• Beach cleanup from 10 am till 11 am.
• Located between lifeguard stations 10 and 11 in Huntington State Beach
• Free parking before 10 am.

Duck-A-Thon Rubber Duck Race and Festival – at the Huntington Beach Pier. Thousands of rubber duckies are launched into the Pacific Ocean, bobbing to shore to win prizes for their owners! Little rubber ducks race at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Corporate Ducks – competing for “Golden Duck Perpetual Trophy” race at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. The Duck Festival features food, bands and activities. All proceeds benefit the Community Care Health Centers (formerly Huntington Beach Community Clinic). Location: Huntington Beach, Pier, Pacific Coast Highway at Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA duckathon.org

Lustrous wood floors lead into a large living room w/bay window & vaulted ceilings. Spacious formal dining room plus an informal kitchen eating area. Updated kitchen has a lovely garden window, corian countertops & newer appliances. The kitchen looks down upon the roomy family room with a fireplace & wood floors. The baths all have been tastefully upgraded with granite countertops, vanities and neutral tilework.

Other interior upgrades include plantation shutters, recessed lighting, ceiling fans, new water heater & scraped ceilings.

The backyard has a lovely tiled patio with a vinyl patio cover, lush palms & landscaping plus gorgeous rockwork with a cascading waterfall feature. The beautiful pool & spa are safely separated by a gate from the patio. Located in Ocean view School District in the ‘California Distinguished’ schools of Starview & Vista view.

Asking price $589,000.  The address is 15901 Redlands, Westminster, California, 92683.  Please feel free to call me for a private showing at 714-906-3061.

If you are looking for a great value and a truly fabulous location this is it! Call me at 714-906-3061 or email me for more details.

Linda

Step into the model perfect living room with wood floors, shuttered windows a wet bar & a crackling fireplace. Move into the elegant dining room, & then the gorgeous gourmet kitchen. Contemporary stainless appliances, corian countertops, electric cooktop, oven & built in microwave. A large family room is located adjacent to the kitchen, plus a breakfast bar for extra seating.

Walk up the gorgeous staircase to the bedrooms. Large master suite with built in bookcases, shutters a balcony & walk in closets. Private bath featuring both soaking tub w/jets & separate shower & dual sinks. Two additional bedroooms & 3/4 bath upstairs. Also large patio with pavers & lots of room for entertaining. 2 car attached garage w/extra storage.

Walk out your front door & enjoy the resort like pool & spa. The list goes on & on!

Located at 19592 Oakdale, Huntington Beach, California, 92648.  Asking price $638,800.

Over the past six years I have seen decent, responsible people lose all their equity. Many purchased their homes with 20% down or more. Their intentions were to begin the home ownership process and pay their bills with the ideas of eventually moving to another home. What were they told? No problem, you will be able to refinance out of your loan in a few years. Yeah, right. “Bankers speak” is what I call it! There was such a buying frenzy and the consumers got caught up in it. Now, a sensible plan to help out buyers is being blocked by a government regulator, Edward Demarco. He was appointed in 2009 as Acting Director of the Federal housing Agency.

Believe me, none of the recent solutions have worked. The loan modifications have turned out to be a big joke. Short sales cause people to give up and sell their homes at such a loss and who pays for that? Yep, the tax payers. We did a great job of bailing out the banks. Nothing has really helped the homeowners that much. Many of these people would love to stay in their home if the lenders would come up with a sensible solution. Equity reduction makes sense. Maybe tie a sharing of equity with the lender if the home owner sells the property….a win win for everyone! Surely it would be less expensive to the banks to not have to foreclose or do a short sales. Both costly strategies.

I have seen the stress of short sales on families….big time. The moving, the upheaval of children in school, even the sadness of people having to give up their family pet to go into a rental. Let’s try something else.

I am not able to find Edward Demarco’s email or telephone number so I would suggest if you are interested in him making a change in his policy you go to www.WhiteHouse.gov and state your opinion. I am going to do so.

Thanks for listening. Now, on the bright side…I firmly believe there has never been as great a time to make that real estate move. Prices are firming up..interest rates a re at a 50 year low. Call me, let’s discuss your real estate needs.

The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-demarco-mortgages-20120330,0,4740514.story

This home is listed at $649,000 and features 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, approx. 2369 sq. ft, a separate family room, living room, large eat in kitchen PLUS a formal dining room!  The RV access and lovely rear yard will also be a great selling point!

Stop by this weekend from 1-4 pm for a private tour of  this home!  Call me if you have any questions at 714-906-3061!  Thanks and hope to see you there!

Linda Reynolds, Realtor

Starting outside: An EXCELLENT location in Fountain Valley in a coveted neighborhood. Add the RV/boat/gated access with separate concrete driveway. PLUS the meticulously cared for rear garden with pergola, a large grassy area & a shady covered patio.

INSIDE: This home actually has a 5TH BEDROOM downstairs off of large/separate family room. TWO eating areas: one adjacent to the large kitchen & a FORMAL dining room with views of the lovely garden.

 An additional bedroom & full bathroom are downstairs along with a living room with a crackling fireplace & vaulted ceilings.

Upstairs you will find 3 additional bedrooms (one the master)and two more bathrooms. Listed at $649,000.  Located at 18084 Lemon St in Fountain Valley (Talbert and Bushard).

This is a truly a lovely property that you would be pleased to call home!  Call me today at 714-906-3061 for a private showing!  Thanks!

Linda Reynolds, Realtor

At first it looked like the price point that was affected the most are the homes in under $750,000. But, our office is seeing more activity in the over million dollar range. The number of new pending sales is up by 13% compared to 2011.

What is causing this increase in demand? Three reasons in my opinion.

1.I believe people realize we will not see lower interest rates than now and it won’t last forever!

2.. Prices could very well be at the bottom.

3. Rents have gone up over the last several years and it just makes sense to buy now.

Right now there is very low inventory, so if you are thinking of selling you may want to look seriously at this current Spring market time. Of course, the reasonable thought would be “Well that means prices should be going up…. hold on!” Well there is no data supporting that idea. Buyers today are very cautious, they study the last sales and are not willing to overpay at all! Sorry to disappoint homeowners but do not read this as an opportunity to cash in on a higher price, it will not work this time!

Let’s face it, there are still high unemployment numbers and consumer confidence is still weak. Also, there is the concern about the “shadow inventory” that we have been hearing about for years. Shadow inventory is the term describing homes not currently on the market but are is some kind of loan distress. They may be in a pre-foreclosure or homes that have already been foreclosed on but not on the market yet.

This could be due to the number of sellers now trying to “short sale” their home. Short sales are the homes in which more is owned on the home than what the home is worth. Short sales tend to keep the pricing down also.  Anyway you look at it, it is a complex real estate market!

If you are a buyer still thinking about it get off the fence! You will most likely never see a better time! If you are thinking about selling now may be the time to move forward.

Call me and we can discuss the current dynamics in the market and review the current trends in your neighborhood. I’m happy to chat with no obligation. Sometimes it’s just important to know what your options are!

Watch for the newest micro market reports on my web page. Our tech people are working frantically to get us the newest data on what is happening compared to this time last year!

Linda

This 3 bedroom, 1.75 bath home is meticulously remodeled with GREAT taste & all the right touches. Move in condition is often used to describe homes in real estate, but it’s SERIOUSLY true about this gem!

Walk into the living rm with the vaulted ceilings, custom paint, crackling fireplace & a spacious dining area.

Keep walking on the diagonally laid tiles to the GOURMET kitchen with a large granite island with seating for 3, stainless appliances & rich maple cabinetry. A family room area is located off the kitchen & boasts high cathedral ceilings & lots of natural light.

The spacious master bedroom has a private bathroom featuring a separate vanity, a light & bright shower w/glass enclosure, shampoo nook & gorgeous pebble flooring. The hall bath has also been tastefully remodeled with neutral tilework, a glass enclosure & upgraded vanity.

Other great touches include ceiling fans, newer vinyl dual pane windows & sliders, speakers wired for sound throughout home, 6 panel doors, two tone paint, & on & on.

Currently listed at $439,900, and is located on 5930 Camino Correr in Anaheim. Please give me a ring at 714-906-3061 if you would like a private tour!

Linda

TAX RELIEF ON MORGAGE DEBT FORGIVENESS ENDS IN 2013 SO HURRY!

Although the 2007 law that allows taxpayers to exclude from income the amount of debt that is forgiven or canceled by their lenders doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, it’s likely to take every bit of the next 11 months for financially troubled homeowners to persuade their banks to either foreclose or allow their houses to be sold for less than they are worth.

Under the tax code, borrowed money need not be reported as income because you have an obligation to repay. But if the lender subsequently cancels what you owe, the IRS requires that you report that debt as income because the duty to repay it no longer exists.

So, if you owe $250,000 and your lender forgives $50,000 of that debt in a $200,000 refinancing, that $50,000 is considered income. If your combined federal and state marginal tax rate is 36%, you would owe $18,000 in taxes.

Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, though, taxpayers are allowed to exclude from income the discharge of debt on their principal residence — at least until 2013.

So when your lender agrees to a short sale, there is no tax on the difference between the selling price and the amount you owe. When your lender forecloses, there is no tax on the canceled debt. Even when you refinance at a lower loan balance, there is no tax on the difference between what you owed on the old loan and what you owe on the new one.

But unless Congress extends the law — and there is no indication lawmakers are even thinking about that — all residential mortgage debt relief that takes place on or after Jan. 1, 2013, will once again be considered taxable income.

Why worry about this nearly a year before the law changes? Because the timelines on debt forgiveness decisions by lenders are absolutely horrendous.

According to a nearly year-old survey by Equi-Trax Asset Solutions, a Santa Barbara analytics company, it can take four to nine months for underwater borrowers to persuade their lenders to sign off on a deal in which the lender will net less than what the borrower owes.

There are many factors besides a tax break to consider when deciding whether to give up your house. What will a foreclosure or short sale do to your all-important credit score? How long will you be precluded from buying another house? Will the extra income push you into a higher tax bracket?

As always when it comes to such matters, you should consult a tax professional before making any decisions.

For a complete version of this article, go to http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-lew-20120129,0,7465348.story.