Socal Multiunit Real Estate

BE HAPPY! LOS ANGELES IS NOT ON THE LIST OF PLACES WHERE HOMEOWNERS HAVE THE MOST DEBT

May 30, 2009 on 12:30 am | In Lending, Market Trends, Problem, Uncategorized, all, recession | 4 Comments

By Jodi Summers

Sure, we’re all complaining about our decline in wealth, and the drop in real estate values. The bright side is if you’ve owned for any length of time, you’re still satisfied. In many parts of the Los Angeles area, real estate saw a 400% rise in a 10-year period – to have prices drop by a third is still 266% better than 12 years ago.

Other cities in California have a lot more to complain about, according to Forbes list of Where U.S. Homeowners are Most in Debt. Seven metro areas of the Forbes Top 10 made the list, including Modesto, Riverside, Yuba City, Merced, San Diego, Stockton and Vallejo.

In these cities, underwater mortgages–one on which more is owed than the home is worth–comprise an average 44% of outstanding mortgages, compared to the 29% nationwide average.

Modesto ranks as the worst city for homeowner debt. Household wealth has been reset to 2001 levels while housing prices have declined 57% since the peak in 2005, and 30% in the last year alone. This has dunked 81% of the last five years’ mortgages underwater.

 

Want to know more?

Check out the whole story @ http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/11/homes-equity-debt-lifestyle-real-estate-mortgage-underwater_slide_2.html?thisspeed=25000

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www.performermag.com/wcp.tourstop.0711.php

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WE WIN! LOS ANGELES IS THE MOST OVERPRICED CITY IN THE UNITED STATES

May 25, 2009 on 12:01 am | In Curious, Fascinating Information, Market Trends, Problem, Statistics, Trends, Uncategorized, all | 10 Comments

By Jodi Summers

Los Angeles likes being on top…though we’d rather be famous than infamous. But today, we’re infamous, as Forbes sites L.A. as the most overpriced housing market in the U.S. Forbes then ranked these metros using four measures: average salary for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, with data from PayScale.com; annual unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; cost of living, according to Moody’s Economy.com; and the Housing Opportunity Index from the National Association of Homebuilders and Wells Fargo, which measures the number of homes sold in a given area that would be affordable to a family earning the local median income, based on standard mortgage underwriting criteria.

Here’s the top 20 list so you can chuckle and guffaw….

No. 1: Los Angeles, Calif.

(Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.)

Cost of Living: 47 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 47 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 47 of 50

Average Salary: 15 of 50

~~

No. 2: Chicago, Ill.

(Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.)

Cost of Living: 44 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 36 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 43 of 50

Average Salary: 23 of 50

~~

 

 

 

No. 3: Miami, Fla.

(Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla.)

Cost of Living: 26 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 46 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 39 of 50

Average Salary: 31 of 50

~~

No. 4: New York

(New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y./N.J.)

Cost of Living: 47 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 50 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 37 of 50

Average Salary: 6 of 50

~~

 

No. 5: Providence, R.I.

(Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, R.I.)

Cost of Living: 26 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 28 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 48 of 50

Average Salary: 37 of 50

~~

No. 6: Riverside, Calif.

(Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.)

Cost of Living: 23 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 34 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 49 of 50

Average Salary: 26 of 50

~~

No. 7: Long Island, N.Y.

(Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y.)

Cost of Living: 40 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 48 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 17 of 50

Average Salary: 24 of 50

~~

No. 8: Cleveland, Ohio

(Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio)

Cost of Living: 32 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 5 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 44 of 50

Average Salary: 40 of 50

~~

No. 9 (tie): San Diego, Calif.

(San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.)

Cost of Living: 35 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 41 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 27 of 50

Average Salary: 16 of 50

~~

No. 9 (tie): Newark, N.J.

(Newark-Union, N.J./Pa.)

Cost of Living: 40 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 44 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 23 of 50

Average Salary: 12 of 50

~~

 

No. 11: Philadelphia, Pa.

(Philadelphia, Pa.)

Cost of Living: 35 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 38 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 23 of 50

Average Salary: 21 of 50

~~

No. 12: Portland, Ore.

(Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore.)

Cost of Living: 19 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 39 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 28 of 50

Average Salary: 30 of 50

~~

No. 13 (tie): Memphis, Tenn.

(Memphis, Tenn./Miss./Ark.)

Cost of Living: 8 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 15 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 42 of 50

Average Salary: 48 of 50

~~

 

No. 13 (tie): Tampa, Fla.

(Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.)

Cost of Living: 16 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 22 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 38 of 50

Average Salary: 37 of 50

~~

No. 15: Orlando, Fla.

(Orlando-Kissimmee, Fla.)

Cost of Living: 5 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 50 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 32 of 50

Average Salary: 45 of 50

~~

No. 16: St. Louis, Mo.

(St. Louis, Mo./Ill.)

Cost of Living: 28 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 11 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 35 of 50

Average Salary: 36 of 50

~~

 

No. 17: Jacksonville, Fla.

(Jacksonville, Fla.)

Cost of Living: 11 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 17 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 35 of 50

Average Salary: 44 of 50

~~

No. 18: San Francisco, Calif.

(San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood, Calif.)

Cost of Living: 46 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 49 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 8 of 50

Average Salary: 2 of 50

~~

No. 19 (tie): Boston, Mass.

(Boston-Quincy, Mass.)

Cost of Living: 45 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 37 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 13 of 50

Average Salary: 9 of 50

~~

No. 19 (tie): Warren, Mich.

(Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich.)

Cost of Living: 28 of 50

Housing Opportunity: 2 of 50

Unemployment Rate: 46 of 50

Average Salary: 28 of 50

~~

http://www.dqnews.com/Articles/2009/News/California/Southern-CA/RRSCA090415.aspx

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/06/cities-expensive-top-lifestyle-real-estate-overpriced-cities_print.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homes5-2009may05,0,2234983.story

http://www.socalmultiunitrealestateblog.com/?p=361

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PUBLIC COMMENT ON LEED FOR NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT DESIRED

May 20, 2009 on 12:11 am | In Federal Government, New Developments, Problem Solving, Trends, Uncategorized, green | 8 Comments

 by Jodi Summers

In their own green way, the U.S. Green Building Council values your opinion. And now, they have opened a second public comment period for LEED for Neighborhood Development. Make your voice heard on neighborhood greening through Sunday, June 14, at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

See http://lists.usgbc.org/t/943571/18403397/91/0/ to submit your comments.

During the first public comment period, the US Green Building Council received more than 5,000 comments. Reponses are said to be posted at the above link.

The LEED http://lists.usgbc.org/t/943571/18403397/1552/0/ for Neighborhood Development rating system integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building into the first national rating system for neighborhood design.

The program is the result of a collaboration among USGBC, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The rating system has been in pilot since July 2007, with nearly 240 projects participating. Feedback gathered from those projects, as well as countless hours of USGBC volunteers’ time, have led to the current, more-sophisticated and market-responsive draft of LEED for Neighborhood Development.

BE HAPPY IF YOU OWN REAL ESTATE! LOS ANGELES WINS AS THE MOST OVERPRICED HOUSING MARKET IN THE U.S.

May 15, 2009 on 12:45 am | In Curious, Fascinating Information, Of Local Importance, Problem, Statistics, Trends, Uncategorized, all | 4 Comments

By Jodi Summers

Los Angeles is good at topping lists…best weather, prettiest people, throws the best party… recently, Energy Star noted that we topped the list of energy efficient cities. Now, the news is more infamous than famous…like being named to the worst dressed list. Forbes says that Los Angeles is the most overpriced city in the United States, citing “…bloated housing prices, lofty living costs and unemployment rates among the highest in the nation…”

 

But the weather is perfect here…and traffic will improve… and there is good news for those looking to buy property. According to reliable sources like DataQuick information services, our home prices are leveling off, noting that the median price paid for a home was unchanged from January and February, “indicating that the market may be exploring price floor levels.”

It has been reported that a total of 19,486 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was up 27.9 percent from 15,231 for the prior month, and up 52.1 percent from 12,808 for March 2008, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

“…Go to Southern Cal, for example, we’re seeing a floor in pricing,” confirms Jeffrey Mezger, chief executive of builder KB Home. “We don’t see prices going down right now, which is a good thing, because then you can set a baseline.”

Truth be told, government- insured, FHA mortgages made up 37.8 percent of all purchase loans in March, up slightly from a revised 37.5% in February and up from 10.1% in March last year. And, regionwide, foreclosure resales accounted for 55.4 percent of March’s resales activity.

 

The median home price in the Los Angeles metro area has dipped from $525,000 to $319,000 over the last two years, Forbes noted that we still face one of the least affordable housing markets in the country. According to the NAHB/Wells Fargo’s Housing Opportunity Index, only New York, Long Island, N.Y., and San Francisco are more expensive.

Our housing issues are an over-the-top version of what’s happening, to lesser degrees, in the rest of the nation. Our unemployment rate is around 10.3%, right up there with Riverside. All of those new, mid-range housing projects are like fallow because of the lack of work.

“The unemployment [in Southern California] is definitely driven by the housing bust,” says Lee. “Prices are collapsing, but if you’re looking at buying a house, it’s still expensive.”

 

And that’s why we head up the over-priced housing market. Pathetic thing is, Chicago is second on the list; their weather sucks and the lifestyle is less dynamic than other list toppers like Miami (3) and New York (4)…

“For the average professional, New York’s premium is not as high as you’d expect, given the cost of living,” says Al Lee, director of Quantitative Analysis at PayScale.com. “The premium for a software developer in New York is actually less than it is in Seattle, and about the same as it is in Atlanta.”

Forbes came to this conclusion after analyzing earnings potential and living expenses in the 50 largest continental U.S. metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan divisions–geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. Sounds official and impressive, doesn’t it.

 

Sources

http://www.dqnews.com/Articles/2009/News/California/Southern-CA/RRSCA090415.aspx

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/06/cities-expensive-top-lifestyle-real-estate-overpriced-cities_print.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homes5-2009may05,0,2234983.story

http://www.socalmultiunitrealestateblog.com/?p=361

DISTRESSED INVESTMENT PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

May 10, 2009 on 12:43 am | In Economy, Fascinating Information, Market Trends, Money Saving Opportunities, Problem Solving, Trends, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

DISTRESSED INVESTMENT PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

By Jodi Summers

Experts in net lease properties and 1031 exchanges say there may be ways to soften the blow of distressed situations, including the tax consequences of foreclosures.

 

“The biggest challenge is certainly the current market environment, which has so many investors fearful and sitting on the sidelines,” said Ed McRedmond, senior vice president of portfolio strategies for Invesco PowerShares.

Advisory groups such as BRC Advisors, Calkain Opportunity Services, Net Lease Capital Advisors and ES Group LLC have experience structuring exchanges for investors who face losing a property to foreclosure. A good advisor can minimize the tax bill and put the distressed property owner into a new investment.

If an owner is proactive in pursuing a remediation strategy before they are foreclosed on, advises Carl Christensen, managing director of Net Lease Capital Advisors, “They can deed their property back to their lender through a qualified intermediary and do a 1031 exchange into a new investment.”

 

There are a significant amount of potential replacement triple-net properties that are primarily leased to investment-grade tenants and typically highly leveraged, says Christensen. Though it depends on the financial and tax particulars of each case, putting equity into the new investment can be considerably less costly than paying the capital gains–which, since a foreclosure is considered a sale, includes the discharge of debt above the owner’s basis–and depreciation recapture tax bill, he adds.

 

“They’re facing a 20% to 25% tax problem. But you can solve that problem for 7% to 13% [equity] and have the benefit of owning your own real estate and saving money,” says Christensen. “The downside is they have to come out of pocket for the cash, because there is no equity in the property in this particular scenario, but what they have to come out of pocket for to buy the replacement property is significantly less than what they’d have to come out of pocket for to pay the IRS.”

Even in difficult situations such as foreclosures, there are options that can help, agrees Calkain president and CEO Jonathan Hipp. “The last thing you want to do is not be smart about your options. Don’t just assume that you’re dead in the water,” he says. “It’s about good tax planning and trying to be ahead of the bus.”

 

Beyond foreclosures, the strategy could also be applicable to forced-sale situations, when owners can’t put additional equity into a property when refinancing (at today’s lower leverage standards) is necessary and thus are forced to sell at a lower price than what they paid for the property.

 

“Those folks will have a little bit of equity, they won’t be totally upside down,” says Christensen. “This kind of solution is beautiful for them, because they won’t have to dump more money in to preserve their tax position.”

 

http://www.globest.com/news/1346_1346/insider/176880-1.html

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10448393/1/new-property-fund-meets-distressed-market.html

flickr.com/photos/ivanilluuu/221910373/

http://www.serious-collector.com/images/swimming_e2es.jpg

http://www.calkain.com/images/CC_logo.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/BRCAdvisors/bRCAdvisors_smlogo.jpg

 

 

LOS ANGELES HAS MORE PEOPLE THAN MICHIGAN

May 5, 2009 on 12:54 am | In Curious, Fascinating Information, Federal Government, Statistics, Trends, Uncategorized, WOW | 4 Comments

State Population Estimates

The Economic Data Global Express offers statistics from the California Department of Finance (DoF) report on 2008 population for the state and its counties and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates as of July 1, 2008 for the states. Comparisons of the two are interesting.

The DoF reported that California added 435,905 residents between 2007 and 2008, pushing the July 1 population count to 38,148,493 persons. The Census Bureau estimated that the state added 379,132 residents over that time frame and placed the July 1, 2008 count at 36,756,666 persons.

If it were a separate state, Los Angeles County (July 1, 2008 estimate of 10,347,437 according to DoF) would rank 8th in the nation, ahead of Michigan (July 1, 2008 population 10,003,422). (Jack Kyser)

PR: http://www.census.gov/

http://laedc.org/eedge/index.html#2