We are told that, while other title companies are discontinuing their online disclosure programs, Fidelity Title (our title company of choice) has their structured so as not to run afoul of the RESPA regulations. The real estate business has always been heavily regulated in limiting what companies can do for their clients or other real estate brokers in trying to make deals.

For example, our office has always had revolving title companies cater our breakfast at the weekly meeting. Now, with new rules, this is considered “payola” and can not be done beginning in 2009. As stupid as it sounds, and though no title company is given preference over another, the gift of food exceeds the dollar limit set forth by the powers that be.

So by the same tokem a title company providing online disclosures to Realtors who place their business with them is now considered a gift, at least in the way some companies are doing it. Apparently Fidelity has checked with their compliance department, and they believe they are exempt from this ruling.

The online disclosures provide a valuable service to clients and Realtors on both sides of the deal. There is immediate access to whomever wants to see the documents and no trees are harmed in the making of the electronic disclosures (unless one chooses to print them out). It is a GREAT service. The online mechanism also provides immediate feedback about who looked at the disclosures so that the listing agent may follow up and see if there is a deal to be made.

We are pleased that Fidelity has found a way to comply with the law and still provide the service. That is why they are our first choice in title companies.

- Mick Orton

(more…)

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

This is one of two final editions of Weekly Market Watch for 2008.  I am taking a two week hiatus from writing during the final two weeks of the year but will return the first week of 2009 with more weekly updates.

This year will certainly go down as one of the more tumultuous our nation has witnessed.  From the rollercoaster ride on Wall Street to the economic woes on Main Street, from the National Economic Stimulus Package to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, we’ve all felt the wrath and severity of the 2008 financial crisis.

Housing in Northern California has certainly felt the sting with the most recent figures showing a 40% decline in overall sales price in the Bay Area.  Of course much of that is indicative of the mass amounts of REOs on the market. 44.8% of all existing homes sold in the Bay Area had been foreclosed upon at some point within the last 12 months.  Counties with the highest number of REO sales have seen the deepest drop in Median Price.  Looking at price declines October 2008 over same month last year, Contra Costa County has dropped 46.4%, while San Francisco County, with the smallest price decline for this period, has dropped 10.9%.  It’s pretty simple – banks don’t sell foreclosed homes because they choose to, they list and sell because they must.  In our higher-end communities, we’re seeing fewer and fewer homes list and sell because the majority of homeowners don’t need to.

Here’s a look at the breakdown-

• East Bay—Berkeley is reporting that there are less and less people on broker’s tour although a few new Berkeley listings got 75-100 visitors.  Agents are saying that the rumor of interest rates in the fours has put more buyers back on the fence.  Castro Valley notes that the market remains good.  We have deals processing and we have not felt the holiday slump just yet.  Livermore notes that inventory of active listings in the past couple of weeks has declined anywhere from 10% to 20% in Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin.  Total active listings on the market are at their lowest levels in the Tri-Valley in 2008.  Total number of pending sales in each of the three cities in the Tri-Valley are down about 10% from December 1, 2008.  REO sales continue to dominate the market.  Oakland notes that listings have slowed down in our primary market.  REOs seem to be slowing also.  Our inventory is dropping as it is absorbed or expires.  Sales seem steady so far for the month but it definitely is feeling slower.  Our Walnut Creek office notes that activity is slow in every area.  Prices are continuing to decline in certain areas of Contra Costa County.  Inventory is seasonably low.  Orinda notes that things have surprisingly picked up a bit.  We have had an increase in sales and listings. 
• Monterey County—The market continues on at its slow pace, however we continue to write offers and open escrows.  We are noticing an increasing number of expired listings but that generally happens in December anyway.
• North Bay— Southern Marin had its busiest month in quite some time. Our San Rafael office notes that we are seeing an increase of investors and first time home buyers writing offers on the low end of the market.  Our Sonoma County offices report that the entry-level REO market continues to drive sales and the market above the $500,000 mark is stagnant. 
• Peninsula—Our Burlingame office notes that buyers are paying attention to the media news with regard to interest rates and have a positive feeling about the market and that it may be time to buy.  Open houses reflected this attitude at all price points.  Half Moon Bay concurs noting that this was a busy week for sales (four lots and two homes).  The coastal inventory of residential units is down to 128, about 10% lower than during “typical” years at this time.  Our Menlo Park El Camino office notes that open houses were about the same last week with Agents feeling some buyers are finally ready to make a move—just wanting to find that perfect property.
• San Francisco—Our Lombard office reports that REOS typically receive multiple offers here but now are taking a couple of weeks to sell, not a couple of days.  The high end remains slow.  Sunday traffic very unpredictable ranging from 0 to well over 100 people through an open house.  The Market Street office notes that Agents are getting listings ready for January and trying to sit buyers down to write offers to at least start the process of negotiating. 
• Santa Cruz County—The median price is still dropping.  REO properties are a significant part of the sales which are occurring in Watsonville and San Lorenzo Valley.  The upper-end is expected to lag when lending on jumbo loans is limited.
• Silicon Valley—Our Cupertino Stevens Creek office notes that the market continues to slow and sellers are holding their homes off the market for the holidays.  Buyers continue to circle like sharks looking for the deals.  Our Los Altos First Street office points out that the high-end is still very low.  Santa Clara County in total only had 12 sales reported on the MLS during November for homes listed over $2 million.  Our San Jose Main office notes that REO continue to receive multiple offers.  The office did have one Rose Garden listing at $1.2 million that had a large price reduction and then receive two offers.  Our San Jose Will Glen office, like many others, is noting that buyers remain cautious and we are seeing sporadic interest in open houses.
• South County—Our Hollister office points out that REOs continue to drive much of this market with multiple offers becoming the norm on such properties.  We are seeing the usual slow down due to the holidays.    Our Morgan Hill office notes that historically the month of December has buyers concentrating on the holidays, family and shopping but this year in South County, things are different.  We are seeing buyers who seem anxious to take advantage of low interest rates and great home prices.  Agents are reporting that open houses are well-attended and buyers seem ready to enter the market.

Next week DataQuick News is expected to release its November figures.  In my final Weekly Market Watch of ’08, I will recap the report and include the most recent market stats.

Rick Turley
President
Coldwell Banker SF/Peninsula

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports. Here’s what Mr. Weeks says about last week’s activity:

“What happens in Washington doesn’t stay in Washington.” And that was especially true last week, as the effect of Congress’ actions regarding the U.S. automakers rippled out into the markets.

Bonds and home loan rates spent last week testing their previous best levels of 2008, and finally rallied on Friday to reach their best levels not just of 2008 but of the last five years. Stocks, meanwhile, were under pressure throughout the week waiting to see whether Congress would approve emergency loans for GM and Chrysler. While the House of Representatives approved the measure Wednesday evening, the Senate rejected the $14 billion bailout for the US automakers on Thursday evening, citing a lack of wage concessions by the United Auto Workers (UAW). Friday, the White House announced that the government may be willing to use Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds to prevent an immediate collapse of the auto industry. One thing we can be sure of in this matter is that the volatility for both Stocks and Bonds will continue while this issue remains unresolved.

There were other important happenings in Washington to note last week. Five members of the House Financial Services Committee are sponsoring a bill that would force the SEC to reinstate the uptick rule. The uptick rule is a former rule established by the SEC that requires every short sale transaction to be entered at a price that is higher than the price of the previous trade. So what would the reinstatement of the uptick rule mean for Bonds and home loan rates? The reinstatement of the uptick rule would do a lot to quiet the excessive volatility in both Stocks and Bonds.

In other important news to note last week, the Retail Sales report for November showed that retail sales fell for a fifth straight month. Meanwhile, Initial Jobless Claims reached their highest level in 26 years. Both of these reports are indicative of the current economic climate, and given the events of the week in Washington, they had minimal impact on Bonds and home loan rates.

As mentioned above, Bonds and home loan rates rallied Friday afternoon to reach their best levels of the year. As a result, they ended the week .25 percent better than where they began. There may be an opportunity for you to reduce your home loan payments, feel free to contact me.

ARE YOU WONDERING IF YOUR PROERTY TAX ASSESSMENT IS TOO HIGH? IF SO, THERE’S SOMETHING YOU CAN DO! SEE THIS WEEK’S MORTGAGE MARKET VIEW FOR IMPORTANT DETAILS!

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

Not much happening here. People are wrapping up their business for the holidays. The word on the street is that next year will not be much better than this year was.

Here are the numbers for this week, 12/3/08:

• NO new listings
• 5 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,283,800, low $355,000, high $1,950,000)
• 6 closed sales (sold) (average price $1,25,500, low $601,000, high $2,786,000)

- Janis Stone

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

Earlier this week, President-elect Obama announced many of the new members of his cabinet—an important move which showcases his commitment to hitting the ground running once he takes office in January.

Not surprisingly, the order of his political appointments has even been well-planned with Obama first selecting the appointment of his economic team (which he has made very clear is his first order of business), led by Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary, and this week his national security team, picking once rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and President Bush’s Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, to continue at his post.

Obama announced on Saturday that he has asked his economic team to develop an economic recovery plan that will (by 2011) “help both Main Street and Wall Street help save or create at least 2.5 million jobs while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil and saving billions of dollars.”  Many members of the media are calling his plans a “teched out” version of FDR’s New Deal which many arguably believe helped to pull America out of the Great Depression.

It remains to be seen whether or not this can be done but I’m excited about the prospects for our country and am looking forward to watching the plans unfold over the next several months.  In the meantime, there are two things pressing right now for our local market.  The first is talk of decreasing interest rates into the 4.5% range which could increase a buyer’s purchasing power dramatically in today’s market.  Couple that with one of the most pressing issues for our local market which is the fact that the conforming loan limits (increased earlier this year to $729,750 in most Bay Area markets) are set to expire at the end of 2008.

Perhaps there will be another stimulus package that will raise the conforming loan amount but at this point, that answer is unknown which is giving many buyers a reason to act now.  Knowing this, the last couple of weeks—though holiday weeks—have had some surprising twists.  Let’s take a look at this week in real estate:

• East Bay—Castro Valley notes that it is being driven by buyers and we have several new listings that are not bank owned and are not short sales.  The office is very busy so far this month and have yet to feel the slow-down that typifies the December market.  Berkeley saw a busy bump for REO listings with seven REO sales in one week and four had multiple offers.  We also received multiple offers on two listings, one priced at $890,000 and another at $995,000, one in Berkeley Hills and one in Oakland.  In the Tri-Valley area (Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin) for the past couple of weeks active inventory has remained basically stable while total pending sales have decreased by about 10%.  A large part of the market continues to be REOs.  We did have a listing in Pleasanton that went into escrow at $1.65 million.  We have not seen a sale at that price range in months.  Almost all of our closed sales for the past several months have been $500,000 and below.  The Walnut Creek office is noting some positive news in the luxury home arena with four sales closing between $915,000 and $1.5 million (not short sales or REOs).  The REO inventory is selling fast.  There are 1-2 months of available inventory in East Contra Costa County and the office is considered about the good, clean listing inventory available.  There just isn’t enough.
• Monterey County—We had a reasonable good last two weeks for writing offers and getting properties in escrow, considering the general market and the fact that it is usually slower this time of year.  We had a lot of people in town for the long Thanksgiving weekend and scattered open house attendance, though good in Carmel-by-the-Sea. 
• North Bay—Our Greenbrae office reports that it is still seeing multiple offers for REO properties under $1 million.  We have many buyers waiting in the wings in Marin for the perfect property.   Petaluma notes that inventory has come to a screeching halt.  Serious buyers and sellers are still putting transactions together.  Multiple offers in the Petaluma area are still dominating the market.  Santa Rosa notes that the market above $500,000 remains very quiet.  Below the $500,000 mark the inventory is being bought faster that it is being replaced—making for stressed buyers and Agents.
• Peninsula—Our Burlingame office notes that Thanksgiving week saw a surprising amount of activity.  Agents reported excellent attendance at Saturday and Sunday open homes.  Loan approvals are becoming more difficult and we have had a few transactions fall through.  One San Mateo REO property listed in our office sold in five days with four offers.  It was listed under $600,000.  Our Half Moon Bay office points out that San Mateo County sales tend to track the NASDAQ market and these past few weeks are no exception.  The uncertainty of the market along with the continuing issues surrounding credit and money flow resulted in one of the slowest weeks in years.  Our Redwood City office notes that there has been little activity but a few properties are selling.  There seem to be a lot of complications in many transactions and buyers, sellers and Agents alike are focusing on solutions with a positive attitude.
• San Francisco—Our Lombard office notes that the market has been pretty quiet.  REO sales are leading the way.  Open house traffic is light.  We’ve seen a huge number of withdrawn listings after this week’s Broker Opens but widely differing opinions as whether or not sellers should stay on the market during the holidays.  Our Market Street office had one property go into multiples this week with 10 offers.  The property needed fixing but had a great location.  It did go over asking but not quite as much as one would have thought.  For the few opens that were held open over the weekend, the traffic was good and Agents felt qualified buyers were coming through and ready to buy.  Our Noriega office notes that the market is slow all the way around over the last weeks of November.  There is a lot of uncertainty with buyers at the moment.  We’re seeing more deals fall apart due to financing and buyers’ cold feet.
• Santa Cruz County—Local inventory in the county continues to drop weekly as we move quickly into the holiday season.  Single family residences in the county are down to 883 total with 259 total pendings in the county.  104 of the pendings are in Watsonville and represent the very active REO market and another 45 are in San Lorenzo Valley, the two outer ends of the county.  The remainder of the sales are spread throughout the county with the Aptos, Seacliff, RDM, Seascape and La Selva Beach collectively with the highest number of pendings.  Buyers continue to control and drive the market and few changes are expected through January.
• Silicon Valley—Our Cupertino Stevens Creek office reports that the market continues to be slow as sellers are holding their homes off the market for the holidays.  Buyers continue to circle like shares looking for the best deals.  Open houses reflect a large number of buyers still in the market for homes.  Our Los Altos First Street office notes that open houses are still getting good activity but buyers are wanting to wait.  Older listings are not getting much interest even after a price reduction which is a good reminder for sellers to price and present the properly correctly from the beginning.  Our San Jose Will Glen office notes that it is still pretty busy and open houses continue to draw interested buyers.
• South County—REO listings slowed down county wide.  Buyers are still looking and writing offers with now even more multiple offer competition.  Our Gilroy office notes that open house traffic is good and that the market is still driven by REOs.  Our Morgan Hill office notes there seems to be an air of excitement about the impending interest rates and the possibility that they will reach the mid 4% range.  This, coupled with low home prices, again underscore the historic opportunity for a larger group of individuals to own real estate.  In the South County, there are hundreds of homes priced at or below $471,000.  It’s a good time to buy real property

Though historically speaking December is a slow month, I suspect with the impending decrease of the conforming loan limits as well as the impending interest rate decrease, we may see a busier December than expected.

Today’s market may not be for the weary.  Today’s market is for the serious buyer and seller.  Buyers who are taking the time to shop for a home right now—not only in today’s economic conditions but also during the holidays—are serious and typically, are ready to make a move.  Sellers who are selling right now—again, in this market and during this time of year—tend to be serious and motivated.  The key is to bring the two together –there are good opportunities out there for both parties.

Rick Turley
President
Coldwell Banker SF/Peninsula

Streetcar.org has been advertising on some of the local radio channels. This site has some interesting perspectives on past traffic issues and how they were solved, and is rich with historical facts about our the Market Street Railway.

- Janis Stone

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports. Here’s what Mr. Weeks says about last week’s activity:

“I KNEW THE RECORD WOULD STAND UNTIL IT WAS BROKEN.” Yogi Berra. And while last week’s Jobs Report wasn’t the worst record breaker of all time, it showed a loss of 533,000 jobs during the month of November, which represented the most job losses the US has seen in 35 years. And adding more pain to the Report were heavy downward revisions for September and October, which erased an additional 199,000 jobs. In addition, last month was only the fourth time in 58 years that our economy lost over 500,000 jobs.

So what does this mean for Bonds and home loan rates? We first have to acknowledge that we are not in a typical trading environment, where weak or negative economic reports always lead to improved pricing for home loans and vice versa. The dynamics of hedge funds de-levering – where fund managers are selling all types of securities with whatever timing they need to, in order to raise capital – have caused unprecedented volatility of late, and it is not quite clear when that will end.

The Fed has indicated that they would like to be a buyer of Mortgage Bonds, which has resulted in attractive, lower rates right now. But as stated above, the trading environment is extremely volatile, and opportunities to capitalize on lower rates that make sense should be taken advantage of. There have been recent rumors of interest rates being brought down towards 4.5% by the Treasury. This irresponsible release included no definitive plan, no indication of who might qualify, or what the restrictions would be. Like many other recent legislative “solutions”, the restrictions might be very tight, with income limits set very low, and as a result, helping very few people. Remember, it may make sense for you to act now, and take advantage of current historically low rates…with the possibility of refinancing should rates decline further.

In other news to note from last week, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank both cut their key benchmark interest rates in an effort to revive their sagging economies. The reduction in rates was expected as part of a global coordinated effort, and our Fed is widely expected to cut its benchmark rate during its meeting on December 16. While a cut by the Fed often causes home loan rates to rise – because a Fed rate cut can lead to inflation, which is the arch enemy of Bonds and home loan rates – the deflationary environment we are currently in may prevent home loan rates from worsening significantly after the Fed cut.

Bonds and home loan rates tested their best levels of 2008 throughout last week, but could not improve beyond them. As a result, Bonds and home loan rates ended the week slightly worse than where they began…even in the midst of rumors of rates declining as mentioned above.

GAS PRICES SURE HIT A RECORD EARLIER THIS YEAR, BUT NOW THAT THEY HAVE IMPROVED, THE IRS HAS ISSUED NEW MILEAGE RATES FOR 2009. SEE THIS WEEK’S MORTGAGE MARKET VIEW FOR ALL THE DETAILS!

Read the entire report here.