Pertinent information from Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, delivered by our Santa Barbara Multiple Listing Service: A bill likely to raise the conforming loan amount from $417,000 to $729,000 is due to be signed into law today!!!

This is even more good financial news for folks looking for an opportunity to buy a home in today’s market!!
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Think you can’t live in Santa Barbara for under under $650,000?  … Think again.

Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to live or retire in Santa Barbara?  For many people, Real Estate prices in Santa Barbara seem so prohibitive, they are content to rent just to be here. Some are spending thousands of dollars on rent and receiving no equity in a property. There IS another way to have it all!!
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AARP defines a senior as a person age 50 or older and states, every 7 seconds an American turns 50!

The Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation was developed to focus on the needs of home buyers and sellers age 50 and older. It is awarded only to Realtors who have successfully completed the SRES education program.

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REO stands for Real Estate Owned. It is a term banks use for property they have acquired through the foreclosure process. In California the foreclosure process takes about 4 months, and is usually initiated by the bank after a monthly payment or two is delinquent. When the foreclosure sale occurs, the opening bid is what is owed to the bank, which includes the original loan plus missed payments, late charges and penalties, foreclosure costs, taxes and more. The person who wants to buy the foreclosure property at this sale auction must have all cash (or cashier’s checks). The opening bid is often more than the current market value. Usually the property goes back to the bank and becomes an REO. Generally it is then listed on the open market and competes with other properties for sale.

It goes without saying that the person with the ability to grant or deny access to massive amounts of cash is a critical player on your team. Here again is where your relationships can pay off.

If you have never bought anything more substantial than a winter coat, it is time to hit the pavement. To be a star flipper, you need a friendly lender in your back pocket. Local banks are your best bet, as sellers frequently frown on offers from an out-of-town institution. That is not to say that you’ll never close a deal if you choose your sister-in-law in Hawaii as your financier. However, if yours is one of multiple offers, you want to do everything you can to make it as attractive as possible.
A quick word about money: A lender will take several factors into account (primarily your income, credit score, and the price and value of the property in question) to determine how much money you are eligible to borrow.

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If buying a home is in your list of “New Year’s Resolutions” here is a checklist of things you can do to get the process started:

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According to Chicago Title Company “Real Estate Market Watch” Grant Deed Recordings for Resale’s during 2007 were up 3% in the Santa Ynez Valley, but in the other North County areas  Lompoc was down 31% and Santa Maria was down 22%. It is interesting to note that on a month to month comparison from the previous year (2006) the SYV equaled or surpassed the previous year 6 times, whereas Lompoc only exceeded 1 month and Santa Maria did not exceed any.

“THE BEST WAY TO APPRECIATE YOUR JOB IS TO IMAGINE YOURSELF WITHOUT ONE.” Oscar Wilde And unfortunately, last Friday’s Jobs Report indicated that many more Americans than expected are not just imagining themselves without a job, they truly are without a job.

The Unemployment Rate jumped up to 5.0% from 4.7%, and new job growth in December was reported at a paltry 18,000 jobs…with private-sector job growth actually falling by 13,000, the largest private sector drop in more than four years. And here’s an interesting note - Hourly Earnings actually moved higher than expected. While this seems somewhat contradictory to a slowing jobs number, perhaps it means that employers are attempting to save money by paying more dollars to fewer workers, rather than hiring more staff.

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What’s the weather like? A good question, but it also depends on where you are at the time. In the past week, we have seen flooding in the Northwest, blizzards on the East Coast, a drought in Georgia and a portion of the South, hot weather in the Southwest and mixed weather right here in Santa Barbara. The real estate market is just like the weather. It depends on where you are, but listening to the news media, it seems as though real estate is on its last leg. I am convinced that instead of reporting the news, the news media creates the news and shapes what we are supposed to think. The perception out there is that the entire housing market is crumbling, but that is simply not true. Real estate is local and what is happening in the Santa Barbara and surrounding areas is completely different than in many areas of California.

When I hear about the real estate market, I think of real estate from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara to the Santa Ynez Valley, as this is where my expertise is. And yes, the market may be slower than we would like it to be, but as of this date, more homes and condos have sold in 2007 than in 2006. When you compare it to so many other places in California or other areas of the United States, we are doing okay. In fact, in both Montecito and Hope Ranch, property values have increased at least 10% since last year. Santa Barbara is an incredible place to live with our climate, location, schools, and cultural activities, and these are reasons why people seek this lifestyle.

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Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors recently said that “Commenting on the National Housing Market is like discussing the National Temperature…like the weather, all real estate is local.” This couldn’t be truer than in Santa Barbara where both our climate and real estate market are different than most parts of the country.

The news media paints a very bleak picture of the housing market with headlines talking about slumping sales, decreasing values, and a rampant escalation of foreclosures. However, it is important to consider the source of these headlines. The majority of television news media is targeted to a national audience and therefore is summarizing countrywide housing trends. Even local newspapers are primarily printing articles from wire services which again tout national statistics. Other media sources focus on California, but don’t generally provide relevance to the Santa Barbara real estate market which is behaving very differently than most other communities across the state. Sometimes you will hear or read reports about Santa Barbara County which can still be misleading because they include statistics that lump together Southern Santa Barbara County (Carpinteria through Goleta) with North County (Lompoc and Santa Maria). Even these two neighboring communities are currently experiencing very different real estate markets.

Here’s my take on the recent headlines as to how they apply to the Southern Santa Barbara County real estate market:

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