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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I recently had cause to discuss an issue with the City of Oroville Housing Department regarding whether or not a particular home located within the city limits of the Lake Oroville real estate market could be approved to be sold to the first time home-buyer that I am representing.

Without getting into the minutia of the issue, the Housing Department originally said that my client would not be able to purchase the home based on the current guidelines that were established within the grant program that is being used to fund the loans for first time home buyers that are purchasing homes within the city limits of the Lake Oroville real estate market.

In my view, the guideline that they were using was one that was very subjective and open to broad interpretation. In discussing this issue with the housing department over a three day period I think I talked to nearly everyone in the department.

I talked to Dawn, Tiffany, Vanessa, and Pat during this time and to be totally honest I thought I was going to get the proverbial government runaround that normally comes in  dealing with “policy.”

Well I was wrong. That’s right….wrong!

Each of these public servants listened to my concerns and my position with an open mind  and in the end understood that the guideline was in fact extremely subjective and worked diligently to do the right thing for my client , as well as for future users of the First Time Home Buyer Loan Program, of which many in the Lake Oroville real estate market have availed themselves.

The postition that these ladies are in cannot always be an enjoyable job. Dealing with REALTORS®, lenders and first time home buyers while trying to keep up with, and communciate, the many changes that occur in the grant programs that make the loan programs possible has got to be quite a challenge.

A big thank you to Pat Clark, the Director of Business Assistance and Housing Development, and the entire staff in the department for their help. It is refreshing to see that common sense and fairness are alive and well in the halls of our city in the Lake Oroville real estate market.

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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• Tuesday Tax Time: the “Home Buyers Credit Extension” Edition  thriveal.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)

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.

Hello again, Paradise, Ca real estate fans. Looks like we just did a little clearing out of inventory that has been on the market for a while. Average days on the market for the week, as well as the average sold price indicate that. Inventory numbers are holding steady, but again with only three week’s of data, any type of trend is impossible to develop. We will have a much better idea of market activity for the Paradise, Ca homes market in the next three weeks or so.

I would like to hear from you about the content of these Paradise weekly statistics.

Please CLICK HERE to provide your opinion.

For a smaller town like Oroville, prosperity hinges greatly on the amount and quality of development that takes place.  Among other things, future development brings with it new jobs, which brings with it an expanded population base, which brings with it more housing needs. In other words, a prospering Lake Oroville contributes to a strong housing market.

Development, though cannot take place in ANY town without a City Council, or Town Council as the case may be, working together for the common good of it’s beloved city. Not only does nothing get done when city officials are bickering, but you won’t find any major companies willing to come to a town when there is discontent at the highest levels of city government.

So when I read, “City Council tensions erupt into open” on the front page of our local newspaper this morning I could only shake my head in bewilderment at how stupid things can get at City Hall sometimes.

The following e-mail was sent from one Council Member to our mayor. Now before you get your panties in a wad, I am taking no sides in whatever dispute these two elected members of our community are having. In fact, to be honest, I am not sure what the dispute is all about.

But I am sure of one thing, the message in the email below is unbecoming of an elected official and, in my view, may be reason to have him removed from office. I’ll have more comments on this after you read the e-mail. Oh, by the way, the text highlighted in red was my doing. Read the rest of this entry »

I just added a new widget to this blog site in pursuit of my commitment to give you as much information as I can about the goings on in the Lake Oroville real estate market.

Now that I have finished compiling the sales statistics of the Lake Oroville housing market from the last 4+ years I can provide a more local perpective on the real estate market. 

Each month I will update the Northern California numbers as well as the Lake Oroville numbers. You now not only get to see what our local market is doing but can now compare how we are doing as compared to the rest of the north state. Be aware, though, that the Oroville housing numbers, being on a smaller scale, will show more volatility than the larger scale numbers of the Northern California region.  And, as I have said before, the trend is more important than the raw numbers.

With this added information at your finger tips, I now need YOU to provide ME with some information, and more importantly, your opinion.  Are the housing numbers I provide here helpful to you, or is it too much, or is it maybe not enough? I know this blog cannot be everything to everybody, but,  I want to be sure that what I provide you is what you feel you need to satisfy your hunger for all things real estate. Please leave your comments and let me know what you like as well as what you don’t like about this service. I appreciate your participation.

OOPS! Sorry for getting carrried away with the headline. I’ve got to stop watching and reading the news.

Sales did actually double over last weeks number but that was because last week was so ugly. Also remember that the 10 sales for the week were during a week that contained only 3 workdays, so there is a bit of a silver lining here for the Lake Oroville real estate market.

It seems that my blog posts may be being read even by Congress.

On November 14, 2009 I blogged about the financial state of The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the possibility of an increase in the minimum downpayment requirement from 3.5 percent to 5% in order to obtain an FHA loan to purchase a home in the Lake Oroville real estate market and beyond.

Seems that I am not the only one thinking this way. RealtyTimes.com has an article about this very thing.

CLICK HERE to read the article.