Mark Wisterman's Paradise & Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

Seaching for homes in the Oroville real estate market, the Chico real estate market, and the Paradise real estate on your mobile device just got a lot easier and more convenient with the recent release of REALTY WORLD’s Mobile Connect home search program.

 This new platform allows buyers to obtain listing information, nearly instantly, on any residential property for sale in the area in which they are currently located by simply texting  as simple two letter code. There is even a QR code available for you iPhone and Android users.   No more searching through cumbersome apps like REALTOR.com, Zillow and Trulia looking for a specific property that you are standing in front of trying to get updated information. And no more hassles when calling the phone number on a yard sign and getting hold of an agent that has no idea of what property you are asking about.

With this new system you get not only the information on the specific home you are texting for, but you also have the option of seeing the 5 other homes for sale that are closest to the home you are looking at. I have included a couple of links here that will provide further information on this awesome new system. The benefits to buyers and sellers alike are explained in the flyers.

To sign up for this program just give me a call or drop me an e-mail with your cell phone number and I will get you enrolled. As always there is NO CHARGE for this service and there is NEVER any abuse of your contact information. In fact, I will make you this promise: I will not ever call you about any home you inquire about through this system unless you ask me to.

Mobile Connect for Sellers

Mobile Connect For Buyers

Happy House Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!

My intent today was to report the weekly sales of the Lake Oroville real estate market to you for last week.

But during my number crunching I realized that it  has been a while since I had updated my charts that I have been using to track the monthly and annual Lake Oroville home sales. 

After updating these charts I noticed an interesting long term trend in one of the charts that I thought you needed to see. From past blog posts, you all know that I do not take the  month to month numbers that are released into the media on an ongoing basis as important as what has happened over longer periods of time. I think the media is far too focused on what this month did compared to that month, which in turn has focused the consumer on the very same thing.  This narrow focus is what I believe is going to cause many buyers to miss  the great opportunities that currently abound in the marketplace as far as prices and interest rates are concerned. 

Now before you get excited, thinking this is another one of those real estate blogs posts that tells you to BUY NOW!!!!, let me tell that it is not. This market is going to provide great buying opportunities, for those of you that still have jobs in this economy, for the foreseeable future.   What I am telling you is to look at this chart and see for yourself what this Lake Oroville real estate market is whispering to you. When looking at a chart like this most people look at the peaks to see how high things have gone. What I suggest that you look at here is the lower side of this chart. The former stock broker in me says ignore what is happening in the high side and pay close attention to what is happening on the low side. In the stock broker world a stock that showed a trend of higher lows was one to pay attention to and was a good signal that the stock was poised to move to higher highs.  (Click Here or on the Chart to Enlarge)

As indicated on this chart, Read the rest of this entry »

Here are your weekly home sales numbers for the Lake Oroville real estate market for the week ending 8/25/2011.

We had a significant drop in the numbers across the board this week when compared to the unusually strong numbers of the previous week. The home that sold for over $600,000 in the previous week helped set up the negative numbers this week. To me, the biggest disappointment in this week’s numbers is the number of Oroville area homes sales that closed escrow. Only 5 this week coming off a count of 16 the previous week is somewhat disheartening.  But, as I say: “One week does not make a market.”

For those of you in the Lake Oroville housing market and the real estate markets of Chico, Paradise, Yuba City, Marysville, Gridley, Biggs and Durham, who did not see the Facebook posting I made on my business page yesterday at Facebook/RealtyWorld.CA, and, since I have not seen this recommendation from any other area real estate agent anywhere on the ‘net, I will repeat what I advised my Facebook readers to do:

If you are working on a loan for the purchase or refinance of a home, you need to have a SERIOUS  discussion with your lender about locking your interest rate ASAP.

As a former financial advisor with a major Wall Street firm, I have seen this type of market volatility before and I will tell you that when you get the gigantic drop that the stock market took today and the huge drop in interest rates that came with it, there is a better possibility that that stocks and interest rates will “bounce” off these lows very quickly, then there is of rates continuing to fall in a fashion that makes it worth the risk to “wait and see” what happens.

There are two events coming up that make it a good idea to consider locking your rate as soon as your loan officer is available to do this for you.

1. The monthly employment numbers will be released tomorrow. If the numbers are at all better than analysts are expecting, or even in line with expectations,  I anticipate that interest rates will tick up slightly. If, as some suspect, the number is worse than the overall consensus expectation you may see rates tick down on the news. But not by much (unless the number is some off the wall number like 10% unemployment).

2.  The weekend is here. In a volatile market like this, and with rates as low as they are now, waiting through the weekend may cost you. If there is any positive economic developments from the international markets over the weekend it most likely will cause some upward movement in rates before your feet even hit the floor Monday morning.

Obviously, there is no way to know exactly what rates are going to do in the coming days, and , as I am no longer a professional financial advisor, the above comments should not be considered financial advice. I want you to be sure and make your own decision about this based on your current financial situation in consultation with your personal finance management team.

Related articles

• How the Bond Market Relates to Your Mortgage Interest Rate (marketconsultingmortgage.wordpress.com)
• Living in a low interest rate world (financialpost.com)
• Market dive could rattle homebuyers (lansner.ocregister.com)

Here are the latest foreclosure reports for the real estate markets of Lake Oroville, Ca, Chico CA, Paradise CA, Yuba City Ca and Marysville, CA.

These reports still show what has been true for the past couple of years- a very volatile market with not much in the way of any long term trend that could assist us all in anticipating where the market is going from here. This uncertainty, as well as rampant unemployment, is doing its best to keep many buyers on the sidelines, as they seem to be waiting to the bottoming in pricing.

If you are one of these buyers be sure that you are keeping a close eye on trends on prices and interest rates as you wait. Remember that the Federal Reserve has pulled out of the mortgage market and are no long artificially deflating interest rates. Rates are going to react much more quickly to changes in the economy than at anytime in the past 2 years without the government interference that has kept them low. Believe me when I say I understand the fence-sitting mentality as not much this economy has to offer feels very good right now. Read the rest of this entry »

I just signed up with this really cool new Newsletter service provided bt the National Association of REALTORS®. I will be using this service from time to time to bring important real estate topics to all of you in the Lake Oroville, Chico, Paradise, Yuba City, Marysville real estate markets and the real estate markets surrounding these areas. I would appreciate your feedback on this service as I always want to be bringing you the most pertinent real estate information available. Afterall, shouldn’t you have the most current information available to you as contemplate selling or buying a home?

As part of my efforts to stay on the leading edge of real estate news, in order that I can keep all of you in the Lake Oroville housing market informed, I subscribe to a number on-line real estate new organizations who regularly communicate with me through e-mail with the latest and greatest real estate info.

In an artice that just arrived in today’s communication from Inman News, I thought I was experiencing Deja Vu all over again. In fact, some of it sounded so familiar that I started to rack my brain as to where I had heard this kind of thing before. I looked high and low and still no hint. I looked inside and outside. I looked everywhere in the entire Lake Oroville real estate market area. But no luck remembering where I had heard it before.

So now my dear readers, I turn to you for help. Here, excerpted in part, (Click Here to see entire article) is what I read from the article written by Glen Roberts, Jr., entitled “ A slow-motion real estate recovery”. Maybe you  can help me remember:

Mark Dotzour, chief economist for the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, said government stimuli have delayed recovery.

“We’re not in a ‘double dip’ in my mind,” said Dotzour — referring to some economists’ talk of a second dive into downturn after some signs of an economic rebound — “we just never hit bottom in the first place.”

The market essentially “fell off a cliff,” and the government’s “lifeline” of programs it throttled at the recession, among them the homebuyer tax credit programs, “Cash for Clunkers” auto program, loan mod programs and Federal Reserve’s purchase of Treasury debt, did not have the intended benefits.

The market “would have started coming back up to a year ago or so if we hadn’t had the federal intervention in the first place.”

The federal homebuyer tax credit programs appear to have been largely ineffective, essentially “stealing” sales forward that would have occurred at a later time. “We believe pretty strongly that we paid back every bit of that stimulus,” he said, with the slumping sales that followed expiration of the tax credits.

Hmm…..now where in the world have a I heard these type ideas before?????  Wait……………..yes…………………..now I’m starting to remember………….Here is what I had read in the past. Read the rest of this entry »

At least until July 1st, if you can. It is on this day that the sales tax rate in the State of California is reduced by 1 percentage point. In the Oroville, Paradise, and Chico areas this means that our sales tax goes from the current rate of 8.25% down to 7.25%.

The higher rate was imposed upon California by our legislature and Governor on April 1, 2009 in the hopes of helping close the budget gap caused by the out of control spending of our “state leaders.” As usual, raising taxes only made matters worse. But enough about politics.

With the expiration of the current increased tax rate only two weeks away (unless it is somehow extended) it is wise to consider putting of any non-essential purchase until the new rate takes effect. Consider the savings you will enjoy by putting off the purchase of that new car you are about to buy. By simply waiting a mere two weeks you can save yourself $200 in sales tax for a $20,000 car and $300 in taxes for a car that costs you $30,000. Heck, that is like getting a free tank of gas Speaking of cars, you can also save on registration fees if you put your purchase off until July 1st because vehicle registration fees are also being rolled back then.

The reduction in the sales tax is going to be good for the economy of a state struggling to get back on its economic feet by leaving consumers with more money in their pockets that will most likely be spent on other things. For example, the overall price on a gallon of gas will be reduced by the reduction in the sales tax. At today’s price of $3.77 per gallon at the corner AM/PM you will save almost 4cents per gallon with the new (or should I say old) rate.

If it is at all possible for you to put off that taxable purchase until July 1, then I say do it and keep more of YOUR money.

Related articles

• Calif. legislators OK online sales tax, and that means Amazon(bizjournals.com)
• California Democrats send budget to Brown(bendbulletin.com)
• California Lawmakers Pass No-Tax Budget as Deadline Looms(businessweek.com)

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In speaking with a number of lenders that serve the Oroville real estate market, there seems to be an increase in the number of prospective borrowers who aren’t listening to the instructions their loan officers are giving them during the loan process which is jeopardizing the purchase of their homes.

Today’s public service message is short and sweet to homebuyer’s everywhere:

LISTEN UP!!!

When your loan officer tells you not to buy anything using your credit card during the loan process…..Listen up!

When your loan officer tell you to be sure you have a paper trail for ANY funds you receive during the loan process….Listen up!

When your loan officer tells you that any gift funds that someone is willing to give you must not go directly into your bank accounts…Listen up!

When your loan officer tells you not to deposit those “stashed under the mattress” funds into your accounts….Listen up!

As a borrower you must understand that the loan qualification does not end when your lender pre-qualifies you for a loan.  Any changes to your financial position before your home purchase is COMPLETE will affect your ability to procure your loan. In most cases the effect is that you disqualify yourself for your loan.

Your lender will be monitoring your financial situation throughout the loan process and WILL be aware of changes to it. Be sure that you not only hear what your loan professional is telling you, but also be sure to LISTEN UP!!

If you do, you will find that the loan process is much simpler and less stressful.

Related articles

• 3 Simple Questions to Get the Right Mortgage(godfreyrealtygroup.wordpress.com)
• 3 Must-Ask Questions for Mortgage Shoppers(muniratherealtor.wordpress.com)

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As a long time (17 years and counting) real estate professional in the Lake Oroville real estate market,  I cannot count the number of times that I have people approach me and ask, “How’s the market?”

In the early, and inexperienced, years of my career I got somewhat caught up in the answer that every real estate “salesperson” used: “Oh, it’s great. I have lots of transactions going, and I am really busy!!” As I matured in the business (or just got too old to hype things anymore), I realized that the pat answer that everyone else was giving was not what inquiring minds wanted to know. People  wanted to know what market conditions really were. Not some pie-in-the-sky, feel good answer. Problem was, back in 1994,  there was no easy way (remember, Al Gore was just inventing the Internet in those days) to gather the data necessary to actually provide any reliable and timely reporting aboutOroville real estate market conditions.

Wow, how times have changed….or have they? I still hear people asking about the market and I still hear nearly all the real estate sales people using the same cliche’d responses. What  I have strived to do on this blog site over the past 2 years is to provide an opportunity for you to see for yourself  how the market is doing, in an unbiased, straightforward approach. Letting you see the stats for yourself.   The leaps and bounds that technology has taken now makes it possible for you to avoid the “opinions” about the market and allows you to draw your own conclusions. Afterall, the market is not driven by opinions, it is driven by the numbers.

My latest tool, that I am making available to you, is data that shows the latest and greatest information about the Oroville foreclosure market. The charts included in this posting show the trend of foreclosure filings over the past year for the Oroville real estate market areas of  zip codes 95965 and 95966, but I am also able to provide more indepth charts as I expand my foreclosure reporting to you.

I am holding myself back from giving my take on what these two charts might be telling us, because I would like to hear from youabout what you think. Click the comment button at the top of this post to chime in.

If you would like a bigger view of these charts, simply CLICK HERE or on one of the charts.