It looks like a venture into the unknown, a winding walking path leading around seasonal creeks, trees and terraced patios.  The buildings are painted with murals or art and the world seems a peaceful, attractive place to shop.

Apparently developers are now starting to include women in the development phases of shopping centers, creating new and different footprints that are rethinking the mall.

Instead of formal 40-foot-tall fountains, large pieces of abstract outdoor art and drab pedestrian walkways between parking garages and stores, they wanted “calming” water areas, Read the rest of this entry »

If you think the U.S. is alone in its Recession and scary housing market, you’re wrong! Apparently Great Britain is having a heckuva time, as is Australia and Southeast Asia. From MarketWatch:

The data come amid a steady of stream of negative news about the British housing sector. Other surveys have also shown a rapid decline in house prices over recent months, while mortgage approvals slumped to an all-time low in May.

Lenders have boosted mortgage rates and tightened lending standards in the wake of the credit crunch.
“With house-purchase transactions so far below their long-term trend, it seems unlikely that there will be any rapid turnaround in housing market fortunes in the coming month,” said Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist.

“We’re in a nasty environment,” said Tim Bond, Barclay’s chief equity strategist. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, when a lender waives prepayment penalties on “pick-a-pay” option-ARM, things must be pretty bad. And it wants out of the whole neg-am loan business. And here’s the proof:

Effectively immediately, Wachovia is waiving all prepayment fees associated with its Pick-A-Pay mortgage to allow customers complete flexibility in their home financing decisions. This includes all Pick-A-Pay mortgages on 1-4 unit residences.

Additionally, for all new loan originations, Wachovia is discontinuing offering products that include payment options resulting in negative amortization.

“I think they’ve come to the stark realization that the product was risky,” said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. “They’re bleeding.”

Wachovia shares fell 3.9% to $15.58 during afternoon trading on Monday. The stock has lost 70% of its value in the past year.

 
I came across this story in the Washington Post, on a subject near and dear to my heart — the “freshened” listing.

Freshening up a listing by withdrawing it and relisting it several months later is a trick that has been used for a long time. It is particularly popular when properties have languished from one year into the next because the numbers assigned within a multiple listing service correlate to the year, and sometimes the date, the property is listed.

Primarily because new properties garner more attention, many agents/sellers pull their listing for a few months and then re-list it with a new entry date. But does that mean that’s all you need to do? Thankfully Illyce Glink does say that you may have to look more at your house when it’s not selling rather than freshening listings.

Instead, she says to stage your home — no news there, to rethink your price:

While you may believe your home is worth more (and at one time I’m sure you were right), you may have to cut your price to sell soon. If you don’t feel like competing on price, consider taking your property off the market until next year.

And finally, use the Internet to virally market your home. Either way, we both agree that “freshening” a listing isn’t the only thing holding your house back from being sold. Another look at the property and may come up with a few ideas of how to sell it faster (hint: drop the price.)

Hold onto your hats, I couldn’t believe this price either. The pictures, although showing holes in walls, don’t seem frightening but you probably would want a tour of this just to see what you’re getting into. Still, it’s in Hercules and only $99,900, so maybe it’s worth looking at? If anyone does see this, please let me know what you find! It’s 2,171 square feet, four-bedroom, three bath home with a three-car garage (it’s all about the garage for this house, isn’t it?) that was last sold a year ago for $468,948. Good luck!

A little town called Fairfax in Marin is also selling off what looks like cabins for just a hair and I mean hair below $500,000 — $499,000. Don’t know much about the area other than it’s woodsy and people who like to hike love that kind of stuff. The house doesn’t look bad, or maybe I’m immune to horror, but it’s 1,248 square feet and has a little yard. Don’t let the animals run loose because coyotes will probably eat them. Other than that, you can have a chi-chi address in Marin County

There are two “houses” in Half Moon Bay under $400,000 on St. Martin’s Beach Road. I was curious how something with an ocean view (and possibly access) could be so cheap, so I did some investigating and wondered if it was a place similar to Paradise Cove in Malibu. You know, the trailer park with million-dollar views of the Pacific. (Yes, you would be trailer-park trash, but hey.) It seems a bit more complex than that, though. Since 14 Martins Beach Road mentions the one-bed, one-bath is on leased land for $580/mo. with 13 years of a lease left, there may be much more to the story and explain the $209,000 price.

The other, 33 Martins Beach Road, seems a bit bigger, with two bedrooms, but also is on leased land. A I looked around, I found that that seemingly the whole parcel is up for sale, marketed as a  ”truly private” beach and 53-acre agricultural property. Apparently they charge $10 a car to go to the beach. Man, what a racket! Price is $48,500,000. So, I guess it’s not surprising that people want to leave since the new owner could do all sorts of things to them (like raise leasing prices!)

That concludes our post on the Cheapest Houses in the Bay Area! Come by again when we look at sea and lakeside homes to beat the summer heat.

If you saw my article this morning (and I sincerely hope you did!) you will see that Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ view of the housing market – kind of depressing:

The center’s “State of the Nation’s Housing 2008″ compares housing markets to other recessions of the past few decades and McCue said that complete recovery can take five to 12 years, but the nation’s already 26 months into the housing crisis.

McCue said that if unemployment worsens, there may be “forced sales” that will bring down prices and compete with foreclosures.

Paul Leonard, California director of the Center for Responsible Lending, a policy and research organization in Oakland, said the economy is “shaping into a perfect storm” of tight mortgage credit, shrinking credit card limits, higher unemployment and prices for consumer staples.

What does this mean? It means my 72-year-old mom is starting a vegetable garden because she refuses to pay $3.99 a pound for tomatoes (they went down, right?)  Even I’m thinking about it. I draw the line at canning and pickling, though. Gaaack!

Public transportation is back! According to various reports, the high gas prices are causing people to rethink their gas consumption — including thinking about moving closer to their jobs in urban centers. There’s even reports of people in border towns going to Mexico for gas, of course the stealing of gasoline and even Realtors dealing with the higher prices. But the Inland Empire in SoCal may be hardest hit, so says the WSJ:

Even though falling prices in California’s Inland Empire are making homes more affordable, rising gasoline prices are crushing hopes of a housing recovery in this area, east of Los Angeles.

Deutsche Bank analyst Nishu Sood estimates that gas expenditures in the Inland Empire have increased to $1,322 a month from $534 a month in 2003 among local residents who commute about 120 miles a day, round trip.

Mr. Sood says soaring gas prices are hurting home builders that generated much of their profits during the housing boom by building in the far-flung suburbs of California. But it’s also hurting builders in non-bubble markets in Texas and Atlanta with long commutes.

And from the buying $2.66 a gallon gas in Mexico story in the New York Times, where people dodge bullets from drug cartels for cheaper gas:

Mr. Terrazas, a 48-year-old maintenance worker, is among a flow of American “gas tourists” who, Mexican service stations near the border with El Paso estimate, account for a 50 percent surge in gasoline sales here over the last several months. (Similar increases are reported along the border all the way to Tijuana.) Even the Mexico Tourism Board is promoting the journey.

A few weeks ago, I talked about how Nehemiah Corp. was getting a lot of heat from the feds for getting people into homes with little if any down (by having the seller pay the down payment.) In today’s Wall Street Journal, it’s revisited again, but home builders are also being taken to task. Some, including Nehemiah Corp.’s CEO, feel all the blame on programs like his is “scapegoating.” Read on:

The FHA estimates that down payments provided by nonprofit groups account for 34% of all 200,000 loans backed by the FHA so far this year, up from 18% in all of 2003 and less than 2% in 2000. And the agency says that borrowers are two to three times as likely to default on their payments when they receive a down payment from a nonprofit.

In current versions of the FHA modernization bill, the Senate would eliminate the down-payment programs and a vote on the bill is expected this week; the House version keeps the program in place. Rep. Frank said in an interview that he believed a compromise could be reached with the Senate that would preserve the program but with tougher lending requirements. “No one is talking about leaving it untouched,” he says.

Personally, if I hear someone utter the words “They need skin in the game” I will kick them. I think that only applies to people walking away, and as I’ve said before, most people are dragged kicking and screaming from their homes. How you can afford it should be based on your salary/paycheck, not whether or not it’s morally beneficial to save $10,000.

As always, comments are always appreciated.

As you might expect, those with second homes are attempting to make money by renting out their home for weeks or weekends to make some serious bank. (The Times personal finance reporter, Eve Mitchell is writing about swapping houses as a cheaper way to vacation in Monday’s issue.) On that note, the Washington Post writes about how people who have vacation rentals are having to do a bit more to lure renters, such as dropping prices, giving them free produce (yeah, I don’t get that one, either) and gas cards. However, only one owner said he hasn’t lost business: (please read this post to the end for a surprise.)

Michael Bryan, a Winchester, Va., lawyer, said he thinks he has found the right balance to offset economic downturns. He has not raised the rents on his four Rehoboth Beach, Del., properties in four years, despite the money he spends on them. Some years, Bryan paints the homes; others, he focuses on upgrades to the appliances or carpet.

Facing competition from new condos nearby, Bryan said, he wants to ensure that repeat renters, who make up more than half of his business, do not go elsewhere. That has helped offset the economic downturn, said Bryan, who said he has not seen a drop in business.

“Instead of trying to wring every nickel out of it,” Bryan said, “I find it is important to invest some. To keep them nice.”

He goes on to say that owners have to think longterm for the best results. His 10-year-old properties are doing well, his newer ones haven’t made a profit.

CONTEST ALERT! The first poster who guesses where the photo in the upper left corner of this post was taken gets a $10 gift card to Panera Bread for ooey-gooey sandwiches. Please include your guess, name and address (so I can send the card) in an e-mail addressed to me: bhernandez AT bayareanewsgroup DOT com or click on About Property Lines for a link. Sorry, no MediaNews employees. Good luck!

(Hint: It’s an island.)

At least one San Diego realty company is offering a full gay and lesbian wedding and reception if you buy a house.

Wellsford Realty is offering to pay for the wedding reception for same sex couples married in California when purchasing a home, condo, or vacation home using their services.“It’s more than showing appreciation for our customers,” Michelle Koert of Wellsford Realty said of their Pride Promotion. “It is understanding that domestic partners married under the new Same Sex Marriage Law want all of the securities and happiness that investment in a home has to offer a couple.”

Basically, they give you 10 percent back from the house to fund the reception or honeymoon, so it’s just a typical incentive. Still, nice try to target the gay and lesbian community and get some press.