Senate Approves Tax Credit Extension, Expansion

Senate Approves Tax Credit Extension, Expansion
The Senate yesterday passed legislation to extend the $8,000 home buyer tax credit to May 1, 2010, for first-time buyers and add a $6,500 tax credit for repeat buyers if they've lived in their home for five of the past eight years. Home prices are capped at $800,000.

The legislation was included in a bill to extend unemployment benefits and is expected to be passed by the House today or tomorrow. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation when it's sent to his desk.

Under the bill, income limits are expanded to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for joint filers. Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.

Households who have binding contracts in place by April 30 will be allowed an additional 60 days to complete their transaction. The deadline for members of the military serving out the U.S. for at least 90 days between Jan. 1, 2009, and May 1, 2010, has been extended one year.

Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds their tax bill, the government will issue a check. Taxpayers will be able to claim the credit on their 2009 income tax return for purchases made in 2010.

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you.

If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home. Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.LVTMGRN (818.588.6476) or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

Team Green Sees RED!

You will notice that TEAM GREEN is sporting a new red logo as of Friday, October 9. Collette and I decided to realign our practice with a different office and made the move to Keller Williams. The decision to leave Belisle Realty was tough from the business side of the house and even more so emotionally. We owe many thanks to the Belisle Family for giving us our start in this business several years ago; particularly Del Belisle and Myles Meeden. They are both gentlemen of the highest caliber and we are proud to call them friends and colleagues.

Our new partnership with Keller Williams has opened several doors for us as agents and for our clients as well. We are excited about this change and the fact that we were able to hit the ground running. Our core beliefs and practices in exceptional client service have not changed despite leaving a smaller, family-owned brokerage for an international brokerage. Those will never falter. Keller Williams upholds the same principles that our team does, making us an excellent match. The fact that Keller Williams is based in Austin, Texas (only 90 miles south of where Stephen was born and raised) had nothing to do with the decision, although it is an interesting coincidence.

Note that our telephone number, 818.LVTMGRN (818.588.6476) has not changed, nor has our web address (www.teamgreenrealty.com) or our email addresses. What has changed is that we are proud to now be serving you from three different locations:

411 North Central Avenue Suite 100, Glendale, CA 91203
1115 Foothill Boulevard, La Canada, CA 91011
401 South First Street, Burbank, CA 91502

In addition we are also proud to announce two new team members; Christina Vergara, Agent Services Coordinator, and Trish De Vera, Transaction Coordinator. They will be assisting the team and our clients with administrative and transactional operations support respectively.

Call, click or email with any questions, or to let us know if we can help you, or someone you care about, with any real estate needs.

Summer Stats!

Our upgrade to the “LA Area Real Estate” iPhone application should be available in the iTunes App Store any day now. The app is free and we welcome your feedback. This new version includes links to our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We look forward to trading posts and tweets! We will also make an announcement here on our blog when it is available. If you are an iPhone or iPod Touch user and have not downloaded the application, check it out here: http://www.teamgreenrealty.com/iphone_app.htm. On to business…


The First-Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit specifies that you need to close on a property by December 1st to qualify for the $8,000 credit. If you are planning on taking advantage of this great tax break, you better get moving. The average escrow is 64 days in today’s market. This means that you need to not only find a place, but get it into escrow by October 1st to comfortably make the requirement.

Let’s talk stats:

July and August are traditionally two of our busier months and this year was no exception. Competition is still fierce for buyers, so if you are contemplating a purchase, be prepared to listen to your agent and trust their expertise. Unfortunately we have seen a trail of broken hearts this year as buyers, especially first-timers, enter the market with their own perceptions based on doom and gloom media coverage. They think that they can purchase a mansion for pennies on the dollar. Many of them do not listen to their agent’s advice about our competitive market and end up falling in love and ultimately losing several properties before they “get it.” Houses listed in our area under approximately $800,000 are moving very quickly. There are still plenty of “all cash” and “half cash” buyers in almost every corner of our local market and they have been driving up prices through bidding wars and strong offers for several months now and there is no end in sight. This is a fantastic time to buy as long as you have a great agent who can guide you through the deal and help you strategize. There are plenty of really great deals out there so let your agent and your research guide you.

For our sellers you can expect reasonably fast sales as long as your agent does their homework and helps you price your home competitively. There is plenty of competition so pricing is everything. You should expect a fair amount of activity and you will need an experienced agent to help you determine which offer is the strongest. Remember that the strongest offer is not always the one with the highest price. There are many other factors at play as well. Find a great agent and trust their advice. If you don’t already have one, give us a call. We’ll be happy to serve you.

Overall houses in the Los Angeles area sold faster in August than any other month this year except for June. Our average days on market (how long it took to sell) was 64! That’s a great number. In the Northeast San Fernando Valley the average DOM was only 50 days…wow! That’s some of the best news we’ve had all year.

On the flip side of that, our numbers for August show a general slowing after steady improvement all year. The decrease in overall prices in our area, combined with the increasing accessibility of credit has kept the market very active all year. It is difficult to say exactly how much of the increase in sales during the summer months was just seasonal activity or if we can expect a steady volume of sales into next year. Hopefully the soon-to-expire first time buyer tax credit will keep the summer momentum up.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Individual Locales

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you.

If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home. Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.LVTMGRN (818.588.6476) or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

May Statistics

The “LA Area Real Estate” iPhone application that we published has been a great hit. We have received such a great response by new and existing clients that we are actually working on an upgrade. Look for that on our website or the iTunes App Store in the coming weeks. We will also announce it here when it is ready. If you are an iPhone or iPOD Touch user and have not downloaded the application, check it here: http://www.teamgreenrealty.com/iphone_app.htm.

On to business…

The First-Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit specifies that you need to close on a property by December 1st to qualify for the credit. If you are planning on taking advantage of this great tax break, you better get moving. The average escrow is 45-60 days in today’s market. This means that you need to not only find a place, but get it into escrow by October 1st to comfortably make the requirement.

The rest of this entry will focus on May stats.

Overall fewer houses are on the market compared to last month. Combine that with the fact that more are selling each month and we see that the overall inventory is decreasing. As many of you already know, spring and summer are the busiest high seasons in real estate. These are great indicators that our local market is picking up.

One of the things that I see when I look at these statistics is that there are far fewer expired listings in the market this month. That, combined with our increase in sales and shortened average days on market is a very clear indicator that houses are moving. Glendale continues to be one of our fastest moving local markets with the lowest average days on market of any other area at 64 days.Much of our improving market can be attributed to the credit market loosening even further. Loans are reasonably easy to get these days and there are loans available for as little as 3.5% down (VA loans can still be had for no money down).

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Here is an Overall View of This Month’s Stats

Individual Locales

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you.
If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home. Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

State of the Union

As many of you know, the members of Team Green are huge iPhone fans. In fact, we are so impressed with this technology that we have decided to publish our very own iPhone application. It will be available in Apple’s iTunes App Store shortly. Check back here to find out when it is available for download. This application will allow you to quickly communicate with our team, including using the built-in GPS to share the location of a property you like, as well as find properties for sale in the LA area. We are very excited about it. Keeping up with five children, business contacts, and friends is a tall order in today’s information age. We enjoy leveraging a device that can do just about anything you ask of it. We like to think of it as simplifying our lives, although, I will admit that we are borderline technophiles…on to business…

Positive signs that our local real estate market is improving have been around for months. Now that the media is finally picking up on these facts, word is finally getting out that prices have stabilized, and even increased in some areas. Things are finally improving. Our team has been busier in the last two months than I can remember in a quite a while and we are very happy about it. Since our phones have been ringing off the hook and our email inboxes have been filling up, we thought that this blog entry would focus on the most common information that everyone seems to want to know these days.

The current market has shown us that prices in most areas have either stabilized or started to climb. This is fantastic for property owners and sellers because it means that overall values, and thus equity, continue to improve. Helping this trend is that the current number of sold homes in Los Angeles County contains fewer foreclosures and short sales so they are having less of an impact on current sale prices. Also supporting is the fact that the overall number of sales is up, yet there are fewer overall properties on the market. In other words, the current inventory is declining. To boot, houses sold faster last month than previous months. The average “days on market” was 52 for the Glendale area during the month of April.

The good news does not stop there. Did you know that most first-time home buyer programs define a first-time buyer as simply someone who has not owned a house in the last three years…even if they have owned property before? This is opens the door (pun intended) for many potential buyers to take advantage of several programs including tax breaks and down payment assistance. Add to this the fact that the credit market has generally loosened and financing is available, plus loans are readily available with as little as 3.5% down (VA loans can still be had for no money down) and we have a great recipe for both buyers and sellers. As you can see, we are happy that the media has finally helped us by spreading the word that it is a great time to buy, sell or refinance a home. It is also a great time to buy investment properties, including second, or vacation homes.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Here is how 2009 is Faring

Individual Locales

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you. If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home. Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us.

We look forward to hearing from you. Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

March Statistics

Spring is in the air. The weather is finally warmer, and the busiest season of the year as fast approaching. Personally and professionally speaking, spring and summer account for our most intense months of the year. It is a time for backyard barbeques, spending the day at the beach, watching the kids play softball, or rumbling through the mountains on the Harley. Whatever your favorite spring and summer activities are, it is time to get out there and have a good time. Now that we have put Old Man Winter to bed, hopefully for seven or eight months, on to business…

Spring also typically brings about a time of renewed vigor and, along with summer, is the busiest of all seasons for real estate. While we have witnessed new excitement in our local market in real time over the last few weeks, this is starting to become evident on paper as well. More on this below where we review March statistics. Speaking of papers, the front page of the Los Angeles Times a couple of weeks ago suggested that the Southland has finally reached the bottom. They are finally jumping on the Team Green bandwagon!

Our local market has stabilized and we are seeing fewer price drops. In fact, some of our buyers have even seen prices increase on some of the properties they have been tracking. The other goods news is that we are seeing properties that are in good shape and priced well flying off the shelves. These are all great signs. Have we actually hit the bottom? It is very hard to say, but I will tell you that if we are not already there, we see extremely compelling evidence that we are very close to it. Here is a summary of the most notable stats for March.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

There were more sales by far in March than any other month this year. I am excited to report that there were over 350 more properties sold in March than February. On top of that Short Sales and REOs accounted for 15% less of overall sales in March than in February. This is all great news because we decreased our overall inventory and are bringing our local market back into balance. The shorter month’s supply and higher absorption rate are positive factors that are helping to right our local markets. Short Sales and REOs are also having less of an impact on pricing as we are getting them sold and off of the market. For those of you looking to take advantage of great deals on pre-foreclosures and foreclosures you need to act fast. Competition is tough and we have seen the better properties flying of the shelf in less than a week with multiple offers.

Individual Locales

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you.

For our Sellers: Determining the value of a home is still somewhat tricky, but the good news is that properties are moving. If you owe more than you think your home is worth and you want to find out whether or not a short sale is the right answer for you, give us a call. Our team has solid experience and we are here to help. If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home.

For our Buyers: Now is an outstanding time to purchase real estate. Interest rates are still incredibly low and prices are fantastic. Pre-qualifying for a loan is more important than ever before. While loans are easier to get than they have been in the past, properties are moving fast. This means that once you find that perfect property, you will need to act fast. Pre-qualifying will also save you headache and heartache by helping you determine how much house you can truly afford. We are happy to help you with this process.

Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

February Market Statistics

March madness is upon us and so is spring. It is time for spring-cleaning and revitalization of many areas of our lives. The economy is still a bit sluggish, but there are a few positive signs around, despite what the media has to say. Sometimes I think that if it were left to them, things would never get better. Regardless of what happens, we are thankful to be in a position to help our friends and clients with their real estate needs. We have good news with this month’s statistics that might cheer you up, so without further adieu…on to business…

February came and went quickly and we have some compelling new statistics to show for it. Overall, the greater Los Angeles area did pretty well. More new houses came on the market in February than in January and more sold! One number that I was very happy to see decrease was the number of expired listings, as well as the monthly supply. These are fabulous signs that prove things are improving in our area. I am also proud to say that the average days on market (the time it takes to sell a house) decreased by over a week.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Individual Locales

As you can see, REOs (Bank Owned Properties) and Short Sales are still accounting for more than half of all sales. This is a great time to buy real estate and if you have a need to sell, it takes a great agent to get the job done because it requires more work than in previous years. Our team is up for the challenge, so let us know if we can assist you.

For our Sellers: Determining the value of a home continues to be an art form that takes a true professional to master. Many factors affect your home’s value, including your motivation. REOs and Short Sales in your immediate area can affect your market value. For those of you considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home.

For our Buyers: Now is an outstanding time to purchase real estate. Interest rates are still incredibly low and prices are fantastic. Make sure to pre-qualify for a loan BEFORE house shopping. This will save you headache and heartache. We are happy to help you with this process.

Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move, call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

How the New Stimulus Plan Affects You

For those of you on the mailing list, we hope that you enjoyed the Valentine’s edition of our newsletter.  For everyone else, we hope that your Valentine’s Day was wonderful and as full of love as ours was.

We have received several phone calls and emails regarding President Obama’s new stimulus plan and how it affects homeowners. While some details may change in the near future, here are the facts as they stand today. 

Earlier today, President Obama unveiled the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, which will offer assistance to as many as 9 million homeowners, while attempting to prevent the destructive impact of foreclosures on families and communities.  The plan contains three main components, and only applies to primary residences. The loans referenced in the plan cannot exceed Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae conforming loan limits.  I have outlined the plan in greater detail below.

The first component is directed toward homeowners suffering from falling housing prices who still have equity in their homes, but no longer have the 20 percent equity needed to refinance.  Under the plan, homeowners who have conforming loans owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be allowed to refinance their homes, even if they do not have 20 percent equity left in the house. The U.S. Treasury Dept. estimates that about 5 million homeowners will be helped by this portion of the program.

The second component, known as the Homeowner Stability Initiative, is designed to assist homeowners who are “underwater” on their mortgages. The $75 billion initiative will bring together lenders, servicers, and the government so that all stakeholders share in the cost of the modification.  Primary mortgages would be reduced to monthly payments that do not exceed a 38 percent debt-to-income ratio, with the costs of doing so borne by the lender. The government and lender then would split the costs of further reducing the monthly payments until they were at a 31 percent debt-to income ratio. An important aspect of the initiative is that homeowners do not have to be delinquent to participate.

The Homeowner Stability Initiative also will create incentives for servicers, mortgage holders, and homeowners. Servicers would receive an up-front fee of $1,000 for every eligible modification meeting the initiative’s guidelines. Guidelines are scheduled to be released by March 4. Mortgage holders will receive an incentive payment of $1,500, and servicers $500, for modifications made on loans that are current but at risk of imminent default.

The final aspect of the Homeowner Stability Initiative is creating clear and consistent guidelines for loan modifications. The Obama Administration plans to work with federal agencies, banking and credit union regulators, and the private sector in order to develop loan modification guidelines that can be implemented across the entire mortgage market. While adoption of the guidelines will be voluntary for the private sector, all financial institutions receiving Financial Stability Plan assistance going forward will be required to implement the loan modification guidelines.

The government estimates that between 3 and 4 million homeowners will benefit from the Homeowner Stability Initiative component of the plan.

The third component of The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is supporting low mortgage rates by strengthening Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The Treasury Dept. plans to increase their Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from its current $100 billion in both entities to $200 billion in each. The Treasury Dept. also will continue to purchase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-back securities in order to help promote stability and liquidity in the marketplace.  Additionally, the Treasury Dept. will increase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s portfolios by $50 billion, for a total of $900 billion. The Obama Administration will work with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to support state housing finance agencies in serving home buyers, such as CalHFA. Funding for this will not come from TARP money but from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

While some of the details still are being developed, such as the modification guidelines, the Obama Administration plans on using programs and funding already allocated for The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan and will need little legislative approval for programs under the plan.

We’ll keep you updated on the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan as more details and information become available to us.

Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move, call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

January Market Stats and More!

What a year 2009 is shaping up to be!

Collette and I are very excited about 2009 and have been extremely busy the last few weeks fulfilling our ongoing education requirements in an effort to serve you better. We have made a firm commitment to keeping our skills as sharp as possible so that we can provide the best possible service to all of our clients.

We toured Glendale Water and Power’s reservoir construction project at the Chevy Chase Country Club last night with several other residents, including Larry Varnes from the Chevy Chase Estate Association. Larry is the Co-President of the organization, which is the oldest homeowner’s association in California. It was nice to see a large turnout of residents in our own backyard in a community forum. We wish that all communities were as involved and active in their own fates. For those of you that are interested in the association, here is the link to their website: http://www.chevychaseestates.us/. For those of you interested in reading more about the reservoir projects, including links to online construction cameras: http://www.glendalereservoir.com/.

On to business…

You will recall that our last post indicated that December was the best month of 2008 for our local real estate market. As a reminder, here is last month’s graphic:

We have more good news to report - January was also a great month! Here are the details:

All of the numbers are climbing except for one important number: the “average days on market.” This number represents the average number of days that a house sits on the market before being sold. The fact that this number dropped represents that houses sold faster in January than the previous month.

Overall, these are good numbers, but we do have one concern and that is the large spike in new listings for January. Typically, we would see an increase in new listings in January as many homeowners delay putting their home on the market over the holidays. With that said, the increase was more than 100%, making January (going into February) a great time to buy. For sellers, the good news is that the average days on market fell by nearly two weeks!

Several of you called or emailed us and asked if we would break down our statistics by area, so here are those numbers. Note that they will be included in all future stats. We will be reintroducing the line graphs at the end of February when we have like data to compare to January.

If you have any questions, or would like to see specific statistics for your area, please let us know. We are also happy to provide you with a free evaluation of your home. To take advantage of this, as well as other freebies, click here.

Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move, call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.