What a huge day. Mainstream media must be reading my blog. 
They are finally reporting on the positive news coming in on housing (and Geitners new toxic assets removal plan from the books of the nation’s banks, which I will blog my thoughts on shortly).
This weekend The Wall Street Journal reported on the California Housing Comeback. Houses are so low, that buyers are flocking to the market causing bidding wars! Just like I've been blogging. (If you missed my post last week, you can catch them here: SoCal, Housing Bottom is Near, If Not Here; NoCal, Housing Sales Up 6th Straight Month)
Home Buyers Stir Hope in California
March 21, 2009, Wall Street Journal, Real Estate
by JIM CARLTONMOUNTAIN HOUSE, Calif. — California's mortgage crisis hit this master-planned community particularly hard last year, and eventually 90% of mortgage holders here owed more than their homes were worth.
But residents are allowing themselves the first twinges of optimism amid the gloom. The 2,600 existing homes in this development 60 miles east of San Francisco are selling at nearly three times last year's pace. One builder has sold about 30% more homes in 2009 than a year ago. And homeowners here are seeing the welcome return of another phenomenon: the bidding war.
When Catrina Koleva and her husband found their dream home listed here for $299,900 in February, they figured they would try to win the five-bedroom spread. Instead, they faced 12 other bidders and gave up. The winning bid was 30% over asking price, said Tabari Palmer, a representative of the listing agent. "I think people are seeing there are some pretty good values here," Ms. Koleva said.
No one wants to call a bottom in Mountain House after what happened. Home prices have fallen more than 50% from their peak amid masses of foreclosures. (The home Ms. Koleva wanted last sold for $781,900 in January 2007.) But 48 homes have sold so far this year and another 59 are in escrow, compared with just 19 sales in the year-earlier period, said MetroList Services Inc., an industry-tracking firm.
Hemant Kapadne, left, mows his lawn as his wife, Kanchan, looks on from the porch of their house in Mountain House, Calif., a master-planned community where home sales are up sharply from last year. Adding to the hint of new life, Little League participation has grown to 220 from 178 last year. "People I see here have as much hope as I've seen in a long time," said Lemuel Vergara, principal of the local Wicklund Elementary School.
Mountain House's nascent revival is representative of a phenomenon playing out here and there around California, offering glimmers of wary optimism as fallen home prices and interest rates entice buyers. Pulte Homes Inc., one of Mountain House's builders, reported a "marked" increase in its California sales this year from last. January existing-home sales doubled from January 2008, according to the California Association of Realtors, and sales are still growing.
California homes were on the market an average 6.7 months in January, compared with 16.6 months in January 2008, the Realtors association said. Nationwide, it was 9.6 months. In Tracy, a city of about 80,000 people next to Mountain House, there are 900 homes for sale, down from 1,800 a year ago, said Tracy Mayor Brent Ives.
Meanwhile, economists say California is leading a resurgence in the West of existing-home contracts. January contracts signed in the 13 states stretching from New Mexico to Wyoming to Alaska to Hawaii rose 13.5% from a year ago, compared with a nationwide decline of 6.4%, the National Association of Realtors estimates.
Some of California's strongest housing resurgence is in the hard-hit Central Valley, where Mountain House lies. In Stockton, which had the country's highest foreclosure rate, sales year-to-date were 1,331 homes on March 18, up from 501 in the year-ago period, MetroList said. In the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove, sales over the same period rose 54% to 192 from 125; in Modesto, sales rose to 702 from 320. "It really does look like we are getting to the end of this," said Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist at the Anderson Forecast, an economics think tank at UCLA. (Read more here.)
STRONG DEMAND is what is causing this housing turnaround. It's no surprise. With all the incentives in place (tax credits, low down payments, higher conforming loan limits, interest rates below 5%, prices down almost 50% from the highs)… buyers have little reasons to wait and are running to buy, buy, buy.
The Spring Buying Season has Sprung with a BANG. And I expect to see a domino effect of depleting inventory and pressuring home prices upward…. stopping the downward trend by this summer!
Mark my words… you will kick yourself if you don't get off the fence NOW. Stop thinking of reasons to wait… and start asking yourself… how should you be spending your time right now??? (ei… Hunting the great deals in your backyard right now!)
And then call my Senior Consultants Jim or Andy to help get your foreclosure business into HIGH GEAR NOW… 800-310-7730 x2.
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