Mark Wisterman's Paradise & Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

There are  just a little over 60 days until the November 2010 elections. And while it is my policy to not engage in partisan political rhetoric on this Lake Oroville real estate market blog site, I still feel it is important to engage my readers in government policy discussions that effect them as home owners, home sellers and home buyers.

The discussions we have had concerning my position on the recent tax credit is the best example of  the type of “political” discussion I prefer to have on this site. And, as always, I appreciate your comments on my posts whether your comments are made here, or on Facebook, or Twitter, Trulia, Zillow, or anywhere else these blog posts are seen on the World Wide Web.

With the election day fast approaching, I feel, that the current political climate and economic situation in which we find ourselves, should give you have an opportunity to your voice opinion on some of the candidates running for seats in elections that I believe have a major influence on our Oroville housing market.

Below you will find a “ballot” that I have put together to let you do just that. This ballot can also be found on the side bar at the far right hand side of this site so you can easily find the ballot if you want to come back later to vote.

If you would like, you may also leave comments on this post about any of the candidates running for these offices. But beware, I am the moderator of the comment line and only supportive, substantive, comments for your preferred candidates are allowed. And because I am sick and tired of negative campaigns; no negative, mean spirited comments will be allowed.

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Oroville real estate, oroville homes for sale, Oroville California, chico listings, Oroville listings, paradise listings, Paradise Ca homes for sale, Butte County home for sale, Oroville properties, houses for sale, gridley property

More good news for first-time homebuyers in the Lake Oroville, Paradise, and Chico California real estate markets who missed the June 30, 2010 deadline for closing the escrow on the purchase of their home.

The U.S. Sentate, last night, passed H.R. 5623 which, when signed by the President, will extend the deadline of closing a transaction that was under contract before May, 1, 2010. The new deadline will be September 30, 2010.

There is estimated to be 180,000 homebuyers that were unable to close their transactions by the June 30th deadline due to delays in getting their loans processed.

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• Extension to Home Buyer Tax Credit Deadlines Resurrected by House of Representatives  findwell.com)
• Closing Deadlines for Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended  findwell.com)

This just came across the wires and I wanted to make sure all of you in the Lake Oroville and Paradise Ca real estate markets hear it here first:

(June 29, 2010)—The United States House of Representatives has just passed HR 5623, the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, by a vote of 409-5. This bill extends the deadline for closing tax credit eligible transactions from June 30 to September 30, 2010. The bill moves to the Senate where the outcome is much less certain. I will continue to update you as the events move forward.

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• Will Congress Extend the Tax Credit Closing Deadline?  blogs.wsj.com)
• Today in Congress  dailykos.com)
• Extension to Home Buyer Tax Credit Deadlines Resurrected by House of Representatives  findwell.com)
• U.S. House Extends Closing Deadline for Homebuyer Tax Credit  businessweek.com)

Here are the numbers for last week’s Lake Oroville real estate market. This is the third week in a row that the number of Oroville home sales has been in single digits, and the 7th week out of the past 8 for this. With inventories still low, and a lot of that inventory in disrepair it is becoming more and more difficult to find properties for Oroville area buyers.  All of my team members have pools of buyers that they simply cannot find decent properties to show them.

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• Existing Home Sales Settling Down  seekingalpha.com)
• February real estate sales up sharply (cbc.ca)

We’ve all heard the old saying , “Give them an inch and they will take a mile.” Right?

Well, this has never held more true than it does today in this age of bank owned properties. No, this is not another one of those bank, bashing blog posts that seem to be everywhere these days. Quite frankly it is difficult to tell if the expanding trend of banks REQUIRING  more and more of a potential purchaser before accepting an offer, is the work of the banks or of some of the bank-employed REALTORS® that have hitched their fortunes to their bank-employer.

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane to see what I mean.

Inch #1-In the beginning, banks that owned foreclosed homes simply required that a buyer present a loan prequalification letter with any offer that was made on one of their homes. This seemed fair, as no seller wants to be dealing with a buyer that is not qualified for a loan.

Inch #2- It was then not good enough that the purchase contract stated that the buyer had given a deposit check to their agent. The bank wanted a copy of the check.

Inch #3-Next the major banks required that any prospective buyer be loan prequalified with their bank before they would consider the buyer’s offer. Great way for the bank’s loan officers to try and persuade a buyer to swtich their business to them. Yes, it is happening! Read the rest of this entry »

 Wow, have I been a bad boy. I have neglected my duty to provide the Lake Oroville real estate market with the most up-to-date home sales stats. Not sure why I am behind, but here are the mumbers for the week endig January 4, 2010.

Maybe it was that mini-vacation I took that threw me off!!!

Stat of the week is the continuing decline is the number of Oroville homes currently listed for sale. The number hit a new low for the week. At the current sales pace this equates to approximately 6 month inventory of homes for Lake Oroville. 

Click Here for more historical info

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• Home-selling time sliced by half in 2009  lansner.freedomblogging.com)

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor Arizona trip, will keep me from providing you, my loyal Lake Oroville real estate market readers, with the weekly sales activity number for last week.

You heard right, I am actually taking a few days of southwest r& r. But fear not, I have not forgotten my duty to you.

I hope you all had a great and blessed Christmas day and that you are planning for a safe New Years celebration.

Sales numbers for the week were actually pretty good considering that it was a major holiday week.  I have highlighted what I believe to be the stats of the week. Average sold price has been climbing the past 4 weeks and last week was the highest it has been in the past 10 weeks. The other stat of note is, once again, the number of single family Oroville homes for sale. The is number represents the fewest number of homes on the market since I have been bringing you this particular statistic beginning June 8, 2009.

As a seller, or potential seller, this is THE number to watch going forward. Smaller inventory will eventually translate into higher prices.

Well, that is all for know. I’ve got another “busy” day scheduled tomorrow as I do more trailblazing through the Arizona  desert on my quad runner.

Click here for expanded chart

 Merry Christmas, everyone. We had a very slight sales rebound last week in the Lake Oroville real estate market, but again not much on which to comment. I think the biggest news in the current market environment  is that inventories are continuing to shrink. I have provided a chart at the bottom of this post which graphs the nature of the inventory trends.  Be sure to click on the graph for a larger view of it.  As a buyer you will want these inventories to show increases as this will keep prices more affordable. As a seller you should like the trend that has been developing since June. Shrinking inventories will result in higher prices over time. 

Click here or on chart for larger view

Click here for more stats

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• Supply of homes for sale 4-year low  lansner.freedomblogging.com)
• November home sales rise 73%: CREA (cbc.ca)

I’m sure that after 8 months of reading my blog posts you I know that I am pretty much a numbers guys. I don’t take much stock in what I am told about the condition of the real estate market by media types because I know that they provide no perspective on that about which they are reporting. Drama and gloom and doom is good for ratings, so for the most part, that is what we get.

As your self appointed interpreter of real estate news and information for the Lake Oroville real estate market, I find it important to dive into the data provide to you with what I think is really going on in this market. Every once in a while, though, I get hold of a report that does a whole lot better job of explaining the situation than I can. (I know…that is just hard to believe).

The report I am providing a link to today comes from Jim Moll of Wells Fargo Advisors. As a longtime Oroville financial advisor, Jim is gracious enough to send reports to me and other Oroville REALTORS®from time to time to assist us in keeping our clients informed of market conditions. Fortunately for buyers and sellers in the Oroville, Chico and Paradise areas, this is the only real estate site on which you will see reports of this nature.

Either click here to see the report or click on the graphic. And remember, always read or listen to the story behind the headlines.

With all the hoopla surrounding the extension of the first time home buyer tax credit, as well as the expansion of a smaller credit to existing home owners, I think it is time to develop a plan that actually addresses the LONG TERM needs of this market. I am talking about more than just the Lake Oroville real estate market here. We need a national solution.

As you know, I am not a big fan of using taxpayer dollars to pay people to buy homes. These handouts, in my view, are only band aid solutions where a tourniquet may be the better answer.  They do nothing to stabilize the market. In fact the tax credit is just going to delay the inevitable unless something is done soon to spur market demand for housing.

What I would like to do, over the next couple of blog posts, is to get your opinion on a plan that I think will finally put this real estate market back on the tracks, without government money.  And just so you know, it must be a great idea because I thought of it while taking a shower.  (If you have never heard of this theory before it must be because you take baths).

So let’s get started fixing this thing. Read the rest of this entry »