Interest Rates Increase as Investors Tap Yields of Short-Term Gains
This week, mortgage rates hit a 6-month high point. This increase has occurred largely due to what is known as the yield curve, a gap between the yields on a 2 year Treasury note and a 10 year note. This week the gap widened to its highest ever at two point seven-five percentage points. Read More

Refinancing Slows, Mortgage Volumes Fall
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that last week, the volume of mortgage applications fell just over 14% down to seven-hundred eighty-six compared to nine-hundred fifteen point nine the previous week when calculated on an adjusted basis. Read More

"Going Green" Doesn't Mean Spending More Money Anymore
"Going green" can be cost effective and in some cases even improve a company's bottom line. Going green can be broken down into three key words: recycling, reusing, and reducing. As an example, recycling one aluminum can generate enough electricity to power a television for up to four hours. An example of reusing: the collection of roof water from a 1-inch rain fall from the roof of a 3,000 square foot house can save almost 1,900 gallons of water. Calculated for an area that typically sees 20 inches of rain per year and you'd have almost 38,000 gallons of reused water. Read More

Tax Credit Loans for Home Buyers Still in Works
A spokesperson representing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently commented that recent news reports which speculate that the federal government is showing signs of retreating away from plans to offer first-time home buyer credits are untrue. Read More

La Jolla Group Forwards Parking Motion to City for Approval
The La Jolla Community Planning Association forwarded their plan to add an additional eighty parking spaces to the village city officials for their OK. The group of trustees approved the motion to forward what they have called the "Rainbow Curbs" parking plan forwarded on to the city for review and approval on May 7. Members of the LJCPA had a meeting with San Diego city parking officials on May 13. Read More

Removal of Seals from La Jolla Cove Confirmed by Judge
On Wednesday, May 27, a Superior Court judge ordered the city of San Diego to remove the harbor seals form the Children's Pool in La Jolla Cove. The city was given two weeks to devise a plan to have the seals safely removed. The judge's decision was made based on questions which remain regarding whether or not a previous federal order which prohibited the removal of the seals was still in effect. Read More

UCSD Recipient of Solar energy Grant
In a collaborative effort with UC Davis, UCSD in La Jolla has recently received a state grant of seven-hundred thousand dollars to expedite the use and continued development of solar energy. Read More

New Bill Offers Hope for Distressed Home Owners
A new bill which attempts to instill some hope in to the Obama administration's housing rescue program was signed on Wednesday, May 20. The bill is called "Hope for Homeowners." Read More

Despite Sales Drop in March, Analysts See Sign of Stabilization in Housing Market
An industry report released on Thursday showed home sales fell in March, but experts see signs of stabilizing in the tumultuous housing market. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), March home sales came in at an annually adjusted rate of just over 4.5 million. Compared to February's 4.7 million sales, that's a drop of about 3%. Sales in March were down a little over 7% from a year ago and slightly lower than analysts predicted. Read More

Projecting the Bottom for Falling Property Values
Realtors in many areas around the country are bidding higher than sellers' asking prices and coming up short. Sellers are successfully creating bidding wars to drive up prices which are at or near all-time lows. This is especially common in the Southern California area, where many listed homes are getting in excess of 100 bids. Is this indicative that prices in Southern California have hit bottom? Not hardly. Despite the savage bidding wars, prices are still far below their peak during the last housing boom. Values in the Los Angeles area fell more than 30% in 2008, and should fall even more. Taking into account the historical balances of income, housing sales, employment rate, foreclosures, and vacancy rates, L.A. area property values should fall another 30%. Apparently, we have yet to see the best real estate deals. Read More

Why is the Mortgage Rescue Plan Delayed?
Even though the program has $75 billion in funds available to spend, the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention plan is struggling to take effect. Read More

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Continue to Face Challenges
Federal regulators stated on Monday, May 18 that both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae continue to face significant challenges in the wake of the current economic crisis. Both institutions are facing ongoing critical operational, financial, and compliance issues. Read More

San Diego County Property Sales Increased Greatly in Second Half of 2008
In San Diego county, 2008 concluded with a month-over-month increase in the median price for single-family (not new construction) homes. The price increase reported in December of 2008 was the first increase seen in seventeen months. Additionally, year-over-year sales of homes showed an increase in each of the last 8 months of 2008, very positive signs indeed. Read More

March Sees Continuation of Increased Home Sales
Year-over-year, sales of single family, homes (not new construction, re-sale) in San Diego County increased over 48% throughout the month of March, marking the 11th straight month of increases over last year. So far, year to date County home sales have increased nearly 45% over 2008. Read More

Some GOOD News for a Change!
It seems as though every time any of us tune into the evening news broadcast or read a newspaper headline, the "bad news" seems to increase all our fears regarding our economy. The news media has gone into full throttle mode regarding all this and suddenly words like "meltdown" and "Crisis" fall on our ears on a daily basis. Read More

Median Home Price Dropped Nationwide in First Quarter '09
Nearly 9 out of ten United States cities saw a decrease in the average median price of a home throughout the first quarter of 2009. First time buyers seeking out bargains tended to dominate the markets. Read More

First-Time Buyer Tax Credit May be used for Down Payment
The Secretary of the United States Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan stated on Tuesday, May 12 that the FHA (Federal Housing Authority) will allow its lenders to permit home buyers to put the current $8,000 tax credit towards the down payment of their home purchase. Read More

Signs of Hope for the Struggling US Economy
Home prices rose almost 1% from January to February, the first time that's happened in two years. This is a good indicator that lower interest rates may be helping to stabilize property values. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), reported that home prices fell 6.4% in February from last year, the smallest drop in six months. The gain over January's numbers beat analyst predictions as they were expecting a minimal decline. Typical mortgage rates have fallen 1.5% in the last six months, boosting affordability of homes and condos. Read More

School Trustee Suggests that San Diego Beach Communities Break from District
Trustee John de Beck has made the suggestion that the beach communities of San Diego break away from the SDUSD- San Diego Unified School District and create their own district. A plan was unveiled which include schools on the Point Loma peninsula, the beach communities, Clairemont and adjacent communities which would create the San Diego Coastal Unified School District. Read More

State Receiving Increased Complaints on Loan Modification Firms
The number of complaints filed against Loan Modification Firms to the state has dramatically increased. Read More

Rope Barrier at La Jolla cove Children's Pool Set to Come down
The legal proceedings continue as the date of May 15, 2009 has been set to take down the temporary rope barrier which blocks the general public from the harbor seals which have made their home at the La Jolla Children's Pool. May 15 marks the end of the seal's annual pupping season. Read More

Short Sale Sellers being chased by Lenders
More and more lenders are going after mortgage holders who opt to sell their properties for an amount less than they currently owe. This transaction is commonly referred to as a "short sale". Lenders are going after these types of sellers in order to recover more of the difference between what they owe on the home and the amount that the home sold for. Read More

Moratorium on Appraisal Rules Sought by NAR and NAMB
Both the National Association of Mortgage Bankers (NAMB) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) are lobbying hard to postpone the implementation of new Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae rules which govern real estate appraisals. Read More

New Tax Credit for First-Time Buyers Enjoying Enormous Popularity
The Internal Revenue Service estimates that more than 1.3 million homeowners will take advantage of the new federal tax credit for first-time buyers. This means that it's very likely the goal of 2 million homeowners helped set by the Administration will be met or exceeded by the November 30 deadline. Read More

Mortgage Modification Bill Faces Opposition in Senate
Known as the "cramdown", the bill that would allow judges to modify the home loans of owners in the midst of bankruptcy, now moves to the U.S. Senate and faces additional troubles. Read More

Preliminary UTC "Super Loop" Route Unveiled by SANDAG
During the April meeting of the University Community Planning Group, officials of both SANDAG and MTS announced plans for the launching of a prototype route for the Super Loop bus route this summer. This announcement moves up the date from an anticipated date of fall of next year. Read More