The National unemployment rate for Feb 2009 hit 8.1% – that is a significant increase from the Feb 2008’s 6.2. California hit 10.1% in January 2009 – again a big increase over the Jan 2008’s 6.1%.
Riverside – San Bernardino – Ontario (California) had an unemployment rate of 10.1% in December 2008 another big increase over the 6.5% from December 2007.
We are seeing a good trend in home sales in the Inland Empire of Southern California, which does not appear affected by the growing number of unemployed. However, the good rate of sales is probably more attributable to the new lower home prices. For example Moreno Valley, CA homes have lost about 60% of value since the summer of 2006.
Beverly A. Bayer
It’s a Tough Real Estate World1-28-2008
Last night on 60 minutes there was a major segment on the sub-prime problem. They talked to one couple who are having problems with their adjusting mortgage – their only option (they believe) is to walk away. They were looking at Stockton, California as a foreclosure hotspot using: www.foreclosureradar.com. I went to the site the Moreno Valley map is jam packed with pre-foreclosure, foreclosure and lender owned properties. They are using www.zillow.com as the source for current values of the listed properties. I have found zillow is not reporting the current (real) values in Moreno Valley.
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Report from DataQuick (1-22-2008) found the number of mortgage defaults in California in the fourth quarter of 2007 was the highest in 15 years. They reported the statewide median home price hit a high of $484,000 last March, going down to $402,000 at the end of the year. Most of the loans in default originated in August to October 2006. For Riverside County the default numbers were from 4528 in the 4th quarter of 2006 to 9913 in the 4th quarter of 2007.
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A homeowner is suing her real estate agent for she believes the agent mislead her about the true value of the home she purchased. The case goes to trial today in North San Diego County. The agent claims the buyers did not do their due diligence, the buyers claimed they trusted the real estate agent – who not only sold them the house, but also worked as a loan broker. Requests to see the appraisal were stalled, thus the appraiser was also sued, but settled.
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On Friday 1/18/2007 a vice president of a collapsed subprime mortgage lender (Fieldstone Mortgage) jumped to his death, after apparently after killing his wife in a murder-suicide.
Moreno Valley Home Prices 2000-2007Chart of the median home prices for the 4 Moreno Valley zip codes from September 2000 to September 2007 from dqnews.com.
Note the increases in Median home prices especially between 2003 and 2005; a slowing between 2005 and 2006 and a significant drop between 2006 and 2007. For 20 years of data – the number of sales is way down. The 12 years between 1988 and 1999 on average in September 207.5 homes sell in Moreno Valley; the year with the lowest number of sales outside of 2007 – was 1992 with 131 sales.
What’s new in Moreno Valley -its looks like lots of motel rooms and distribution centers.
