Archive for California

Love Where You Live!

May 16, 2012 / Cassie / No comments

Feeling emotionally down or overwhelmed? pack your bags and head out to San Luis Obispo County. San Luis Obispo’s 44,000 residents ranked  #1 in the US in overall emotional health.

In 2008, Dan Buettner wrote a best seller called Blue Zones in which he tackled the topic of happiness and the secrets of some of the happiest places on Earth. Not surprisingly, San Luis Obispo was one of the first mentioned. What makes San Luis Obispo one of the best places to live? Well, lets find out.

People are happier when their surroundings are beautiful and nice. in San Luis Obispo County, not only is there quick and easy access to the arts through many museums and theaters, but the natural surroundings are stunning. In SLO county, there are stunning velvety hills that roll throughout the county spotted with beautiful vineyards and orchards. The homes are not crammed together, five stories high. Almost every lot has a quarter of an acre or more, giving residents room to breathe. In fact, there are currently almost 350 listings that are on lots larger than 1 acre. San Luis Obispo also has limits on signage, limiting the size and type of advertising business can do. This makes it much easier to enjoy natural surroundings.

Physical health and emotional health are more closely related than many people might guess. There are many opportunities to exercise in San Luis Obispo, largely due to the aggressive greenbelt plan and an ordinance limiting housing growth to 1% per year. This has resulted in surrounding the city with 3000 acres of open space made up of parks, hiking trails, biking trails, and wildlife preserves. San Luis Obispo City is also a very walkable city. This allows for residents to actively get from place to place, reducing the frustration that comes from driving on busy streets as well as giving residents an easy way to exercise. Surprisingly, drive through restaurants have been banned since the 1980′s which has been very beneficial to the public health. the obesity rate there is 17.6% vs the national average of 26.5%. Smoking is also strongly discouraged in San Luis Obispo. With a ban on smoking in front of business buildings and in parks and playgrounds, the city hopes to “de-normalize” smoking. This has resulted in a smoking rate of 11%, one of the lowest in the country.

Its quite plain to see why the residents of San Luis Obispo are so happy and mentally well.  Do you think that sounds pretty appealing? Well, pack your bags and find a home for you, by visiting http://sanluisobispocaliforniahomes.com/.

 

Orange County Real Estate Trends

January 16, 2012 / Intern / No comments

Market Tracking – November 2011 to January 2012

Real Estate markets are always changing and it is important to keep up on the latest trends and developments in the market you may want to buy into. Since November, the number of houses listed went down by 18.5% with over 14,000 homes in November to less than 12,000 this month in January. However, this is not too surprising. The National Association of Realtors track real estate trends, and in the last few years, January has been the month that has set record or near-record sales. The trend will probably continue to decline, as April through July tend to see the highest sales. This season is when kids finish out semesters, when the weather is nicer, and when it is generally most convenient for people to move. To see every home listing in Orange County, please visit the Orange County California Real Estate website and find your home!

Condos, new homes, foreclosures, and properties have gone down in number of listings. However, condominiums are the type of home that had the biggest decrease in number in the last few months. Condos are extremely popular in California, Orange County in particular. Starting in January, Condos begin to really step up in sales. Condo buyers want to get into their new homes and get ready for the beautiful California summers and beach fun. If you have been looking for a condo in Orange County, feel free to visit Orange County Condos for Sale

For the last two or three months, there has been only one single category of homes that the number of listings have increased. Short sales in Orange County are steadily increasing over the last few months, and, on a wider scale, have been increasing over the last year. If you would like to see all the short sale listings in Orange County right now, visit Orange County Short Sales. Short sale homes all over the country are increasing in numbers due to the current economic conditions. RealtyTrac has found that short sales account for 12% of home sales nationwide. That has increased from the 10% in the same quarter of last year. This general trend in our country is no different than what has been happening in Orange County. Orange County is typically one of the more expensive markets, which may be why this trend has been especially true in this area. Orange County’s average home value is $530,400 which is quite a bit higher than the $384,200 that rest of California is at. The median income in Orange County is not much higher than the rest of California, with only a 15% increase.

Looking for Real Estate in a specific area of Orange County? Try looking at Irvine California Homes.

Short Sales | Top Metro Areas to Buy Short Sales

October 12, 2011 / abarker / No comments

Here is a great post from RealtyTrac, over the top US areas to buy Short Sales. Most of these areas have streamlined the process because short sales are pretty much the only thing you can buy in some of these markets.

Based on an analysis of RealtyTrac data, including average sales price, average discount, percent of all sales and the average days to sell a short sale, Foreclosure News Report compiled the following list of the Top 10 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for buying a short sale..

1) LOS ANGELES

RealtyTrac data shows that properties sold via short sale in the second quarter took an average of 192 days to sell from the date they entered the foreclosure process, compared to an average of 186 days to sell an REO property from the time it was repossessed by the lender.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metro area had more short sales than any other metro in the nation during the second quarter, registering 9,145 short sales in Q2 2011. Buyers saved 32 percent on their short sale transactions. The average price of a Los Angeles short sale was $350,237. View LA Short Sales Now

2) PHOENIX

With short sales accounting for nearly a quarter of all sales, Phoenix buyers had no shortage of pre-foreclosures bargains to choose from. In the second quarter of 2011, Phoenix buyers negotiated 8,434 short sale transactions, paying an average $133,793, with an average discount of 27 percent. Search for Phoenix Short Sales

3) CAPE CORAL-FORT MYERS, FL

During the housing boom, homebuilding was on steroids in Southwestern Florida, dredging hundreds of miles of swampy canals into a modern-day Venice on the Gulf of Mexico. At Lehigh Acres, a team of admen transformed a sprawling ranch east of Fort Myers into a new formula in mass-marketing real estate.

But that addiction to overbuilding and overpricing has left thousands of prospective sellers seriously underwater.

Cape Coral clocked in with 1,358 short sales in the second quarter of 2011, with an average price of $111,029. Buyers in Cape Coral paid 33 percent less for pre-foreclosure (short) sales than the average price for properties not in foreclosure. Search Cape Coral FL Short Sales Now

4) OXNARD-THOUSAND OAKS-VENTURA, CA

Two thousand miles away from Cape Coral, Fla., another coastal city in California has emerged as a short sale pioneer. Oxnard is among the metros most battered by the housing slump.

For short sale buyers, there are bargains galore in Ventura County. The Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA metro had 681 short sales in the second quarter of 2011. Prices were slashed 24 percent on short sales, with the average price at $352,994 according to RealtyTrac. Short sales accounted for 26 percent of all real estate transactions.

5) RENO-SPARKS, NV

About 60 percent of homeowners in Reno owe more on their house than the house is worth, making the short sale market in Reno is huge.

Pre-foreclosure sales alone accounted for nearly 30 percent of all sales in the second quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac. Buyers paid only $156,664 on average for a Reno short sale (less than it costs to build a new house), and the 702 short sales in Reno during the second quarter represented a 50 percent increase from the previous quarter.

Find Short Sales in Washoe County

6) SAN FRANCISCO

Short sales in the San Francisco metro rose 47 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter to a total of 3,237. Buyers snagged an average discount of 41 percent on pre-foreclosures, although the average price for a short sale was still a lofty $364,766. Search for San Francisco Short Sales

7) SAN JOSE

Once considered a safe alternative to the overheated Bay Area real estate market, the San Jose metro — home to the Silicon Valley — has no shortage of short sale inventory.

The East Bay area of Northern California offers homebuyers and investors big discounts on short sales, averaging a whopping 41 percent savings. Despite the big discount, the average short sale price of $420,806 in the San Jose area was still one of the highest in the country.

8) PORTLAND MSA

Portland, a metropolitan area of some 2.2 million people, is a spring board to the drizzly Pacific Northwest. The area reported a total of 756 pre-foreclosure (short) sales in the second quarter, up 39 percent from the previous quarter and accounting for 11 percent of all sales.

9) ATLANTA

Atlanta was another metro at the top of the short sale list for the second quarter, with a 21 percent bump in pre-foreclosure sales from the prior quarter. In the metro Atlanta area, 2,595 short sales were sold to third party buyers in in the second quarter, accounting for 14 percent of all sales.

View Atlanta Short Sales

10) MILWAUKEE

Rounding out the Top 10 was the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis metro, where 324 short sales took place between April and the end of June 2011 — up 20 percent from the previous quarter. The average price for a short sale was $107,980, 41 percent below the average price of a property not in foreclosure.

Read more from originial article Top 10 Short Sale Markets

via Short Sales | Top Metro Areas to Buy Short Sales.

 

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