Timely Real Estate News………………………………………………June 1st 2013
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Free Summer concerts for your enjoyment — they’re aplenty throughout the City
You will be amazed at the number of incredible free concerts around Southern California that are featured in most cities, starting in late June until usually around Labor Day. I have listed some of the more popular free concert venues in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
All of these concerts feature accomplished, professional groups or individual acts booked through the various agencies and because we have a rich lineup of local artists (who don’t want to travel far from home), the locals get some incredible entertainment for the price of a picnic dinner. In many locales there is enough room to spread out your blanket and picnic….some provide seating as well. My advice is for you to go online and verify the acts, time, and any other changes that might occur. Have fun — these concerts are free and a treat for the whole family.
Santa Monica
28th Santa Monica Pier Twilight Concert Series
The Annual Thursday Twilight Music and Dance Series at Santa Monica Pier
Features some of LA’s favorite hometown and visiting bands.
Thursdays, July 5 through September 6
Info: (310) 458-8900, www.twilightseries.org
The concert organizers have planned 10 free shows. Includes everything from electro-pop to salsa. There’s even an “Australia Rocks the Pier” night on Aug. 2! According to the promoters’ press release, the Twilight Concert Series attracts tens of thousands of people annually, all of whom are eager to dance, socialize, and enjoy a lovely evening on the beach.
Santa Monica City Hall
Jazz on the Lawn Concert Series
Free Sunday jazz series on the lawn at City Hall in Santa Monica in August.
Sundays for month of August — 5-7 pm
City Hall lawn, 1685 Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Info: calendar.smgov.net/city/eventcalendar.asp
Beverly Hills
Cañon Summer Concert Series
Thursday Nights from June 6 – August 29
Beverly Hills also offers free Sunday Movie Nights at the Beverly Canon Gardens/
Beverly Cañon Gardens, 241 N. Cañon Drive (between Montage Hotel and Bouchon)
There will be two sets each evening: 6:00pm – 6:45pm and 7:15pm – 8:00pm
There are also great concerts at The Getty Center, Skirball, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I will have more information on the next issue of the Schiffer Line
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Sales of existing home sales are ‘making moves’
The National Assn. of Realtors (NAR) released their May report last week stating that “sales of previously owned U.S.
homes increased in April, hitting their highest level in nearly four years, signaling that the housing market continued its rebound last month (April).
While I don’t like to always point to national stories about the real estate market, rather, I try to focus on what is happening in ‘our neck of the woods’. But this national story draws a lot of attention, and because it is really good news for the health of the residential real estate market, I want to share it with you.
Home sales increased 0.6% from the prior month (March 2013) and were up 9.7% from April 2012 to hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million units. It was the highest pace for home sales since November 2009 but nevertheless remained muted due to low inventory, the National Assn. of Realtors reported. “The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory,” stated Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist. “without these frictions, existing home sales easily would be well above the 5 million unit pace.”
What is somewhat inspiring is that home sales for existing housing has risen year-over-year for 22 consecutive months….and home prices have shown 14 consecutive months of annual increases. And while this # doesn’t impact our neighborhoods, new home sales in the US were also up over the previous year, which is a solid indicator for the recovery and how these new construction jobs are further stimulating our economic growth. Now that’s good news for all of us.
The median home price for all types of US properties increased 11% from April 2012 to hit $192,800. Housing inventory rose 11.9% in April 2013 to hit 2.1 million homes available for sale. And that represented supply (on a national level) of about five months and a week at the current sales pace.
We can take all of this, of course, with a moderate dose of salt because at the end of our real estate caravan, it is what is happening in your neighborhood that counts. Already, we have seen a very slow, but steady climb in sales volume since January 1, but sales overall in the four communities I report on — Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills Post Office, Bel-Air, and Brentwood — are demonstrating strong sales one month, moderate the next, and even dipping below last year’s levels at times. June 15 is the next SchifferLine where we will discuss median sales prices, so we’ll see how your community is tracking — that’s the important # isn’t it?
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You want what? Underwriters want the darndest things…..
Did you hear the one about the loan underwriter who wanted to know if there was a chance that the borrower would go back with her husband (who had bad credit)…even though they had been divorced for 17 years? Or the one who demanded a letter from the borrower’s doctor stating the borrower had been healed and wanted to know if his illness would not come back? Or the one about the underwriter who wanted employment verification from the borrower who listed her occupation as: Homemaker?
It’s tough out there….and because of the pressure now on lenders to be careful about how they process mortgage applications, they are being extra, extra careful. The question is: Too careful?
Lenders have an obligation to “get it right” — and the ‘lowly’ underwriter is not going to put his/her job on the line because they
couldn’t 100 percent guarantee that this was a ‘good risk’. Lenders like to determine the source of funds that are deposited into applicant’s accounts, and one poor soul who had listed his social security income on his income statement was asked how long was he going to receive these payments? Obviously, he told the underwriter….”until I die!” He was asked — seriously — about how much longer did he have?
Another key point that underwriters are searching for are the source of funds — who is actually putting up the down
payment? Where did these large deposits come from? Who is this person….a relative, friend, or another lending institution? Mortgage lenders are apt to tell you that this all makes sense — after all, if it’s not the borrower’s money, he/she has no skin in the game. And then it will become easy for the borrower to walk away from the obligation if they are not ‘vested’. But sometimes, it can border on the absurd. For example, an underwriter (true story) wanted documentation and a letter of explanation on a $6 deposit in the borrower’s bank account when the borrower was making $10,000 per month. And in another hair-brain request, the underwriter wanted the advertisement for a garage sale to prove that the $235 earned from the sale was actually held. It has gotten so crazy that one lady has been collecting these stories on her Facebook page because she says that people are not getting loans, not being able to sell their homes or losing their equity because they didn’t verify this or confirm that.
Here are a few more “diddies” that really ‘try men’s soul’…..
* A borrower who had been out of school for several years had to prove he graduated from high school and they wanted his transcripts;
* The underwriter wanted proof the borrower was no long under house arrest;
* A borrower had to explain to the lender why her social security benefits were reduced after her husband recently passed away;
* And finally, an underwriter wanted a letter from the borrower explaining why she changed her name after she was married.
Perhaps this is appears to be a big joke. It’s not.. laughing aside. These are ‘real’ instances’ of borrowers — like you or me — who are subject to just about every strange and crazy request. I see it all the time in managing transactions for my clients through the closing process.
And what do we do about it? We do the right thing — we smile, agree to provide whatever, and grumble hopefully that we’ll get the loan. Good luck. And yes, share with me any crazy or similar absurd requests for the SchifferLine. This is another reason why working with an experienced agent such as myself can help steer you through your transaction… Knowledge is a big thing here!
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Seniors get some new rules to ‘live by’…..home loans may become easier to get
Here is another under writer story to tempt the growing ranks of seniors whose post retirement monthly incomes aren’t sufficient to qualify for a mortgage under today’s tough underwriting standards. Thanks to a rule change, you may be able to use imputed income from your 401 (k), IRA and other retirement assets to qualify for the loan you want. Top credit officials from Freddie Mac indicated that a little-known policy revision will now allow seniors and others to use certain retirement account balances to supplement their incomes for underwriting purposes without actually tapping those 
balances or drawing down cash. That’s good news for many seniors who have squirreled away retirement income but have not been able to use those resources as counting toward their ability to finance a mortgage, especially in these tighter-credit times. That, in turn, opens the door to a money-saving refinancing to a lower-rate loan or downsizing purchase of a new home or condo. The little known policy revision now allows seniors and other to use certain retirement account balances to supplement their incomes with actually tapping those balances or drawing down cash.
This revised rule is aimed at the tidal waves of Baby Boomers heading into retirement status, 8000 a day for the next 16 years. Many seniors have seen their monthly incomes plummet after retirement when the market dived but many are also seeing retirement account balances swelled by recent stock market gains.
The problem confronting many seniors that even they look good on paper ($$, good credit scores, etc.), when it comes
to applying for a mortgage to buy a home, suddenly they don’t look so good with the tighter credit in force.
Seniors often can’t qualify under the debt-to-income standards required for today’s post-recession underwriting. Those rules sometimes set the bar for total household debt-to-income too low for retirees who are still making payments on auto loans, credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other debts. The math to determine your ability to get that new loan which will enable you to get that new loan to sell your bigger house and move down to a smaller residence can be some what complicated, so as always, it is best to contact an experience real estate agent, and work with your lender to assure that you qualify for your new loan. The good news: Under the federal mortgage investors’ policy change on qualifying income standards, your monthly income could be higher for underwriting purposes than it appears at first glance.
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The bubble burst, but is there another one our future? No, says Realogy’s CEO
Looking back, 2007 was ugly. Uncontrolled lending in the real estate market led to a massive meltdown, causing a world economic crisis that we’re now just digging our way out of. And yes, while the recession of 2007-2009 has officially been over for four years, many are still feeling the effects after that bubble burst.
In a recent interview with Realogy’s CEO Richard A. Smith, he pointed to positive signs that should dispel the notion that we’re facing another bubble. As CEO of the largest residential real estate company in the United States (owners of Coldwell Banker, ERA, Century 21 to name a few), Smith has his fingers on practically every neighborhood in America — he knows what is working in residential real estate. “Housing is showing some very positive signs — we are sustaining strong sales each month, and we are
seeing prices rising again. Inventory is up about 9% this year (through 2013), builders are building, and that’s a good sign,” he stated.
Another positive trend is that “we are seeing homes that were under water several years ago are now back to positive territory. That is showing new confidence and strength in our economy,” Smith said. And while inventory has been a problem in many areas of the country, the increase in number of quality homes is going to attract buyers — we have the buyers, and now we’re getting the inventory.””We had a lot of uncontrolled financing between 2005 and 2007, and that’s how we got to the bubble. But today, after five years of tightening our belts, we don’t have that anymore. Credit is tighter. Credit writing is pristine.
Underwriting is pristine. So the whole dynamic of lending has changed for the good,” he stated. “So the idea that there is a potential bubble out there is highly unlikely. We’re in much better shape today!”
Smith noted that FICA scores are 100 points higher than they were several years ago, which demonstrates we have stronger, better qualified buyers. Underwriting standards are tougher and better. And the banks are in great shape. He went on to add that all of these factors point toward a much stronger real estate market.
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Using indoor plants to clear the air
There’s nothing quite like the scent of forest air – the real thing, not an air freshener :).
While some of that lovely earthy scent is due to decomposition, the trees and plants of a forest are constantly
circulating oxygen and carbon dioxide, unlike in the midst of a concrete jungle when the air we breathe can get
somewhat stale.New homes can be particularly bad for formaldehyde – it might be at many times the generally
considered safe level for quite some time. Office air can also be saturated by a fog of toxins due to the type of furnishings and floor coverings often used on commercial premises.
Keeping indoor plants not only adds a nice green touch to our homes; some indoor plant species have proven to be effective filters for pollutants such as the above and carbon monoxide (an element of car exhaust).
A while back, I came across a couple of very interesting studies by NASA carried out in the late 80′s and early 90′s that included information on the plants NASA found useful as indoor air filters to combat
Beneficial plants include (scientific name followed by common) :
Aloe vera– Chinese Evergreen– Bamboo Palm,– Green Spider Plant– Pot Mum/Florists’ Chrysanthemum Dracaena – Janet Craig,Dracaena Marginata – MarginataDracaena Massangeana –Dracaena– Warneckii Gerbera Daisy/African daisy,English Ivy/Common Ivy,Elephant Ear Philodendron,– Heart Leaf Philodendron,Lacy Tree Philodendron– Mother in law’s tongue,Peace Lily/Mauna Loa
Indoor plants don’t just look great – they can help make your house or office a more healthy place to live and work in
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I am and have been very busy… I just closed escrow on a beautiful home in Brentwood Park, and have a number of listings on the Wilshire Corridor that are getting a lot of activity. For the future, I have a few listings in Bel Air Crest and Mountaingate coming up… I am off to Montreal to meet with the rest of my family to celebrate my Mother’s 91st birthday. My nephew Connor goes to college there, and we have been promising to come and visit him and see this lovely city that he calls home. We are all looking forward to a wonderful trip and some exciting adventures.. Please let me know how I can assist you with your real estate needs.
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