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The Most “Underwater” City in America is…

Mountain House, California. This news is so big that even the NY Times carried a recent story on the unfortunate circumstances facing Mountain House residents. The article states that close to 90 percent of Mountain House homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth. This is the highest percentage in the country.

Mountain House is clearly a microcosm of this widespread problem. Many families located in this area and people across the nation are adjusting their spending habits due to the depressing economy and the burden of paying a high mortgage.

“Most people pay very little attention to what their equity stake is if they can make the mortgage,” said First American CoreLogic’s chief economist, Mark Fleming. “They think it’s a bummer if the value has gone down, but they are rooted in their house. When my house is valued at 50 percent less than it was, does this begin to challenge the way I’m going to behave?”

If Mountain House and the impact on the surrounding area are any indication, the answer is Read more

Why the Housing Market Will Not Recover in the Near Future

Today, I am going to play Devil’s Advocate.  This is part 1 of 2 for a blog series reporting on opposing views of the direction of the housing market.  Next up – a post on ‘Why the Housing Market Will Recover in the Near Future’.

Here are five reasons why the housing market is in for a long recovery period:

1. Defaulting Prime Mortgages
2. Inventory Supply
3. Restricted Credit
4. Sale Prices Don’t Cover What Sellers Originally Paid
5. Another Round of Adjustable Rate Mortgages are Scheduled to Reset

Each one of these reasons is damaging to a housing market in itself.  However, when combined, we could be in for Read more

Got Headache? Explaining the Wall Street Chaos

I stumbled upon this great article that helps to breakdown and describe the chaos on Wall Street and how it impacts the everyday citizen.  Many people out there are still very confused about what is going on with the financial markets.  This article will help breakdown the impacts and consequences all of us face in the Tri-Valley.

Livermore Economic Development

At a recent sales meeting, the City of Livermore’s director of economic development, Rob White, came to speak to us about Livermore’s current and future economic development.  Rob updated our group about tourism, the Lawrence Livermore Lab and Livermore’s bustling new downtown area.

Mr. White started his discussion by giving us a quick statistic.  Currently, there are 38 million people living in California.  That number is projected to explode to 50 million by the year 2025.  This is relevant because Livermore is focused on developing itself in order to capture its share of this increased population growth.

Tourism is quickly becoming Read more

Banks Get Help, Mortgage Rates Rise. What Gives?

That’s the question on the mind of many of my Tri-Valley real estate clients. Buyers and Sellers are perplexed.  Many people are under the impression that the recent moves by the Federal Reserve would directly ease the pain associated with the current housing and credit crisis for home owners and buyers. 

Instead, it appears these moves have veered towards a different path – interest rates have been creeping upward. Some of the reasons for this are that banks are more reluctant to make home loans, they have tightened underwriting standards and they are taking the recent rate cuts to shore up their own balance sheets.

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