Eight Local Elementaries in the Palos Verdes Peninsula District Deemed ‘Distinguished’ Schools

From a press release from state Superintendent for Public Instruction:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today named 424 public elementary schools — including eight in thePalos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District — California Distinguished Schools for their strong commitment and innovative approaches to improving student academic achievement.

“I applaud these strong, thriving schools that are making such impressive strides in preparing their students for continued success,” Torlakson said. “This award is well-deserved by these school communities for their enduring dedication to high standards, hard work, and unwavering support.”

The 2014 California Distinguished Schools Program focuses on California’s students’ right to an equitable and rigorous education, and recognizes those schools that have made progress in narrowing the academic achievement gap.

To apply for Distinguished School honors, schools must meet a variety of eligibility criteria, including accountability measures. Once schools are deemed eligible, the California Department of Education (CDE) invites them to apply to be recognized as a California Distinguished School.

The process consists of a written application, which includes a comprehensive description of two of the school’s signature practices, and a county-led site validation review process focused on the implementation of those signature practices.

Local schools on the list are:

• Cornerstone at Pedregal Elementary
• Lunada Bay Elementary
• Mira Catalina Elementary
• Montemalaga Elementary
• Point Vicente Elementary
• Rancho Vista Elementary
• Silver Spur Elementary
• Vista Grande Elementary

http://palosverdes.patch.com/groups/schools/p/eight-local-elementaries-deemed-distinguished-schools?ncid=newsltuspatc00000010

Mortgage lending slows to a 14-year low

What with higher interest rates and fewer home sales nationwide, just $235 billion in home loans are started in this year’s first quarter.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-loans-20140426,0,4288446.story#ixzz30DyeH9KK

By Tim Logan | Los Angeles Times 

Fewer home sales and rising interest rates have led to the nation’s lowest level of mortgage lending in 14 years.

Just $235 billion in home loans were started in the first three months of the year, the lowest figure recorded in a quarter since 2000, according to data from trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

That’s down nearly a quarter from the end of 2013 and more than half from the same period last year, when the housing market was heating up, especially in Southern California. And it is lower even than the levels recorded during the worst of the housing crash.

The fall-off was particularly sharp for mortgage refinancing, which was hurt by higher interest rates after record lows last spring. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage surged to 4.3%, up from 3.3% last May. That’s still quite low by historic standards, but the run-up, after years of low rates, means there isn’t a lot of demand for refinancing now.

“We’ve had two or three mini refi waves over the course of the last few years,” said Joel Kan, director of economic forecasting at the Mortgage Bankers Assn., noting that many borrowers had already locked in lower rates. “The incentive is not really there for a lot of borrowers to refinance again.”

Those refinance loans had grown to make up an outsized portion of the mortgage business, more than 70% of activity a year ago, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

And new buyers haven’t been picking up the slack.

The rate of home sales has fallen three months in a row, according to the National Assn. of Realtors. It has fallen even faster in Southern California, where sales in March were 16% below last year’s pace, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. There just aren’t a lot of customers out there.

Much like the broader housing market, which has seen a brisk sales pace for higher-priced homes, larger mortgages are moving more quickly, Kan said. Activity is strong above the national “jumbo” loan level of $417,000 and up, he said. But that accounts for only about 15% to 20% of mortgages.

“The other 80%, those are down on a year-over-year basis, and they’ve been down for six months now,” he said.

Kan is one of several economists who see the longtime low interest rates as a factor in slower sales. Homeowners who refinanced into 3% rates two years ago are likely to pay a higher rate today if they were to sell their house and buy something bigger. That’s dampening sales in the so-called move-up market and making it harder for entry-level homeowners to buy in.

CONTINUE READING HERE…

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-loans-20140426,0,4288446.story#ixzz30DyeH9KK

 

 

What Contingency Should Your Home Purchase Offer Have?

By: Angela Colley | REALTOR.COM

http://www.realtor.com/advice/contingency-agreement/

You’re looking for homes and find one that really piques your interest, except it has a “contingent offer” status. As you keep browsing, you notice a lot of properties do. What’s a contingent offer? Should your offer have one?

A contingent offer is pretty standard. It means an offer on a home has been made and the seller has accepted it, but the finalized sale is contingent upon certain criteria that have to be met. These criteria, or contingencies, typically fall under three major categories: appraisal, home inspection and mortgage approval.

These contingencies are mainly put in place for the buyer to back out of a sale if something goes wrong, usually without losing their deposit. A seller might entertain other offers, but won’t deal with another buyer until the contingent offer is finished in one way or another.

Home Inspection Contingency

A home inspection contingency could well be the most important one. It gives the buyer the right to have the home professionally inspected. If something is wrong, the buyer can request it be fixed or they can back out of the sale. It’s rarely advisable to waive an inspection contingency.

“Never in my life have I seen a home inspection waived,” said Bishoi Nageh, vice president of branch operations for The Petra Cephas Team at Mortgage Network Solutions.

If something is wrong with a house, a good inspection will find it. Nageh recalled an instance of a buyer who asked the seller to fix up some windows, then found mold had been growing under the framework. Once you know the problems, you can talk with the seller about what they need to fix before you buy the home.

Appraisal Contingency

With this contingency, a third party hired by the lender evaluates the fair-market value of the home. In the instance the appraised value is less than the sale price, the appraisal contingency lets you back out of the deal.

“It’s in no one’s best interest to overpay,” Nageh said. “If the home comes in under the [asking] amount, you have the right to back out.”

In hot markets, eager buyers might feel pressured to waive it, but they could end up paying more. However, the lender will only put up a certain amount of money for the appraised cost—not the asking price—and the buyer will have to cover the rest.

For example, let’s say you have a loan that covers 90% and you need to put 10% down for a home selling for $500,000. If the house is appraised at $475,000, the lender is only going to cover 90 percent of that appraised value, or $427,500. And instead of a $50,000 down payment, you would be expected to put down $72,500 to cover the difference. Waiving this contingency can be a gamble.

Mortgage Contingency

You don’t want to sign a property sale without having the money to back it up. A mortgage contingency protects the buyer and seller from getting into a sale without a proper loan. Under this contingency, the buyer has a specified time period to obtain a loan that will cover the mortgage. If the buyer can’t get a lender to commit to a loan, the buyer has the right to walk away from the sale with the down payment.

To expedite the process, “know if you qualify sooner than later,” Nageh said. That way, you won’t be wasting the seller’s time or yours during the loan-hunting period, which could take a couple of months.

Like an appraisal contingency, eager buyers and sellers in hot markets might want to waive this contingency, especially if cash is on the table. But waiving this contingency means that if your lender delays or denies your loan, you can lose the deposit, so it’s a risky venture.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.realtor.com/advice/contingency-agreement/

Can You Afford to Buy A House?

By Michele Dawson | REALTOR.COM

Check out these tips by REALTOR.Com’s Michele Dawson…

 http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/real-estate/buyers/can-you-afford-to-buy-a-house.aspx

1. Determine the property value of homes that interest you. The property value (what the home is worth) is determined by comparing the prices of homes recently sold of similar size in the same neighborhood. Your real estate agent will be able to provide this information to you.

2. Review different mortgage loan types and compare their required down payment amounts to the money you have available. Down payments, based on a percentage of the value of the property and determined by the type of mortgage you select, typically range from three to 20 percent of the property value. Don’t forget to factor in private mortgage insurance, a policy that allows mortgage lenders to recover part of their financial losses if a borrower fails to full re-pay a loan. Mortgage insurance makes it possible to buy a home with as little as 3 percent down. Usually, the lower the down payment, the higher the PMI, which typically will cost somewhere between $40 and $125 a month.

3. Get an estimate of your closing costs, including points (the dollar amount paid to a lender for obtaining a lower interest rate on a loan—one point is one percent of the loan amount), taxes, recording, inspections, prepaid loan interest, title insurance (a policy that insures a home buyer against errors in the title search; cost of the policy is usually a function of the value of the property, and is often borne by the purchaser and/or seller) and financing costs from your mortgage lender or a real estate professional. These will generally add up to between 2 and 7 percent of the property value. You’ll receive an estimate of these costs from your lender after you apply for a mortgage.

4. Add the down payment requirements and the closing costs together to determine the amount of money you’ll need right off the bat. But you’re not done yet.

5. Think about the actual move. Will you hire a moving company or rent a truck? Either way will cost you. The more stuff you have, the more it will cost.

6. Property taxes. Many lenders will require an impound account in which monthly payments for property tax (and often insurance) are paid together with the monthly mortgage payment. You can figure your average annual tax rate will be about 1.5 percent of the purchase price of your home.

7. Next, budget for maintenance and repairs. HouseMaster, a home inspection company with 300 franchises nationwide, said that based on a study that evaluated 2,000 inspection reports, the typical costs of major repairs are:

• Roofing: $1,500 to $5,000
• Electrical systems: $20 to $1,500
• Plumbing systems: $300 to $5,000
• Central cooling: $800 to $2,500
• Central heating: $1,500 to $3,000
• Insulation: $800 to $1,500
• Structural systems: $3,000 to $1,500
• Water seepage: $600 to $5,000

READ MORE HERE: http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/real-estate/buyers/can-you-afford-to-buy-a-house.aspx

Copyright © by Realty Times

Are Your Clients Prepared for Home Inspection?

Please Check out some Tips by Courtney Soinski from The Real Estate Blog…

As a real estate professional, it is very important that you fully prepare your clients before meeting with a home inspector.

Here are some of our favorite tips that REALTORS® can provide their clients for a successful and smooth home inspection.  You’ll be happy to know that these can be done at little to no cost!

1.  Clean out dirty gutters or debris from the roof.

2.  Trim trees, roots and bushes back from foundation, roof, siding and chimney.

3.  Seal asphalt driveways, if cracking.

4.  Clean or replace HVAC filter.

5.  Test all smoke detectors to ensure they are in safe working condition.

6.  Don’t do quick cheap repairs.  You may raise questions that will unfairly cause great concern to buyers and inspectors.

7.  Ensure that all doors and windows are in proper working condition, including repairing any cracks.

8.  Check and fix any leaks on plumbing fixtures.  Apply caulk if needed.

9.  Have clear access to attic, crawlspace, heating system, garage and other areas that will need to be inspected.

10.  Make sure all utilities are turned on if the house is vacant.  This includes water, electric, water heater, furnace, air conditioning and breaks in the main panel.

 Hope That Helps!

THE INMAN TEAM

What’s Next for Housing in Your Town

NEW YORK (Money Magazine)

By Lisa Gibbs and Amanda Gengler | CNN MONEY

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/02/real_estate/housing-market.moneymag/index.html

After years of dramatic price changes and sales stats that have vacillated from red-hot to moribund and back again, you could be forgiven for forgetting what a typical housing market looks like. This year, though, you may finally be in for a refresher course.

Researchers are predicting an average price gain of 4.2% — respectable, but a far cry from the 11% average posted in 2013, according to data firm CoreLogic. At the same time, the shortage of for-sale homes should ease, as more would-be sellers get off the fence and construction of new houses continues to pick up. Of course, in reality no market is truly average. Some areas are predicted to grow at more than twice the nationwide rate, while a few will barely tick up. Then there’s the specter of interest rate hikes, which could hit some places harder than others. READ MORE HERE… http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/02/real_estate/housing-market.moneymag/index.html

International Buyers like the Southern California Real Estate Market

Read this article we found in the Daily Breeze…

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20140403/international-buyers-like-the-southern-california-real-estate-market

Home buyers outside of the U.S. really like the Southern California real estate market.

A lot, according to the California Association of Realtors “2013 International Clients Survey.”

And they are especially high on Southern California, according to the association.

Of the homes purchased by international buyers last year in California, 35 percent were in L.A. County, 22 percent were in Orange County, 20 percent were in San Diego County and 14 percent were in Riverside County, the association said.

The international community is also a fan of our government and financial system, which I know some will find hard to believe.

Eight five percent of the buyers shopping for homes in the state last year said that they only considered purchasing a home in the U.S. because its stable government and financial system would guarantee their home investment.

Fifteen percent considered investing in other countries, including Canada, Germany, Mexico, China, Singapore, Sweden, and France.

Twenty percent of the buyers said they chose the U.S. for its desirable location and climate.

The survey also found that 69 percent of international buyers paid all cash for their properties, compared to 27 percent of traditional buyers who paid all cash and 32 percent who bought their home to live in.

The international set has an eye for style, too. Forty-four percent of the international home buyers purchased homes with designer kitchens, 26 percent purchased homes with a wine cellar, and 9 percent purchased homes with a sauna. Other home amenities that international buyers wanted include a private beach, putting green, heated floors and outdoor kitchens…

READ MORE HERE…

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20140403/international-buyers-like-the-southern-california-real-estate-market

Southern California Home Prices Surge

By Tim Logan and Andrew Khouri | LA TIMES

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-home-prices-20140416,0,4794538.story#ixzz2zBR9aE4t

 Southern California home prices are surging as the spring buying season heats up, with the median price in March hitting $400,000 for the first time in six years.

But a deeper look at the market reveals a recovery divided between the rich and everyone else.

The market for high-dollar homes is hopping, with sales on the rise and buyers launching bidding wars. But sales of low- to medium-priced homes have plummeted during the same period — with many potential buyers priced out.

“Housing affordability is really taking a bite out of the market,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Assn. of Realtors. “We haven’t seen this issue since 2007.”

The median price across the six-county region jumped 4.5% from $383,000 in February, according to San Diego-based DataQuick — the first significant increase since prices stalled last summer after a sharp run-up. But the number of homes sold fell sharply from 2013, down 14.3%, to the second-lowest total for a March in nearly two decades.

Those declines came even as sales of high-end homes increased. Sales of homes costing $800,000 or more grew 12%, while sales of homes costing less than $500,000 fell at twice that rate.

A number of factors have sapped demand, Appleton-Young said. Lending standards remain much tighter than during the housing bubble of the last decade. With wage growth stagnant, most middle-income families aren’t seeing more money in their paychecks. Add in issues such as rising student loan debt, and the mortgage payment becomes that much harder to afford.

“I think first-time buyers getting financing is going to become more of an issue,” she said.

Carey Chenoski, a real estate agent in Redlands, said she has seen less interest in homes for sale lately as first-time buyers struggle to afford the new higher prices. There are more homes on the market than last year — which is keeping further price growth in check — but they’re not selling.

“Lately on Saturdays and Sundays, you see open house signs everywhere,” she said. “The houses that last spring would be gone in the first day are sitting maybe 60 days.”

That, in turn, is frustrating some sellers. Chenoski recently saw the price on a three-bedroom in Redlands reduced to $299,000 from $315,000 — and it still didn’t sell. So it was taken off the market.

It’s a different story in pricier pockets of the region, where high-end sales are climbing, all-cash offers remain common, and well-priced homes go fast.

“We’re getting multiple offers on just about everything,” said Barry Sulpor, an agent with Shorewood Realtors in Manhattan Beach, where he said there is a new wave of tear-downs and new construction in prime beachfront locations. “The market is really on fire.”

This imbalance between different slices of the market is a hangover of the housing crash, said Dave Emerson, a longtime agent in Lakewood who recently retired. The higher end suffered fewer foreclosures and returned to health faster. At the lower end, prices mostly bounced back. But amid tougher lending standards, a still-shaky economy and, more recently, rising interest rates, buyers haven’t necessarily followed….

CONTINUE  READING HERE….

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-home-prices-20140416,0,4794538.story#ixzz2zBR9aE4t

Southern California median home price jumped to $400,000

Enjoy this article from LA Times…

By Tim Logan | LA TIMES

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-southern-california-home-prices-20140415,0,6707626.story#ixzz2yzdq4dLt

 

Home prices in Southern California are at their highest level in six years, according to new data, though those gains may be taking a bite out of sales volume.

 

The median price of a house sold in Southern California rose from $383,000 in February to $400,000 in March, the market’s highest level since February 2008, according to San Diego-based DataQuick, which tracks real estate data.

The figure is up 15.8% from the same month last year and is the first noticeable increase since the torrid run-up in prices last spring and summer.

At the same time, the number of sales fell on an annual basis for the sixth straight month as investors and cash buyers pull out in the face of higher prices, and more traditional home buyers hesitate to jump in. There were 17,638 homes sold in DataQuick’s six-county Southern California’ region, down 14.3% from last March and the second-lowest total for the month — the start of the key spring home-buying season — in nearly two decades.

“Southland home buying got off to a very slow start this year,” said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. “We see multiple reasons for this: The inventory of homes for sale remains thin in many markets. Investor purchases have fallen. The jump in home prices and mortgage rates over the past year has priced some people out of the market, while other would-be buyers struggle with credit hurdles. Also, some potential move-up buyers are holding back while they weigh whether to abandon a phenomenally low interest rate on their current mortgage in order to buy a different home.”

The data also show how the recovery is being felt differently at different segments of the market.

While prices have climbed fast on lower-priced homes, the number of sales has fallen sharply, suggesting a lack of homes for sale and buyers who can afford them. Sales of homes for less than $500,000 dropped 26.4% from this time last year…

Continue HERE…

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-southern-california-home-prices-20140415,0,6707626.story#ixzz2z08dOtsr

Condo Prices Up in L.A.

By Tim Logan | LA TIMES

 

Despite a boom of apartment building, the condo market in downtown Los Angeles remains tight as a drum. And that’s pushing up prices.

The price per square foot of a new condo downtown climbed 6% in March from February to $656, according to a new report from the Mark Co., which tracks downtown real estate.

The number of condos for sale, meanwhile, fell sharply as buyers snapped up units at downtown’s lone new condo building: the Barker Block on Hewitt Street.

At month’s end, Mark said, there were only 27 new units for sale downtown, and the inventory of existing condos for sale would burn off in less than three months — half of what’s considered a healthy supply. Prices for condo resales slipped in March but remain 23% higher than a year earlier, at $534 per square foot.

“There is a dearth of condos,” said Alan Mark, the Mark Co.’s president. “People are not even selling existing condos because there’s no place for them to buy.”

The tight for-sale market contrasts sharply with a boom in apartment building.

After the housing market tanked in 2008, some downtown projects that had originally been designed as for-sale switched over to become rentals. And big institutional investors, desiring a safe, stable return, shifted their money into high-end apartments, helping to fuel a building boom that has 5,000 rental units now under construction, and 3,000 more units approved by the city.

That surge in rental supply may lead some apartment owners to flip their buildings back to condos, but Mark said he doesn’t see that happening yet. The numbers don’t quite pencil out, and the wounds from the downturn are still too fresh.

“There are definitely people circling, trying to figure out does it work and do they have the wherewithal to put 200 or 300 units on the market for sale,” he said. “Some developers still feel the scars of the recession.”

As for new construction, that could happen — there’s one 38-story condo tower in early development on 9th Street north of Staples Center — but it’s going to take a while.

“To build any building that’s sizable, it’s 18 months to two-and-a-half years to deliver,” Mark said. “You just don’t see this thing changing soon.”

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-downtown-condo-market-20140408,0,873943.story#ixzz2ytsQzLTR