Wachovia Fires While California Goes NOD in Mass

Wachovia Corp. reported a surprisingly large second-quarter loss Tuesday, deflating Wall Street’s hopes that the nation’s big banks are weathering the credit crisis well. The bank said it lost $8.86 billion, is slashing its dividend and eliminating 10,750 positions after losses tied to mortgages soared.

Writing on LATimes.com, Peter Hong leads with defaults rising to record levels: “A record number of California homeowners defaulted on mortgages last quarter, a real estate information service reported today.”
More on the Real Estate Bubble

foreclosure help?

Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation on July 8, 2008, effective immediately, regarding all California residential mortgage foreclosures.
…….Requirements to Contact Borrower re Workout Options Prior to Foreclosure
and to Provide Declaration re Same with Notice of Default and/or Notice
of Sale….. The section provides that a mortgagee, beneficiary or authorized agent,
which can be the prospective foreclosure trustee (collectively hereafter
“beneficiary”), may not file a Notice of Default under section 2924
until 30 days after contacting the borrower as prescribed below or a
diligent effort as described below is made to contact the borrower. …
The beneficiary shall contact the borrower in person or by telephone to
assess “the borrower’s financial situation and explore options for the
borrower to avoid foreclosure.” During the initial contact, the
beneficiary must: 1. Advise the borrower that he or she has the right to
request a subsequent meeting to be scheduled by the beneficiary within
14 days; and Provide the borrower with the toll free number made
available by the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development to find a HUD
certified housing counseling agency [(800) 569-4287].
It will be interesting if this helps those in foreclosure with their Chula Vista Real Estate and other areas in and around San Diego County

Home Sales Stagnates

Sales of new homes fell in February for the fourth straight month, pushing activity down to a 13-year low. While the rate of decline has slowed, the worst slump in more than two decades has not runs its course, analysts said.

California Dreamin’

California housing market is in free fall , where prices are falling at three times the national rate of decline.Median sales prices fell by a stunning 26% from year-ago levels in February, with home prices dropping at a rate of nearly $3,000 a week, the California Association of Realtors reports. Further, the CAR says the Fed’s interest rate-cutting campaign “will have little near-term direct effect on the housing market.”

U.S. Foreclosures Jump

Georgia had the 7th highest foreclosure rate in the United States in January, according to RealtyTrac’s January 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

Georgia had 10,665 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — in January. A 28 % jump. Furthering the belief of a real estate bubble bursting.

The U.S. had an 8% increase to 233,001 foreclosures in January.

“January’s foreclosure numbers demonstrate that foreclosure activity is continuing on its upward trend, substantially increasing from a year ago in many states,” said James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. “However, the 8 percent monthly increase in January is not as precipitous as the 19 percent spike we saw in January of 2007, and several key states actually experienced decreasing foreclosure activity from the previous month. It could be that some of the efforts on the part of lenders and the government — both at the state and federal level — are beginning to take effect. The big question is whether those efforts are truly helping homeowners avoid foreclosure in the long term or if they are just temporarily forestalling the inevitable for many beleaguered borrowers.”

Home Sales Lowest in ten years

Existing homes sales fell to the lowest level in almost ten years while the median price for a home dropped for the fifth straight month.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Monday that sales of single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 0.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units, the slowest sales pace on records going back to 1999.

The median price of a home sold in January slid to $201,100, a drop of 4.6 percent from a year ago.

Orange County home prices

Orange County home prices fell 8% in January from December, while home sales dropped 25% from a month earlier as most potential buyers and sellers opted to wait out the ongoing turbulence in the real estate market. Across Southern California, it was the slowest month for home sales in more than 20 years, according to DataQuick. The 9,983 sales seen across the Southland is a 45% drop from year-ago levels.

Countrywide “Redlines”

Don’t Call me Red, Call Me Soft!

The “all real estate is local” mantra is being called into question because in fact across the board it seems the market is lowering. Using a COuntrywide list of soft markets Blown Mortgage offers the sobering news.

Blood Hound Heat Maps/”redlines” the U.S.

Sen. Johnny Isakson

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has introduced a proposal in Congress to give home buyers a tax credit of $15,000, to be distributed over a three-year period.

Property purchases by owner-occupiers that close between March 2008 and February 2009 would qualify for the incentive, which Isakson said will stimulate new demand for homes.

“I don’t know a lot about a lot of things, but I made my living in this business for 32 years,” noted the former realty executive during a Capitol Hill press conference. “You gotta put back into the equation the missing man who’s just not there, and that’s the buyer.”

Isakson believes the legislation would additionally massage the residential property market by propping up the construction market, helping home builders shrink the oversupply of dwellings on the market, and helping troubled borrowers and distressed lenders that are dealing with bad loans. Critics say the focus needs to be on rescuing existing home owners from the threat of foreclosure.

Orange County Condos

OC Home Prices Drop in December
Including condos, the median price of an OC home was $565,000 in December, down 10.3% from a year ago, and is a 12.4% decrease from Orange County’s record high, set in June.

The price of an existing Orange County home fell 3.5% from November to December, the California Association of Realtors said on Tuesday. While foreclosures continue to rise.