The Housing Bubble

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. “As the Occupy Wall Street movement expands across the nation, including to Oakland’s downtown plaza Monday, supporters hope to make it more politically powerful by focusing on real-life stories of people such as Mark Schwetz. Schwetz stood Thursday in front of the Federal Reserve building on San Francisco’s Market Street, holding a plain white piece of cardboard with a handwritten plea: ‘Return our homes.’ A few months after Schwetz purchased a home in Petaluma in 2004, his subprime mortgage payments doubled. For five years, he poured almost all of his earning as a FedEx driver into his house payments, until he couldn’t afford it any longer. He rented rooms to friends, but ‘it didn’t help much,’ he said.”

“Schwetz’s lender refused to renegotiate the borrowing terms. Two years ago, he sold his house, which had lost about half its original value of $400,000, for less than he owed on the mortgage - a practice known as a short sale. ‘I’m angry and I’m frustrated, and it’s really unfair what’s been done,’ said Schwetz,”

From RT.com. “In Los Angeles, homeowners facing foreclosure loudly expressed their shared grievances of the Occupy Wall Street movement and are planning to fight back. From struggling homeowners to the unemployed, people of all walks of life are becoming emboldened by the recent street demonstrations. ‘Two years ago I lost my job due to the economic meltdown that the banks created,’ said Javier Sarmiento, an unemployed homeowner. Sarmiento used to work at an auto parts plant. He is part of the 4.5 million people who have been unemployed for more than a year. Now, this father of two is struggling to hold on to his home. ‘Wall Street created this mess and they should be held accountable,’ Sarmiento said.”

“Rose Gudiel received an eviction notice after falling behind on her mortgage payments. ‘I’m a state worker and due to that I was furloughed and they lowered my hours so they also lowered my pay,’ said Gudiel.”

“Gudiel also had a death in her family, which caused further financial hardship. She claims her bank refused to deal with her when she tried to renegotiate her mortgage. ‘They’ve been governing our lives, our money, and just taking it,’ said Gudiel. ‘There has to be a stand and this is the stand that you’re seeing at this point,’ Gudiel added.”

The Pasadena Star News. “Pasadena Police officers arrested Bassett resident Rose Gudiel, her 63-year-old mother Rosa and six others on suspicion of unlawful assembly after the group had gathered inside Fannie Mae regional headquarters. According to public records, Gudiel’s property was sold to Fannie Mae for $451,616 in May. She was given a foreclosure notice in March.”

“‘Enough is enough,’ Gudiel shouted. ‘I’m not going anywhere until Fannie Mae tells me why they won’t let me keep my home.’”

The Daily Pilot. “Protesters disrupted a meeting of the California Bankers Assn. at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. About 40 members of ReFund California, a coalition of advocacy groups and union members, burst into the club’s ballroom, chanting, ‘Make banks pay!’ Joe Briones, a film major at L.A. City College who is helping to run the Occupy LA social media feed from the City Hall protests said, ‘The banks engineered the country’s financial collapse and then profited from it.’”

The Napa Valley Register. “Realtor Mariano Sanchez looks back at the early 2000s as the good ol’ days. Selling real estate since 1998, ‘those were my biggest years,’ Sanchez said. Starting in 2002, during the real estate boom, Sanchez said he closed 10 to 12 deals per year. ‘They were huge commissions,’ said Sanchez, who was working only part time in real estate at the time.”

“In 2007, when the market was ‘hot,’ Sanchez quit his day job. ‘I was thinking, ‘Forget about my fixed paycheck and go for the big money.’”

“Then the bottom fell out of the market. In 2007, he closed four deals in the first quarter, then nothing the rest of the year, he said. In 2008, he completed two sales. In 2009, three, and in 2010, five. ‘It’s not what it used to be,’ he said. ‘It’s a hardship to make a living in real estate right now.” To make ends meet, Sanchez said he also works as a security guard.”

“Sanchez said the Century 21 real estate office he works for used to have more than 30 people. ‘Now we only have six or seven agents,’ he said Where did they go? ‘No clue,’ he said. ‘They just vanish. Most people don’t want to talk about it,’ he said.”

The Press Telegram. “Some of the longest-running listings in the South Bay have racked up hundreds upon hundreds of days on public offer, and remain priced in the multi-millions, just waiting for a well-heeled buyer to make a move. 2260 Circle Drive, Hermosa Beach, is a newer (2005) Cape Cod home with five bedrooms, five baths and 3,575 square feet on a nice up-sloping lot. The greatest feature of the home is its big, open ocean views that stretch from Palos Verdes all the way north to Malibu.”

“Circle Drive is currently offered at $3,549,000 with a note that the seller is ‘MOTIVATED’ (all caps from the listing). No wonder. This one’s been on-and-off since April 2010, logging more than 500 combined days on market. (The current listing began July 1 and is a little over 90 days old.) At some point, after living with uncertainty for 18 months, you just want it sold.”

“3011 Johnston, Redondo Beach, a modestly sized (two bedrooms, two baths, 1,850 square feet) single-family home with separate guest house/studio, has racked up almost 440 days on market, with a start price just over $850,000 and a current list of $819,000. What is the market saying to each of these listings? Keep working on that price.”

The San Gabriel Valley News. “James Joseph, owner of Century 21 Ambassador and Coldwell Banker Ambassador in Whittier, said the low-priced inventory of available homes in the Whittier and San Gabriel Valley areas is active these days. ‘They move fast, and if they’re priced right we’re getting multiple offers,’ he said. ‘But we have less of an inventory than we had six months ago or a year ago. Many sellers have taken their homes off the market. They’re waiting for a better price.’”

“Michelle Minch, owner of Moving Mountains Design & Home Staging in Pasadena, said she’s getting good results these days. ‘Almost everything we’re staging is selling really quickly within the first couple of weeks,’ she said. ‘I staged a home in Arcadia that went into escrow within two weeks and it’s set to close soon for $750,000.’”

“On Thursday, Freddie Mac announced that the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.94 percent from 4.01 percent last week, the previous low. The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan, a popular refinancing option, dipped to 3.26 percent, also a record. ‘Anyone who doesn’t know that now is the time to buy will look back on this period of history and say, ‘Darn, I wish I could have gotten on board,’ said Tom Adams, owner of Century 21 Adams & Barnes in Glendora and Monrovia.”

The Ventura County Star. “Financial adviser Suze Orman, speaking Tuesday night in Thousand Oaks, said the real estate market probably won’t recover completely until about 2023 and warned that only the most financially prepared should consider buying a home now in California. The state’s jobless rate is about 12.1 percent, and Orman thinks the rate is more like 20 percent to 25 percent. Eight of the 10 U.S. cities with the most foreclosures are in California, she said, adding that banks are not foreclosing on homes even when people have skipped payments for more than a year.”

“The banks ‘want to say they’re working through all of these foreclosures. They say inventory is getting less and less and the real estate market is starting to stabilize. Wrong, wrong, wrong. There are about 12 million homes out there that still need to be foreclosed on,’ she said.”

“Interest rates are staying low to get people to buy those homes, Orman said. A home that once sold for $1.5 million and is now going for $750,000 might seem like the buy of a lifetime. But if a neighbor loses his job and must sell fast, he’ll sell for less, making home values in the neighborhood fall further. A similar situation happened in a retirement area near Orman’s current home in Florida. Three years ago, condominiums there sold for about $150,000; now they sell for as little as $6,000, she said.”

“Orman, who also has written personal finance books, said people should be buying real estate today only if they have a secure job or income, can put 20 percent down, can qualify for at least a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and can afford the property taxes, insurance and maintenance.”

The Inquisitr. “The former Calabasas, California rental home of pop star Britney Spears is being put up on the auction block this week. The Chateau Suenos sits on one acre of land and was decked out with $700,000 in lavish upgrades during Spears’ two year stay at the home. In April 2011 the homes owner Jose “Pancho” Leon attempted to list the property for $10.8 million but received no offers for the estate. The home will now go to auction with a starting bid of $4.499 million, 58% of the homes original asking price.”

‘Mr. Leon says the home is not in foreclosure: ‘I know that I’ll be selling at a loss but I want to move on.’”