Steve Holderfield's Real Estate Blog

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Did you know that if you are upside down on your home and process a short sale, that the amount that the bank forgives is scheduled to become taxable in 2013?  That means that, for example, if the bank forgives say, $100,000 in order for you to sell you home, that $100,000 would be taxed at your tax rate.  For a person in the 25% tax bracket that means they would owe $25,000 to Uncle Sam.  If you are having trouble making your payments, I can think of no better reason to do a short sale in 2012.  Contact us today.  You do have options!

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There are 2 answers to this question. 1. Home values are likely to fall another 4 to 5%. 2. It depends on many factors. Most economists seem to agree that 2012 is likely to be a flat to slightly down market in terms of values. However, we do seem to be hitting the bottom in terms of the the dropping values. Also, the number of foreclosures in the California has dropped over 14% in the last year. The number of successful short sales rose 25% of all sales in California last year from 18% in 2010. It is expected that the number of short sales to continue to rise in 2012. The other wild card is next year’s Presidential election which could bring much needed certainty back to businesses and the financial markets which could positively affect job growth. So 2012 will be fun to see unfold. If you or somebody you know needs to buy or sell any Real Estate, please contact me with a name and phone number. I’d be happy to bring my over 30 years of real estate experience to the effort. Have a great New Year!  More info here: http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2011/12/28/what-s-in-store-for-housing-in-2012

Related articles

• Popularity of short sales is growing (bottomline.msnbc.msn.com)
• Foreclosure still taking toll on home prices (avidlawblog.wordpress.com)
• O.C. Realtor leader eyes slow housing recovery (lansner.ocregister.com)
• You: Real estate unit projects 18% rise in condo sales in ‘12 (japantimes.co.jp)

http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2011/09/28/financial-industry-corporate-profits/

Why? Uncertain regulation by the Feds. Our current administration needs to, in my opinion, find ways to provide confidence in our markets and the future. Unfortunately, I think this means the need to cut the government spending back to the Clinton levels. We just cannot sustain the current spending levels. Another thing that could be done is to get rid of all this overregulation and red tape… Let’s start bt appealing Obama Care!

Related articles

• Federal Reserve to Hold Hearings on Capital One / ING Merger in San Francisco, Washington and Chicago (prnewswire.com)
• Banks nearly double mortgage fraud filings (marketwatch.com)

The Dinosaurs that survived adapted to the new realities.  I’ve been selling real estate and managing Realtors for many years and the one thing that I have learned is that to survive in this business Realtors need to be adaptive to the ever changing real estate market. We have experienced the most mind bending changes in the market in recent years, with the collapse in home values and all the regulatory changes that have happened and that continue to hit us. Imagine what it would be like for a Realtor, for example, to simply attempt to do business the same as we did in 2000, today in 2010. You’d go broke and you wouldn’t serve your clients well. An example of this is short sales. Prior to about 1995 I hadn’t ever done a traditional short sale. In those days we called them a “Cram-Down”, where we negotiated with lenders to get them to accept less than the amount owed. The process in those days was much different than today. Since 1995, as a manager of larger offices, I think I have probably participated in the negotiations on over 200 short sales on both on my own transactions as well as transactions instituted by agents under my supervision. Additionally, in an effort to serve my clients and my agents more deeply, I have become qualified as a Certified Distressed Property Expert, (CDPE) through my participation in intensive training. My point is that this kind of adaptation is what is necessary for a Realtor to succeed… to serve his or her clients deeply. Without adapting you just become irrelevant.

I think the need to adapt is really a part of everyday life today if you own or hope to own real estate in this new world we all find ourselves in.   An example of the need to adapt is property values…  If you have discovered that your home’s value is less than your debt on your home or you are having trouble making your mortgage payment or feel distress approaching… now is the time for you to adapt to the realities of this market. You do have options, but time is of the essence. The faster you take steps to adapt, the better the outcome will be for you. To learn more, go to www.morethanashortsale.info.

We all have been reeling from the tumult we have had here in the California real estate market. Values in most markets have dropped 40% or more in recent years. With the massive federal debt that has been created in an attempt to improve our markets we all have been fearing the inevitable rise in our interest rates, perhaps to higher than acceptable levels to most buyers. We in the real estate community have feared a huge increase in our interest rates which would stall any recovery in the market. We have received some recent good news about interest rates which is really welcomed. Read on… http://www.dsnews.com/articles/upward-climb-comes-to-halt-as-mortgage-rates-ease-2010-04-15

Time will tell if this trend will hold. If you are on the fence… my advice is to buy now as we have the lowest values in years and more importantly you can still get a mortgage at historically low levels … around 6%!

I have written that our real estate recovery will be an up and down trip resulting in several seemingly positive moves followed by a turn to the negative side of things. We have some evidence of this from recent foreclosure activity as compared to a year earlier:

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/loss-mitigation-efforts-arent-keeping-pace-with-loan-defaults-lps-2010-04-12

A friend of mine has been chosen by a bank, who will go un-named, to market about 150 properties for them in Solano County this year. Could it be that the banks are finally planning to bring all the “phantom inventory” we’ve all been wondering about, to the market?

If so, we could be in for another market drop… but finally we could have more inventory to present to our buyers. There’s always 2 sides to every story. Many experts have estimated that the banks have held back about a years worth of home inventory from the market. This action or lack of action has actually created an artificial shortage of available listings around the country. Home prices have actually risen a bit due to the lack of inventory and many expect that these recent gains would be erased if the banks brought all this inventory to the market.

So hang tight the coming months should be interesting to see if the banks do put all the foreclosed homes that they are holding to the market and what the reaction of the market will be.

It seems that homes values have been hit the hardest in areas of the country where homes were the most “over valued” before the bubble burst in 2006. Makes sense, but read on to learn what areas were hit the hardest: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/collapse-in-home-prices-hits-overvalued-markets-hardest-2010-03-19