UC Davis museum features exotic bugs

Visitors to the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology stopped and stared as director Lynn Kimsey lifted the walking leaf from its enclosure.

The Malaysian insect looked like a leaf right down to its gnarled brown edges and veined body, thin as paper. "That's an incredibly cool animal," said Katie Hager of Davis, who had brought her grandson Richard, 10, to the museum.

The two adult walking leaves have astonished visitors since they arrived at UC Davis earlier this year, Kimsey said. Researchers have succeeded in breeding them – not an easy task, she said.

The babies looked like little green shoots. They swayed in the breeze when Kimsey blew on them.

The walking leaves are part of the order of stick and leaf insects called phasmatodea. They've evolved to look like the plants they eat.

The Bohart is currently featuring them in its "petting zoo" of live insects.

There are giant New Guinea walking sticks, 6-inch-long monsters that can deliver a mean jab, Kimsey said.

Others hail from Australia, Borneo and Bangladesh.

Next on the Bohart's acquisition list, said Kimsey, is an orchid mantid, a fantastic pink insect from Southeast Asia that mimics the petals of a flower.

"They've had 300 million years to look like this," she said.

Source: SacBee

Improved Housing Numbers

Encouraging news for housing was provided in an article on MSNBC recently. The news reported construction starts on new homes have apparently been buoyed by the special tax break incentive provided to first-time home-buyers.The construction of new homes climbed in June to the highest point in seven months as builders scrambled to break ground for homes which must be completed by the last of November for first-time buyers to take advantage of the special tax break.

The housing start numbers in June, represent a 14+% increase in single-family home construction. This represents the largest monthly increase since December 2004. The construction of multi-family units, a chaotic segment of the market, fell nearly 26% from a month earlier.For a complete report as presented by MSNBC, you can Click Here.

June production up for region's home builders

Sacramento-area home builders ramped up their summer production in June, receiving permits to start 374 new single-family homes, apartments and condominiums, the California Building Industry Association reported Friday.

Capital-area builders accounted for 10.8 percent of the 3,446 permits issued statewide.

Home builders in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties started 374 single-family detached homes and attached multifamily homes or apartments, the CBIA reported.

That was up from 252 in May.

Despite the uptick, the region's homebuilders have cut production in half from last year.

Their 1,650 permits from January through June compare with 3,285 the same months in 2008.

The same pattern statewide means builders are on track for their fewest permits since the state started keeping records in 1954.

Source: SacBee
Author: Jim Wasserman

Sacramento-area foreclosure total nears 42,000

Two and a half years into the foreclosure crisis still engulfing the Sacramento region, the number of households surrendering keys to lenders has blown past the 40,000 mark – hitting a new housing bust high of 41,903.

It's the newest count in a growing tally of foreclosures that claimed 4,448 more area homes in April, May and June, researcher MDA DataQuick reported Wednesday.

Statewide, lenders have taken back 410,744 homes since the start of 2007, including 45,667 in the second quarter, when they also sent default notices to 124,562 more homes. DataQuick said 10,682 of those defaults were in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Lenders issue the formal foreclosure warnings when homeowners fall three months or more behind on payments.

Analysts on Wednesday called the numbers a sign that the foreclosure crisis remains grim as the economy stumbles and unemployment has risen to 11.6 percent in the capital region and statewide. Widespread state government furloughs amounting to 14 percent wage cuts in thousands of area households – and the resulting economic contraction for other businesses – are also tightening the vise.

At area loan counseling centers like ClearPoint Financial Solutions, unemployment and lost income are now the new face of the loan crisis, said spokesman Bruce McClary.

"It doesn't matter what kind of mortgage they have. It's the change in income and financial circumstances," he said.

The firm recently merged with By Design Financial Solutions, a nonprofit counselor with offices in North Highlands.

DataQuick's quarterly report shows that many borrowers getting into trouble with mortgages aren't escaping.

"It's proof that there hasn't been this huge shift toward workouts, whether that's been a short sale or a loan modification," analyst Andrew LePage said.

Santa Ana-based First American CoreLogic reported recently that 9 percent of home loans in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties were delinquent in May. DataQuick said that June counts of foreclosures and notices of default were up sharply from those in April and May, suggesting worse numbers in the third quarter.

In Roseville, Penny Krainz fears she will be one of those statistics. This week she got a 90-day notice that she would be losing her job at an area high-tech company.

"That ought to be right around the time they foreclose on my house," she said Wednesday.

Krainz stopped making payments months ago, she said, on a house she bought in 2002 for $210,000.

A bigger house next door – a bank repo once valued at $379,000 – recently sold for $114,000, she said. That drove her into a category of borrowers who simply give up because they have high payments and owe so much more than the house is worth.

"This is so out of the realm of my upbringing," Krainz said. "I would never in a million years not paid my mortgage."

DataQuick reported that half the loans that defaulted in the second quarter were made before July 2006 and half were made afterward. Lenders that originated the majority of the troubled loans were Washington Mutual, a failed thrift taken over late last year by JPMorgan Chase; Wells Fargo; and Countrywide, the failed lender taken over by Bank of America in mid-2008.

Second-quarter foreclosures and defaults in area counties:

• Amador County: 29 foreclosures and 85 defaults.

• El Dorado County: 202 foreclosures and 632 defaults.

• Nevada County: 98 foreclosures and 286 defaults.

• Placer County: 515 foreclosures and 1,570 defaults.

• Sacramento County: 3,019 foreclosures and 6,862 defaults.

• Sutter County: 154 foreclosures and 355 notices of default.

• Yolo County: 216 foreclosures, 541 defaults.

• Yuba County: 215 foreclosures and 351 defaults.

Source: SacBee

Author: Jim Wasserman

California foreclosure deals are bittersweet for novice investors

Many Californians saw their dreams go up in smoke when the housing market burned up as a result of heavy job losses, bankruptcies and balloon mortgage payments, but others are rising from the ashes and forging new investment endeavors.

All the bathroom mirrors are missing, there's dog urine in the air-conditioning unit and holes in the walls, but the foreclosed house Sacramento resident Sherie Coelho purchased for $115,000 just a few doors down from her own home is "a blessing and a gift," she said.

It was originally listed for $319,000, but because of its status as a former marijuana grow house, real estate agents couldn't get rid of it, Coelho said.

So, backed with $30,000 she received from her late mother, Coelho just secured her first rental property and hopes she will be able to save for her retirement.

"Almost overnight I've become an investor, and it wasn't necessarily intentional," she said.

Coelho isn't the only one who bought a foreclosed home on her south Sacramento block – a neighbor did so earlier this month. But there's something that makes Coelho different from most rental property investors in today's market – she lost her home in 1997.

The foreclosure was one of the most painful periods in Coelho's life, and it took three years to build back her credit.

"I felt like, 'Am I stupid? I'm an English teacher, I should know how to read these documents,' " she said. "It was like I should have understood."

Coelho, who teaches at Cosumnes River College, said going through a foreclosure has made her "more conscious of the human factor of the rise and fall of the housing market."

For Citrus Heights resident Doug Boethin – who purchased his first rental property last year when foreclosures flooded the market – securing the investment he had wanted for years was bittersweet.

"It isn't until you're actually out there (looking for properties) that you see the anger of the people who lost their homes," he said. "To actually witness that, was something to be had."

More foreclosures means more people are looking for rentals, making property investment an attractive business.

But first-time landlords often underestimate the legal requirements, time commitment and ongoing expenses involved in running a rental property, according to the Rental Housing Association.

There could be problems for renters and landlords if the new owners don't comply with laws and standards, including fair housing legislation and property maintenance, said Cory Koehler, RHA deputy director of government affairs.

Coelho and Boethin attended the RHA's new investors educational event Saturday to get schooled on the ins and outs of property management.

Coelho is prepared to invest anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to repair the cosmetic damage in her rental and has learned through experience that having a financial cushion is essential when you own a property.

At first, a $1,000 mortgage each month seems like a small price to pay for your dream investment, she said. But after a few months, "The house eventually owns you."

But losing a home doesn't mean all is lost, Coelho said. And she thinks she's a great example of that. Her foreclosure taught her to buy within her means, and now she thinks she'll have her rental property completely paid off in seven years.

"As far as a lesson learned," she said, "there is always hope."

Source: SacBee
By Nicole Williams

Home Front: Roseville new-home market looks robust

Compared with the rest of the anemic new-home sales market, Roseville looks robust.

One in four new houses sold in the capital region in April, May and June were in the Placer County city of 112,000, according to building industry statistics being released today by the Folsom-based Gregory Group.

For the past two decades, Roseville has been a powerhouse in the suburban Sacramento housing and jobs market. Analysts predict it may be one of the first areas of the region to emerge from the real estate slump.

According to the Gregory Group report, 26.2 percent – or 255 – of the new houses sold regionwide in the second quarter were in Roseville, primarily in the recently annexed west Roseville growth area.

"The price points have come down quite a bit, and there's a fair amount of affordable product in Roseville by now," said Gregory Group President Greg Paquin. "Plus, it's a very desirable place to be. When people ask us what area is going to rebound first, we invariably say it's Placer County."

Roseville's dominance has remained a trend through most of the housing bust. Since 2007 ushered in a sales twilight of once-soaring Lincoln and Elk Grove, Roseville has outpaced other area cities for new-home sales, accounting for about one in five.

"When prices fell, we were seeing first-time buyers and folks who can live closer to work come into Roseville and buy a house," said Julia Burrows, Roseville's deputy city manager and head of economic development.

That helps explain why the Placer County city posted a 2.7 percent growth rate from January 2008 to January 2009, one of the highest in California, even as the wheels fell off the economy. Lincoln was scaled back to 1.9 percent growth; Elk Grove, to 1.7 percent, the state Department of Finance reported.

"A lot of my friends live in Roseville," explained one April buyer, Andrew Bradley, a public relations manager who works in Sacramento. He said his house in west Roseville was affordable and close to his church and felt like "home" when he walked in the first time. He took advantage of incentives that included $18,000 worth of homebuyer tax credits, closing costs, and a free washer and dryer.

Bradley is one of those who helped whittle down the building industry's standing inventory. That supply of finished and almost-finished houses without buyers fell for a seventh straight quarter to 932 – the lowest since mid-2004.

Altogether, the Gregory Group reported 971 new-home sales in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties during the quarter. That's almost a 39 percent increase from 699 in the first quarter, and it brings the total for the first half of 2009 to 1,670. Last year's sales total: 4,695.

New-home prices averaged $376,679, rolling back to a mid-2003 level. In the second quarter of 2009, first-time buyers were more than 70 percent of the market.

Elk Grove has joined the list of cities in the region and across California that are trying to drum up business by trimming their home builder fees. Last week, the City Council agreed to cut road and capital facility fees by 30 percent.

In a statement, Mayor Patrick Hume called it a message that the city is "now, more than ever, open for business." (The Gregory Group counted 213 new-home sales in Elk Grove the first half of 2009 – less than half of 455 the same time last year).

Woodland trimmed some of its builder fees earlier this year. Talks continue now between home building industry representatives and development department officials in Sacramento County and the cities of Lincoln, Rancho Cordova and Folsom.

The cuts in Woodland and Elk Grove followed negotiations with builders who say fees once raised to boomtime highs no longer reflect the new reality of land values.

Capital-area real estate agents say they're seeing more parents bailing children out of real estate investments that have put them "under water."

Agents say it's increasingly common to see parents buy their children another house similar to the one they bought at the height of the market or too early as the market cooled.

In many of these cases, the house has lost up to $200,000 in value. So the parents' rescue mission moves their children into another house where lower payments are aligned with today's lower values.

Then the children do the best they can to unload the old house. That causes less damage to their credit than walking away.

Source: SacBee

Lenders on hand to try to help avert foreclosure

Representatives of 20 mortgage lenders are scheduled to meet one-on-one with struggling Sacramento-area homeowners at a foreclosure-prevention event Thursday in Sacramento.

The event, sponsored by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, runs from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Jose Rizal Community Center, 7320 Florin Mall Drive.

Lenders will try to start loan modifications or repayment plans for eligible borrowers. Confirmed lender representatives include Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HSBC Bank, HFC, Beneficial, PMI, Citi, American Home Mortgage Servicing, National City, GMAC, Bank of America, Countrywide, Aurora Loan Services, IndyMac, Chase, Washington Mutual, EMC, Wells Fargo, Wachovia and ASC.

More information: (916) 440-1399, ext. 1226

Author: Jim Wasserman
Source: SacBee

Mortgage defaults spread as even 'safe' borrowers falter

The mortgage default crisis has an ominous new face. It's your neighbor with a traditional fixed-rate loan.

No longer is the real estate bust simply the result of exotic, subprime loans that doubled payments and blew up in homeowners' faces. As the Sacramento economy buckles, even the safest mortgages have become part of a new wave of loan defaults, experts say.

With capital-area job losses reaching 45,000 in the past year and unemployment at 11.1 percent, lenders, bankruptcy attorneys and debt counselors all say they're seeing rising delinquencies among prime borrowers with fixed-rate loans and good credit. Many of those slipping into trouble are state workers, the mainstay of Sacramento's economy.

"The tide has definitely shifted," said Pam Canada, executive director of the Neighborworks Homeownership Center of Sacramento, a nonprofit loan counseling firm. "We're seeing more people with a loss of income."

Prime fixed-rate mortgages, with the most favorable interest rates and 15-, 20- or 30-year terms that guarantee the same monthly payment for the life of the loan, have long been the bulwark of American homeownership.

There are 3.3 million of them in California – 56 percent of all mortgages. But nearly 4 percent were delinquent in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That number was less than 1 percent two years ago, when the default crisis was dominated by subprime loans.

The MBA says layoffs are now hitting more educated borrowers.

"There tends to be a higher correlation there with having a fixed-rate mortgage," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the lender trade group.

It's not just the layoffs creating trouble for traditionally safe loans. Many area workers have had to absorb wage cuts. Others who lost jobs have found new jobs that pay less. Or they have found only part-time work. Many workers who depend on overtime pay have also seen it disappear or dwindle.

Finally, in a capital region defined by a massive state government work force, furloughs have grown to three days monthly, approximating a 14 percent salary cut. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing still more pay cuts for an educated population that's increasingly showing up at nonprofit mortgage counseling centers.

This upheaval has had a ripple effect on small-business owners like Michael and Winnie Kyalwazi, owners of Cafe Le Monde at McClellan Business Park. They've fallen behind on their fixed-rate house payments because business is down 25 to 30 percent, said Michael Kyalwazi.

"This is a short setback, the way I look at it," he said. "We're viable. We just need some breathing room."

It's a familiar sentiment.

"Most want to pay, but they can't because they're underemployed and have cuts in income and cuts in commissions," said Paul Rigdon, vice president for lending at Sacramento's SAFE Credit Union. "We're seeing all kinds of income-related problems."

As the newest turn in a housing crisis that has seen 40,000 area foreclosures and heartbreak in thousands of other homes, trouble for prime borrowers is one more obstacle to a housing recovery any time soon.

Lending-industry officials say it's harder to restructure loans for jobless people who can barely afford any payment. Worse, economists say rising defaults and the foreclosures to come among these borrowers are likely to persist long after unemployment peaks sometime next year.

"Foreclosures and delinquencies have a long tail, and we will see that continue for several quarters after a turnaround in unemployment," said the MBA's Brinkmann.

Forecasters at Stockton's University of the Pacific predict unemployment in the capital region will peak late next year at 12.3 percent – and remain in double digits through 2011. If so, problems with prime loans are likely to linger in a region having a hard time catching a break.

Already in the foreclosure process is Ron McClure of Roseville. He bought a $600,000 house at Sun City Roseville in 2003, using a prime, fixed-rate loan that cost him $3,200 a month.

Source: SacBee

Mr. and Mrs. Buyer ask, “How much do we need to offer?”

GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals are in the business of showing homes to homebuyers, but when clients find a home they love, they see the price, but often wonder how much they should actually offer.

If you are a homebuyer, and have wondered about the offer price process, there are several factors to consider before you write an offer. Circumstances can influence your decision about property value:

(1) Consider asking your agent to provide a valuation of properties for the neighborhood. Your agent can provide data about the average price for homes recently sold in that area.

(2) What is the price per square foot in the neighborhood? Are these prices per square foot influenced greatly by numbers of distressed property sales or foreclosures in the vicinity?

(3) What is property condition? Will expensive repairs be required to make it habitable? Is the home dated, or is it in move-in condition? You may lower the price per square foot on your offer, but if it is a foreclosure, the bank is likely to have already lowered value for its list price.

(4) Knowing average days on the market of properties in the neighborhood, can demonstrate that presenting an exceptionally low offer may have you losing out to a competing buyer’s offer. If the property is in an area where homes often sell with multiple offers, you may find yourself sitting on the outside of the desired home, watching another buyer moving in.

(5) The motivation of the seller may be an important factor in deciding how much to offer on a home. If the seller is relocating, and needs to begin a new job in a short amount of time, and activity on the property is slow, you may be able procure a great deal!

Good luck to you!

Written for GreatWest GMAC
by: Myrl Jeffcoat

California's homebuilders sell 3,019 houses, condos in May

The California Building Industry Association just posted its May sales report.

Sales were up from previous months as the traditional summer buying season began. But still, as usual, it was less than last year.

The report has this link to sales in individual metro areas.

Builders in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba Counties reported 346 sales in May - 11.4 percent of the state's total.

Regionally, that was up from 290 sales in April - and down from 505 sales in May 2008.

Source: Sacbee

Falling prices, low rates prod California homebuyers

A new survey of California homebuyers shows that nothing prods behavior like falling prices and low interest rates.

Among 1,400 buyers surveyed statewide by the California Association of Realtors:

• 68 percent said price decreases finally set them in motion to buy a house.

• 39 percent said lower interest rates helped them move to a "better location."

• 23 percent cited the likelihood of rising interest rates as a reason to get off the fence.

First-time homebuyers especially responded to falling prices in distressed inland areas such as Sacramento, the Central Valley and the Inland Empire of Southern California. Statewide, first-timers accounted for 38 percent of sales – twice that of the same survey a year earlier.

"It's just a dramatic improvement in housing affordability," said CAR's Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. "These are individuals who haven't experienced a loss. They don't struggle with a home to sell."

The 86-page report was CAR's 10th annual look at homebuyer behavior, a span running from housing boom highs to the bust that has followed. Released Tuesday, it consists of telephone interviews with Californians who bought existing houses in the second half of 2008, a time when the economy stumbled, foreclosures multiplied and bank repos became abundant.

Results showed that 51 percent of buyers bought homes with a history of distress. Inside that category, 38 percent bought bank repos and 13 percent bought "short sales," homes in which lenders accepted less than owed to avoid higher costs of foreclosing. The other 49 percent of those surveyed bought homes from individual sellers, a category known as "traditional."

Collectively, those buying repos reported the hardest time getting financing. They rated their level of difficulty in getting loans at 8.9 when asked to rank it on a scale of one to 10.

Yet those buyers were often investors, and more savvy than others about mortgage products. The CAR survey said three in five repo buyers used adjustable-rate mortgages and most claimed to understand their loan terms.

By contrast, 88 percent of loans used to buy traditional homes were fixed-rate mortgages. Nearly a third of these borrowers, however, claimed afterward they didn't fully understand the terms.

Buyers also reported longer waits to close escrow. Just 37 percent said they closed on time; it was 55 percent in 2006.

Other key findings:

• 26 percent of buyers plan to live in the home for two to three years; 44 percent three to four years. Thirty percent aim to stay up to five years.

• 84 percent of buyers used the Internet as the key tool in their house hunting.

CAR said its survey results have a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Source: Sacbee

Getting a Lower Property Tax Assessment on Your Home

Recently, GreatWest GMAC Real Estate Professionals have heard from folks interested in possibly obtaining lower property tax assessments on their homes. Generally, these folks are individuals who purchased homes in the last few years, at the height of the market, and now find their homes valued less than they paid for them.Here is the link to the County of Sacramento Assessor's Office. If you think you may qualify for a reduced assessment, you will be able to easily find the necessary information to more easily procure reassessment.

Be forewarned that like loan modification scams, there are entities out there that will gladly have you fork over money to them by claiming they will do this for you.It is strongly suggested that you simply go to the Sacramento County Assessor's Office website which is easy to use, and risk free, and begin this process on your own.If your home is located in another California county, we suggest contacting the Assessor's office for your area to pursue this. Many counties are participating.Good luck to you!

Written for GreatWest GMAC
by: Myrl Jeffcoat