help refinance, into fixed rate, some 400,000 loans for homeowners that are in some part of the foreclosure process. Two things here however. The homeowners would have to show that they can indeed afford the payment and the banks would have to accept any loss. The problem I see with this is that most of these homeowners will not be able to afford the new payment especially if 
they got loans based on stated income or had a change in their ‘economic’ picture such as disability, loss of job, taking on more consumer debt, etc. Additionally, there is a clause in the bill that protects lenders from investor lawsuits over loss revenue caused from restructuring loans. This is probably the most beneficial to the consumer group as a whole of this portion.
The 3.9 billion earmarked for buying and or maintaining/ rehabing foreclosed homes will go to companies with government ties so I really don’t see this as being very beneficial to the populous. This will benefit some companies and quite honestly I just see opportunity for abuse. Hopefully the money will go to housing non profits that have a strong history of benefiting the community. Did you read about the Iraq prison in todays paper?
Now the 15 billion earmarked for housing tax breaks will help quite a few with 
a tax credit equal to 10% of the purchase price up to $7500. In order to earn this credit, the home purchase must fall between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009. However, from what I have been able to find this is a credit for low income and first time buyers only. Additionally, this credit will have to be paid back in equal payments over 15 years. So this really is 0% loan. Also, as with most everything associated with tax filings there are income restrictions.
What I believe will have the greatest impact on San Diego’s real estate 
market is the provision that makes the increase in the loan amount the FHA can insure permanent. Currently the FHA can insure loans up to $625,000 in high cost market areas. This amount used to be $417,000 and was set to revert back at the end of the year. Why this is important to us, is that the borrower can get a more favorable because of the assurance to cover the loan from the FHA.
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San Diego’s foreclosure market
July 24th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego county Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO– The problem with getting two newspapers delivered at home, is my ‘bad’ news comes in two doses. On occasion though, it is interesting how the same situation is portrayed in completely different ways.
This Sunday both the San Diego Union and the North County Times had lead articles about the causes and impact of the foreclosure market.
The San Diego Union states, “This year’s free fall in home values– as much as 40% in some cases– can,
in many cases, be traced to disproportionate share of risky loans doled out”. The paper looked at the ratio of subprime loans to prime loans in the 15 highest deprecating neighborhoods in San Diego. It is worth mentioning that in every zip code however, the percentage of resale homes originating from foreclosure was higher than the percentage of subprime loans. I think the North County Times article may have the answer.
In the North County Times article titled Beyond Subprime, they cited a study by the Federal Reserve with regard to type of loan versus depreciation and their impact on foreclosure. The study states that homeowners whose homes have depreciated more than 20% were 14 times more likely to go into foreclosure, while subprime borrowers were only 6 times more likely to go into forclosure. The study’s conclusion was that depreciation was a 
greater factor in foreclosure than type of borrower.
Thomas Kelly of JPMorgan Chase stated that, “Some people could afford it(the house), but chose not to, and the biggest impact is falling home prices.”-North County Times, July 20,2008
The biggest impact of foreclosures is they continue to drag the market down almost feeding on themselves. It really is a classic ‘domino effect’.
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The journey of one Carlsbad home
July 18th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News
SAN DIEGO– This is the story of one home, one buyer and graphic illustration of the current San Diego housing market.
This 3 bedroom 1563 square foot Chestnut Street home was last sold in December 2003 for $500,000 with the buyer financing $450,000. If the story ended here, everything would be great. It doesn’t and I believe this is why this home and many others have ended up in the bank’s hands.
The buyer, within 60 days took out what was most likely a HELOC or home equity line of credit of $270,000. That $500,000 home just became a 
$720,000 liability. It does look as though there were some improvements done on the home and on August 9th of 2005 the home was listed in the MLS. After 93 days with a listing price of $749,000 to $849,000 the first listing period expired. It immediately went back on the market at same price for an additional 114 days.
In this two year timeframe, this area of the Carlsbad housing market saw an increase in values of approximately 20%. The average selling price in 2003 
was $546,573 and in 2005 was $656,000. Unfortunately the homeowner was looking for almost a 70% premium at the high end of their range.
In January of 2008, the home came back on the market as a short sale. It was listed at $549,000 to $649,000. After 178 on the market, the bank has auctioned the property. I will up date this article as soon as I know the price.
What this illustrates to me and should to you, is the fact that many homebuyers looked to their homes as more than homes. In general with regard to the current real estate market, we have only each other to look at. When one wakes up with a hangover, you generally don’t blame the bar. Instead you question why you drank so much. It was the over exuberance of false wealth that fueled lifestyles and our economy. The banks only filled glass. 
Had this particular owner not squandered what equates to over 50% of the market value of the home, they would still own their own 3 bedroom with a view slice of paradise less than mile from the beach. Additionally, they would be sitting on approximately a 17% appreciation to date.
Only 20 years ago, the U.S.’s total outstanding mortgage debt made up roughly 30% of our GDP. Homeowners held large stakes in their houses – close to 70% of the equity on average. Today, mortgage debt equals nearly 80% of GDP. The average homeowner owns less than half the equity in his home. This seismic change in the nature of home ownership and debt financing occurred nearly overnight – in less than one generation.– Seeking Alpha, 7/18/2008
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