November 20th, 2009, 1:53 pm by Jeff Collins
Leonard Ortiz/The Register
About 17,520 Orange County property owners have signed up this year to fight the county’s assessment of their real estate’s value in an effort to lower their property taxes.
That compares to 16,231 as of Nov. 19 last year, said Pat Martinez, head of the county’s assessment appeals division for the county Clerk of the Board of Supervisor’s Office.
The increased pace of tax appeals likely reflects the dismal state of home prices at the start of the year. This year’s tax assessments are based on property values on or around January, when local home values apparently hit bottom.
Leonard Ortiz/The Register
The median home price dropped to $370,000 in January, according to MDA DataQuick. That compares to a median home price of $520,000 in January 2008, the prior year’s “tax lien” date.
Last month, the median was $436,500, up 18% since prices began their upwards stair-step trend in February.
Property owners are entitled to a lower assessment when the market value of their property falls below the taxable value.
The Orange County Assessor’s Office already lowered tax assessments on more than 200,000 of the county’s 897,000 parcels of land. Those who believe their assessments weren’t lowered enough are entitled to appeal their assessment, upon which property taxes are based.
Orange County Clerk of thee Board Darlene Bloom projected earlier this year that tax appeals would be 85% higher, but that increase failed to materialize.
Previous property tax news …
Posted in: Real estate taxes • numbers • property taxes • tax appeals | 1 Comment »
November 20th, 2009, 9:00 am by Jeff Collins
Huntington Beach police are conducting a felony investigation of Golden State Rentals, a troubled rental listing service that’s accused to giving out bogus listings and failing to refund customers’ money.
Investigators served a search warrant on Golden State Rentals in early October after an undercover officer posed as a customer to gather intelligence about the business, according to a search warrant return filed in West Orange County Superior Court.
On Oct. 2, officers found Golden State’s Beach Boulevard office abandoned. Police seized customer files left behind, the court document said. The firm apparently shut down in late September.
The Register reported last June that numerous Golden State customers had complained that the company charged them $195 for weekly listings of homes for rent. If they failed to find a home through the service, they’d get their money back, customers said they were told. Instead they got listings for already rented units, listings outside the areas they wanted to move to or listings outside their price range. When they tried to get refunds, they were put on hold for up to an hour or hung up on.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Apartments/Rents • Legal issues • Golden State Rentals | 24 Comments »
November 20th, 2009, 12:02 am by Jon Lansner
September sales: Click for details!
 $532,000 |
 $613,000 |
 $1,450,000 |
First American CoreLogic’s computers say …
- Orange County homes prices, in the year ending September 2010, will appreciate 10.94%. Last month, First American projected a 9.53% annual again for year ending August 2010.
- Orange County homes prices — including distressed sales — declined 6.74% in the year ended in September vs. 7.92% rate of annual decline in August.
- Excluding distressed transactions, Orange County homes prices year-over-year fell 6.14% in September vs. August’s -7.07%.
- California prices? Down 12.16% annually (with distressed); down 6.95% (without.) Forecast? Up 9.36% in a year with distressed included; +8.24% without.
- National home prices — including distressed sales — declined by -9.8% annual rate in September. (Excluding distressed sales, national year-over-year prices declined by 6%.)
- In year ending September 2010, forecast appreciation for national home prices — excluding distressed — is 1.1%.
- When distressed sales were included Nevada (-25.5%) was the nation’s worst for year ended September!
Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic: “While the improvement in the year-over-year decline is encouraging, high foreclosure rates and increasing distressed sales are likely to continue to hold prices down.”
Recent outlooks:
Posted in: Outlooks • bottom • First American CoreLogic • numbers | 135 Comments »
November 19th, 2009, 6:00 pm by Jon Lansner
Real estate news and views from around the globe that make you go, “Really?”
… Psst! Smallest SoCal home-price loss in 2 years!
Posted in: Odds & ends • Bay Area • bottom • DataQuick • Really | 13 Comments »
November 19th, 2009, 2:41 pm by Jeff Collins
Vicki Cox Golder, the 2010 president of the National Association of Realtors, told reporters last week that short sales are getting easier because real estate agents now are better educated about the process.
For her complete comment, check out the video:
The 1.2 million member trade group recently held its annual convention in San Diego starting Friday. At the meeting, Golder also said she that Realtors don’t have to do any soul searching about their role in the housing market bust that triggered the global economic meltdown.
More National Association of Realtors convention news:
Posted in: Distressed properties • Top tale • National Association of Realtors • short sales | 14 Comments »
November 19th, 2009, 12:00 pm by Marilyn Kalfus, real estate reporter
Homeowners in the West are the least realistic in the U.S. about their own home’s values, with 28% believing they went up in the past year, Zillow’s quarterly Homeowner Confidence Survey shows. In reality, just 17% of homes in the region increased in value.
| Perceptions vs. reality |
U.S. |
No. E. |
Mid W. |
South |
West |
| Home value decreased |
49% |
51% |
52% |
45% |
53% |
| Home value same |
26% |
29% |
25% |
28% |
19% |
| Home value increased |
25% |
20% |
23% |
27% |
28% |
| %homes decreased |
72% |
61% |
72% |
73% |
78% |
| %homes same |
6% |
8% |
6% |
6% |
5% |
| %homes increased |
22% |
31% |
22% |
22% |
17% |
| Q3 ‘09 “Misperception” |
10 |
-6 |
8 |
15 |
17 |
| Q2 ‘09 “Misperception” |
13 |
10 |
10 |
18 |
7 |
| Q3 ‘08 “Misperception” |
16 |
20 |
15 |
13 |
13 |
| Value will decrease |
17% |
17% |
18% |
16% |
15% |
| Value will stay same |
43% |
44% |
38% |
44% |
44% |
| Value will increase |
41% |
40% |
43% |
39% |
41% |
Other highlights of the full report (FULL COPY HERE) …
- Nationally, fewer than half — 49% – believe their home’s value decreased over the past 12 months. Actually, 72% went down.
- U.S. homeowners were more optimistic about the future of their own homes’ values than at any time in the past 6 quarters.
- A full 41% say their own home’s value will increase in the next 6 months. An additional 43% say their home’s value will remain the same, with just 17% saying their home’s value will decrease.
“Consistent with all previous surveys, homeowners also seem to be overly optimistic about future home values,” said said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries. “While we have definitely seen some stabilization in recent months, there is a high likelihood that home values will see further declines driven by an increasing number of foreclosures coming into the market and, possibly, rising interest rates after the first quarter of next year.”
Let’s take our own poll.
Other tales by Marilyn Kalfus:
.
Posted in: Home prices • Polls • numbers • Zillow | 7 Comments »
November 19th, 2009, 7:10 am by Jon Lansner
Renting costs in Southern California fell at an annual rate for the first time in 14 years, according to the freshest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.
Local renters’ costs fell 0.1% last month vs. October 2008. Last such SoCal decline? A similar size drop in November 1995.
Renters weren’t the only housing winners in the CPI report:
- Homeowners equivalent inflation rate (purchase costs not included), fell at an 0.7% annual rate in October. That’s biggest SoCal drop since June 1995.
- Household energy costs in SoCal fell at an 0.7% annual rate in October.Actually, that’s the smallest drop in a string of declines that dates to last November.
- Household furnishings and operations fell at an 2.5% annual rate in October. That’s biggest SoCal drop since April 2008.
- Overall, SoCal housing inflation fell at an 0.6% annual rate in October — fourth consecutive drop and biggest since June 1983.
- As for the big picture, SoCal total inflation rate for all goods and services fell at an 0.4% annual rate in October. It’s the eighth consecutive drop — but that smallest in that string.
Rental trends:
Posted in: Apartments/Rents • Housing inflation • Bureau of Labor Statistics • Consumer Price Index • numbers | 20 Comments »
