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

The game hunting world is all abuzz this morning as word spreads that Lake Oroville resident Pat Butler set a world record by bagging the largest Tule Elk while bow hunting on Grizzly Island  yesterday. 

According to reports from the hunting grounds, Butler, an owner of  the ever popular Wagon Wheel Market, here in the Lake Oroville real estate market,  took the 8 x 8 elk during the afternoon hunt. By late afternoon representatives from the Department of Fish and Game certifed it as the largest elk ever taken by hunting with bow and arrow, granting Pat world record status for his efforts.

I think there is elk jerky in my future!!!!!!!!

Congratulations Pat.

August 1, 2010 marked the 35th anniversary of the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that shook the Lake Oroville real estate market that summer day in 1975.  A quake, that most scientists that study these things say, was induced by the construction of Oroville Dam and filling of Lake Oroville.

The quake, which caused an estimate $2 million in damages, mostly greeted homeowners who had masonry fireplaces with collapsed or cracked chimneys. 

In light of the recent observation of this historic annniversary I want to share an article with you which discusses whether earthquake insurance is worth the cost of paying for it.

Happy anniversary and happy reading.

Click here for article

You knew it wouldn’t be long before I made it easier for you to utilize your smart phone to access this blog site, search for properties in the Lake Oroville, Paradise  and Chico California real estate markets, and get the latest in interest rates and other real estate news and advice.

Today I am announcing the launch of my very own iPhone app that is now available for download at the App Store. With this highly sophisticated, but easy to use, app you now have not only my contact information in the palm of your hand but you can now access all the services of my blog site with just the touch of a button. No more addresses to remember and no more passwords to forget. This is just another investment I am making for you in order to provide a service, that nobody else in the Lake Oroville real estate market will,  in order to make current and relevant real estate information readily available to you.

See my current listings, check out my latest blog post, or even find my Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In pages. Spend as much, or a little time as your prefer because there is NO COST to you to download this App. Check back often, though because updates and come cool additions are coming soon.

And unlike many of today’s apps this app will be compatible with Blackberry and Droid users. Look for the rollout annoucement for these phones on the site sometime before Labor Day.

Download your app at the iTunes App store and search for AgentNTouch. After downloading, launch the app and in the Agent I.D. box enter 5303704691.

I would greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions. My goal is to always be an AgentNTouch.

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With the stroke of his pen the President of the United States has extended the deadline for first time home buyers to close their real estate transactions to September 30, 2010.

As with the old deadline, the extension only applies to home buyers that were under contract on or before April 30, 2010.

The extension will allow an estimated 180,000 first time home buyers, many of whom are in the Lake Oroville and Paradise real estate markets, whose loans got caught up in the backlog of files that lenders encountered by being less than prepared for the easily foreseeable crunch of home loans that resulted from buyers making a mad dash to beat the April 30th contract deadline.

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 Now, before you get too excited about the change in sales for the Paradise real estate market compared to last week, you need to know that I have made a change in the areas that I am tracking for you.  Due to popular demand I have now added the Magalia area to my Paradise CA weekly reporting.  Reporting on a larger geographical area will smooth our the wild swings in the numbers that sometime occur with smaller samples of numbers. Stay tuned for future reports.

 Another ho-hum week for Lake Oroville real estate market as sales activity continues to under perform. But once again we find that the inventory of Oroville homes for sale has dropped to another low. 

If the current activity in the office of our Oroville market is any indication we may soon be seeing a change in these sales numbers. Our Oroville agents have been very busy this week showing property and writing offers. It is good to see that maybe the spring-like weather is bringing buyers out.

If you are thinking of selling, now might be the time to get your home on the market.

Of all the real estate blog posts I have read over the past year, very few, if any attempt to get a feel for what their readers think. In fact most of what I see out there in the blogosphere are glorified advertisements touting the author as the only person you should be using to help you buy or sell your next home.

In our office in the Lake Oroville and Paradise real estate markets we attempt to provide not only real estate market information on our blogs, but also a good mix of what is going on in our communities. And while it is easy to provide comment and feedback to each of our posts we realize that not everyone has the time in their hectic lives to sit down and submit written comments on any particular blog post.

Well, providing your opinion just got easier for those interested in the Paradise andLake Oroville housing markets. With the newest feature to my blog site having just been released by REALTY WORLD  you can now provide your opinion with just a quick mouse click or two on what will be a broad range of real estate topics, and even some topics that have nothing to do with the local real estate markets.

Introducing the Poll Question of the Month. Each month (or more often if you wish) I will post a question that you can answer quickly and easily. To the right of this post you will see this month’s question asking your opinion on where you think real estate prices are headed. Simply click on your answer and then click the VOTE button. It really is that easy.

And better yet, if you have a question you would like to see made part of the poll,  just drop me an e-mail and I will consider using your question.

Let me know what you think. This site is as much yours as it is mine.

Over the past eighteen months or so I am sure you have seen many an article written by various real estate professionals encouraging buyers to “get off the fence” to take advantage of the low prices and low interest rates currently available.  As a regular reader of this Lake Oroville and Paradise, CA real estate blog you have also seen my views of market conditions over the past year. Many buyers have taken the advice and made some magnificent deals on their purchase of homes in the Oroville and Paradise, Ca real estate markets.

The advice has been taken so seriously in fact that a new dilemma is now facing potential Oroville and Paradise buyers: A lack of adequate inventory!

Suffering from significant loses in the value of their homes, many Oroville and Paradise potential home sellers have decided to wait for the market to get “better” before putting their homes on the market. What the definition of “better” is remains to be seen, but a look at the trend in the Oroville inventory numbers (see chart) points to a need for some sellers to get off the fence themselves and take advantage of the lower interest rates, and the increase in buyer inquiries we are beginning to experience.

Granted, home prices are not what they were in 2006, but if you are waiting for a return to those prices, you are in for a very long wait. Those prices were a result of very loose and irresponsible lending standards. They were not driven by free market demand.

So what is a seller to do? Well, that depends on your circumstances. If you do not need to sell, then DON’T. If you are considering a sell but are thinking about waiting for a year or so for the market to improve, you may be outsmarting yourself. While it is possible (isn’t anything possible) that prices may move up in the next year, it is not very probable. I continue to think that we are at the bottom of this market but that we will be bouncing along the bottom for quite some time. Maybe two to three years before we see any consistent price appreciation trends in our local markets.

Historically low interest rates, and lower prices have significantly increased the home affordability for Californians. An increase in either of these factors will exclude potential buyers from the market further delaying any meaningful recovery.

Another thing to consider when contemplating a sale is how many other homes are on the market that compete for the attention of potential buyers. With inventories at an 8 month low, now would be the best time for your home to be seen by the most buyers.

I know that many of you are upside down with your mortgages at the present time and NEED to wait for a significant turn in home values. But for those of you who owe less than the value of your home or own your homes outright, this may be a good time to think about getting off the fence.

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A not so funny thing happened to the Paradise, CA real estate market last week. Only two sales to report from Paradise this week.

The one encouraging thing to take from the week’s meager numbers is the fact that the average Paradise home sale was over $250,000 and the average time that each of these two homes were on the market was only 24 days. From the seller’s side of the equation it is good to see higher prices homes selling quickly.  Hopefully we will have more substantial numbers to discuss next week.