NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Home prices continued to sink in the third quarter, falling to levels not seen since early 2003.

Home prices dropped 3.9% year-over-year during the three months ended Sept. 30, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index. On a quarterly basis, prices were slightly higher, squeezing out a 0.1% gain. [Read More]

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Number of Homes for Sale vs. Sold vs. Pending

October 2010 there were 1259 homes for sale in Stockton, California in comparison to October 2011 where there was a decrease to 988 homes for sale. The number of homes sold in October 2010  was 349 and in October 2011 the number of homes sold increased to 361. In October 2010 there were 404 pending sales which increased to 567 in October 2011.

More graphs and charts from our MLS and  TrendVision Reports

I was reading “The Stockton Record” this morning as I usually do with my morning coffee…And I was again hit with the same old housing news! Will it ever end?

Reports show years of weakness for housing

New home sales are at 50-year low

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes fell to a six-month low in August. The fourth straight monthly decline during the peak buying season suggests the housing market is years away from a recovery.

The Commerce Department said Monday that new home sales fell 2.3 percent to a sea­sonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000. That’s less than half the roughly 700,000 that econ­omists say must be sold to sus­tain a healthy housing market.

New homes sales are on pace for the worst year since the government began keeping records a half-century ago.

High unemployment, larger required down payments and tougher lending standards are preventing many people from buying homes. Plunging stocks and a growing fear that the U.S. could tip back into another reces­sion are also keeping people from entering the housing market.

Last year was also the fifth straight year that sales have fallen. It followed five straight years of record highs, when housing was booming.

Foreclosures and short sales — when lenders accept less for a house than a mortgage is worth — are forcing prices down. Those homes are selling at an average discount of 20 percent, and they are lowering neighboring home values. That’s made many re­sales a bargain compared with new homes, creating an average 30 percent disparity in prices.

All home sales remain weak. The August sales pace for pre­viously occupied homes was 5.03 million. That’s slightly above last year’s sales, which were the fewest since 1997. Economists say roughly 6 million older homes need to be sold each year to sus­tain a healthy housing market.

Home prices have dropped more since the recession started, on a percentage basis, than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It took 19 years for prices to fully recover after the Depression.

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Stockton Real Estate – Dave Thurman

Open House ~ My Office at 2652 East Main Street, Stockton CA 95205

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You are invited to our Open Office at 2652 East Main Street in Stockton. If you are looking for residential, commercial, or investment properties in this area, don’t miss this opportunity to visit and meet with Dave Thurman, REALTOR®. Also, learn all about a Shaklee membership. Come Join Us! Appointments are not necessary!

• Pick up “Dave’s List” of homes for sale!
• Foreclosure auction dates & information.
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Stockton Real Estate – Dave Thurman

Here is my latest foreclosure report from ForeclosureRadar. Please check out their website!

06/14/2011 – Third party investors resold the homes they previously purchased at auction at a faster pace throughout our coverage area. As the most sophisticated and motivated homesellers in the marketplace, these investors provide an important indicator as to the health of the entire housing market. While the statistic is encouraging, it’s too early to tell whether it is a turning point from the otherwise recent downward trend within the housing market. [Read More]

Thanks to all the helpful comments, after much Internet surfing and after checking on my sources; I have updated my post May 29, 2011 Double Dip Also, I want to give a special thanks to cartoonist Karl Wimer

Number of Homes for Sale vs. Sold vs. Pending

April 2010 there were 884 homes for sale in Stockton, California in comparison to April 2011 where there was an increase to 1052 homes for sale. The number of homes sold in April 2010  was 457 and in April 2011 the number of homes sold decreased to 387. In April 2010 there were 531 pending sales which increased to 606 in April 2011.

More graphs and charts from our MLS and TrendVision Reports

I found a very interesting article about foreclosures…that I would like to share from CNNMoney

Obama administration sings new tune on foreclosures

By Tami Luhby, senior writerNovember 2, 2010: 9:21 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Obama administration is singing a different tune about foreclosures.

A year ago, officials focused on stemming the foreclosure tide. Now they are touting the need for foreclosures to rebuild the housing market.

Last week Phyllis Caldwell, head of the Treasury Department’s Homeownership Preservation Office, told a congressional panel that “an important part of ensuring longer-term stability in the market is to enable properties to be resold to families who can afford to purchase them.”

And White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs last month told reporters that without sales of homes in distressed areas the “recovery in the housing market stops. It’s frozen.”

“That obviously can have — we believe and others believe — a very negative and detrimental impact to our economic recovery efforts and the housing markets in states that have been hardest hit,” Gibbs said.

But when Obama unveiled his signature foreclosure prevention program in February 2009, he said loan modifications were a key way to prevent the housing crisis from deepening. His initiative called for reducing distressed borrowers’ monthly payments to 31% of their pre-tax income.

“We’re not just helping homeowners at risk of falling over the edge; we’re preventing their neighbors from being pulled over that edge too — as defaults and foreclosures contribute to sinking home values, and failing local businesses, and lost jobs,” the president said. [Read More]

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 4) – A weaker-than-expected economic recovery will result in a projected decline in California home sales for 2010, although home sales are expected to edge up slightly in 2011, according to the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) “2011 California Housing Market Forecast” released today. 

California home sales for 2010 are forecast to decline 10 percent from the 2009 sales figure of 546,500 homes sold.  Sales in 2011 are projected to increase a lackluster 2 percent to 502,000 units compared with 492,000 units (projected) in 2010.  After two consecutive years of record-setting price declines, the median home price in California will climb 11.5 percent in 2010 to $306,500 and increase another 2 percent in 2011 to $312,500, according to the forecast.  Read More

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I found this on my CAR website…

Testifying before the Housing Financial Services Committee yesterday, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan announced possible policy changes for Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) borrowers.

Rising defaults on FHA loans have led to the FHA’s cash reserves falling below federally mandated levels. FHA officials hope that policy changes will ensure borrowers have a stronger equity position and are less likely to default.

Proposed changes include:
· Raising the minimum credit scores requirements: Currently borrowers with FICO scores as low as 500 may qualify for an FHA-insured loan. The new minimum credit score has yet to be determined.

· Increasing down payment requirements: FHA borrowers currently can put down as little as 3.5 percent. A proposed change would raise that amount to a minimum of 5 percent.

· Limiting the amount sellers can provide as concessions: The agency is considering lowering the maximum permissible level to 3 percent from its current 6 percent limit.

· Raising up-front insurance premiums: Agency staff is reviewing whether to increase the monthly insurance premiums charged to borrowers, which come on top of insurance paid up front. The current up-front premium is set at 1.75 percent of the value of the loan. The FHA may decide to increase that premium. The amount has yet to be determined.

According to Donovan, the rules will not be finalized until the FHA determines how to craft them in a way that weeds out the most problematic borrowers while ensuring that qualified borrowers will not be inadvertently shut out, thereby derailing the housing market’s recovery.

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