UTC Plans $900 Million Dollar Expansion

The dated UTC shopping center in La Jolla is getting a facelift. Among other things, the plan includes:

• 750,000 square feet of new retail space, including three new anchor stores and 150 shops and specialty boutiques. The center now has 1 million square feet of retail.
• 250 to 300 condominiums, with 10 percent of them reserved as affordable. There will be two condo towers with one rising as high as 23 stories and the other as much as 15 stories.
• A movie theater.
• As much as 5,000 square feet of office space.
• At least 3,000 new parking spaces, many of them in three new parking garages.

Click here for more.

How Will the New Housing Law Help You?

So what does this new housing law really mean? Who stands to benefit, and how? What are the chances that you might actually get something out of it?

Check out this helpful Q&A from the Associated Press.

Beach Ban Goes Before Voters on Nov. 4th

SAN DIEGO: San Diegans soon will have their second chance this decade to determine whether alcohol should be banned at city beaches. How will you vote?

Bush Signs Housing Relief Bill

WASHINGTON – President Bush on Wednesday signed a massive housing bill intended to provide mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners and stabilize financial markets.

Provisions of the housing bill that President Bush signed into law Wednesday:

• Gives the Federal Housing Administration $300 billion in new lending authority and relaxes standards to provide affordable, fixed-rate mortgages to an estimated 400,000 debt-ridden homeowners. Any losses will be covered by an affordable housing fund financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that finance mortgages.
• Allows the Treasury Department temporary authority to lend money to Fannie and Freddie or buy their stock to avert a collapse of one or both of the mortgage giants. The authority expires on Dec. 31, 2009.
  
• Creates a new regulator and tighten controls on Fannie and Freddie, including power for the regulator to approve pay packages for company executives. Creates a new affordable housing fund drawn from their profits. Permanently raises the limit on the loans they may buy to $625,000 in the highest-cost areas. Allows them to buy loans 15 percent higher than the median home price in certain cities.
  
• Provides $3.9 billion in grants to the hardest-hit communities for buying and fixing up foreclosed property.
• Modernizes the FHA and allows it to back loans for riskier borrowers. Permanently increases the size of loans the agency may insure to $625,000 in the highest-cost areas. The agency can insure loans 15 percent higher than the median home price in certain cities.
• Prohibits the FHA from insuring mortgages in which the borrower's down payment is paid by the seller, beginning on Oct. 1, 2008. Places a one-year moratorium prohibiting the agency from charging premiums based on the riskiness of the homeowner, until Oct. 1, 2009.
  
• Provides $15 billion in housing tax breaks, including for low-income housing. Gives a credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers who purchase residences between April 9, 2008, and July 1, 2009. Allows people who don't itemize their taxes to claim a $500-$1,000 deduction on their 2008 property taxes.
  
• Gives states an additional $11 billion in tax-free municipal bond authority for low-interest loans to first-time home buyers, construction of low-income rental housing and refinancing subprime mortgages.
  
• Offers protection from investor lawsuits for mortgage holders that modify loans to borrowers who are in default or about to default.
  Provides $180 million for pre-foreclosure counseling and legal services for distressed borrowers

Click here for full story.

Who Pays the Most Rent?

The San Diego Union-Tribune released this graphic showing who pays the most rent in San Diego. Looks like La Jolla tops things out, followed by the beach communities of Coronado and Del Mar and Encinitas, and downtown.

The Russians are Coming...to Buy Your House!

In this recent article from Newsweek, the author contends that a wave of wealthy Russians are house-hunting in the U.S. Here in Coronado, we can confirm this as an increasing number of Russians are entering our Prudential office, asking for information on homes and condos, usually above $1 million.

Click here for the article.

Senate Approves $300 Billion Housing Rescue Bill

WASHINGTON - The Congress approved a massive housing market rescue bill Saturday, offering emergency financing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, creating a new regulator for the mortgage titans and setting up a $300 billion fund to help troubled homeowners.

The bill was approved by the Senate in a 72-13 vote. It was passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday. President Bush was expected to sign it promptly.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the legislation will "help keep struggling families in their homes" and help keep "declining property values stable."

Click here for more.

Gas Prices Entice Renters to Move Downtown, Rents Up

Sick of filling up the tank for sixty bucks? Considering a place near work downtown and tossing the car keys? Prepare to pay higher rents as more like-minded apartment dwellers flock to urban digs. Nationwide, rents near job centers and mass transit are rising faster than other areas, according to New York-based real estate research firm Reis Inc.

And already in downtown San Diego, for example, rents have jumped 15 percent in the last year to between $2,400 and $2,600 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, said Greg Neuman, owner of Neuman & Neuman Prudential Realty.

Click here for more info.

Looking for a Deal?

Check out properties in these distressed neighborhoods around San Diego. Take advantage of a foreclosure and some price drops! In Golden Hill, prices have gone down 39% since last year. In City Heights, prices are down 32%. Everything is on sale!

Click here for the list of zip codes with the best deals.

San Diego Apartment Rents Edge Up

The cost of renting an apartment in San Diego County rose slightly in the second quarter, according to a report released yesterday by research firm RealFacts.

In a survey of rental complexes of 100 units or more, the study found the average rent in the county to be $1,393, a 1.1 percent increase from the previous quarter and up 3.5 percent from the second quarter of last year.

Click here to read more.

Thinking about Making a Low-Ball Offer on a Foreclosure Property?

Thinking about making a low-ball offer on a foreclosure? Think again. Most foreclosures currently on the market are priced so low, that they are getting multiple offers and selling at ABOVE their asking price, according to the the San Diego Business Journal.

Bank-owned homes recycling back into the market after foreclosure are being priced well below market value in order to solicit multiple bids, which in some cases exceed their original asking price, agents and analysts say.

Brian Yui, chief executive officer of HouseRebate.com, which tracks listings of bank-owned properties — known as real estate owned, or REO, properties — says banks are underpricing properties and selling them much quicker than traditional home sales.

“The banks appear to be getting fair market value for their homes,” he said. “For buyers thinking to lowball REO listings, they must think again as there are other buyers out there willing to pay (fair market value).”

Foreclosures are skyrocketing as borrowers default on mortgages in record numbers — in many cases walking away from homes because their mortgages cost more than the homes are now worth.

Of all the home sales in San Diego County in May, 36 percent were bank-owned properties — homes that had been foreclosed by lenders in the prior 12 months and then resold, according to DataQuick Information Systems of San Diego.

Many of them sold above asking price, says Yui, adding that he noticed the trend while looking up comparable prices in Escondido of a bank-owned house he was considering buying for himself.
In that one search, he found 10 properties — seven of them REOs — that closed above their listing price.

Click here to read the entire article.

Mortgage rates fall, reversing 5-week streak

Asssociated Press--Rates on 30-year mortgages, which had been rising for five straight weeks, posted a decline this week as signals from the Federal Reserve eased worries about imminent rate increases.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.92 percent from 6.04 percent. The five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 5.78 percent from 5.99 percent. The rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage declined to 5.17 percent from 5.27 percent.

Rates don't include add-on fees known as points. The fee for 30-year, 15-year and one-year mortgages all averaged 0.6 point this week. The fee on five-year mortgages averaged 0.7 point.

Starbucks to Close 600 US Stores

SEATTLE – For a decade it appeared there was no such thing as too many Starbucks stores for U.S. coffee drinkers, whose willingness to buy its $4 lattes and dark drip brews rationalized a second green-and-white mermaid awning just down the street – and sometimes even a third.

But in a sign that those days are over, Starbucks announced yesterday it will close 600 company-operated stores in the next year, as the faltering U.S. economy hastened the pain caused by the company's own rapid expansion.

Starbucks did not say which stores will be closed, only that they are spread throughout the country. It did say that 70 percent of those slated for closure had opened after the start of 2006.

Click here for more.

Existing-Home Sales Edged Up in May

Some good news and bad news in national real estate news this week:

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes rose slightly in May, only the second increase in the past 10 months. Prices, however, kept plunging and analysts said the large number of unsold homes indicated the prolonged slump in housing was far from over.

The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums edged up by 2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million units in May. Even with the small gain, it was still 15.9 percent below the depressed levels of a year ago.

The median price of an existing home sold in May dropped to $208,600, 6.3 percent lower than a year ago. That is the point where half sell for more and half sell for less. It was the fifth biggest year-over-year price decline in records that go back to 1999.

Click here for more.