Santa Clarita Real Estate Buzz

First-Time Homebuyer Grants are back

2012-05-08T19:39:17Z

First-Time Homebuyer Grants are back and sponsored by The Southland Regional Association of Realtors.

The Southland Regional Association of REALTORS® is currently offering grants to qualified homebuyers who purchase their first home within the San Fernando or Santa Clarita Valley and have a low to moderate income-level. The amount of each grant will be $2,000 and will only be paid to qualified applicants after the close of escrow while funding lasts. Repayment of grant is not required.

SRAR staff will administer the applications and grants will only be awarded to the most deserving candidates, as decided by the 2012 HAF Grant Subcommittee.

NOTE: THERE ARE A LIMITED NUMBER OF GRANTS. GRANTS WILL ONLY BE AWARDED TO THOSE APPLICANTS WHO QUALIFY AND WILL BE DISTRIBUTED ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVE BASIS. THIS GRANT PROGRAM WILL LAST ONE YEAR BEGINNING MAY 7, 2012 OR UNTIL ALL GRANTS HAVE BEEN AWARDED, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. BUYERS MUST BE ADVISED THAT SIMPLY SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION DOES NOT GUARANTEE AN AWARDED GRANT.

Qualification Requirements:

Close of Escrow must have occurred AFTER May 7, 2012.
Applicant must be a first-time homebuyer, as defined by the State of California.
Applicant must use a REALTOR® member of the Southland Regional Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) in the purchase of their home through the close of escrow.
The home to be purchased must be within the jurisdiction of SRAR.
Applicant must not exceed the following income limitations:
- 1-2 Household Members = $95,160
- 3 or more Household Members = $111,020
Applicant must attend a First-Time Homebuyer course that is approved by the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) and must prove the successful completion of the course with the certificate. Click here for a list of LAHD-approved courses.
The grant recipient must finance their home with either an FHA loan, a conventional loan with at least 5% down, a VA Loan, a Cal-Vet Home Loan, OR a HomePath mortgage. Proof of financing must be provided

If this is something you might be intersted in, and based on the requirements above you qualify, give me a call today 661-263-0441 These grants are on a FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVE BASIS. Don’t be left out because you waiting a little to long.

For a Complete listing of all homes for sale in the Santa Clarita Valley under $350,000 click on the link below.

SCV Homes under $350,000

Local home sales are up in March, but inventory is shrinking.

2012-04-24T00:21:46Z

Thank you Tina and SJ for agreeing to speak to our local newspaper, The Signal. Congratulations on finally being in escrow. Kim

Local home sales were up in March, but the inventory of houses listed for sale is shrinking, forcing homebuyers into competitive bidding wars, according to Santa Clarita Valley Realtors.

When the employer of Tina Ham-Yoo’s husband relocated him to Santa Clarita from Washington, D.C., the couple expected to buy a home in the area pretty easily. But the couple was in for a surprise.

“It just was not what we expected,” Ham-Yoo said. “We thought there was certainly more inventory, and given the recession, that it would be a buyer’s market.”

One year ago, there were 21-percent more homes on the market in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to statistics compiled by the Southland Regional Association of Realtors.

According to SRAR, there were 585 homes listed in March 2011, compared to only 460 homes in March 2012.

The number of homes listed for sale in March is down 59 percent from the peak in March 2007, when 1,121 homes were listed for sale.

Yet, the number of homes sold is one of the highest March figures in the last four years. In March 2008, 299 homes were sold, 336 were sold in 2009, 354 sold in 2010 and 310 homes were purchased in 2011.

In March 2012, 348 homes sold in the Santa Clarita Valley, beating records for the past five years except for March 2010 when federal and state tax incentives were available.

But the dwindling inventory is leading to bidding wars over homes, local Realtors said.

Bidding wars
“It’s crazy right now,” said Tom Delgado, the Ham-Yoos’ Realtor with Keller Williams VIP Properties in Valencia.

“Here you are in these tough economic times, yet at same time, in the range from the $200,000 mark all the way up to the $650,000 range, you’re fighting competition,” he said.
Ham-Yoo said she and her husband were getting discouraged under the time constraints to find a home. Her husband’s employer provided him only with a short-term, expense-paid hotel stay while he looked.

“On the one hand, (the competition) is good. It shows the economy is recovering,” Ham-Yoo said. “But on a personal level, it hasn’t been good for us. You can’t ask for closing costs or any incentives.”

There are people out there who still want to believe this housing market is in ruins and that Santa Clarita is the same as other markets, Delgado said. But strangely enough, the local market is aggressive and getting more so.

The Ham-Yoos made an offer on five homes in their ideal price range of $450,000 to $550,000 — above the price range in which investors have typically been snapping up homes for cash.

“We were squeezed out because of multiple offers,” Ham-Yoo said.

Delgado wrote an offer that exceeded the list price on one home, but the couple was quickly outbid by six others. The listing agent finally stopped accepting bids, Delgado said.

Today, the Ham-Yoos are in a 30-day escrow on a $513,000 home in Stevenson Ranch.

Meanwhile, other buyers are struggling the same way the Ham-Yoos did before they found their house.

More hurdles
The critically low inventory of homes for sale in Santa Clarita has created a significant advantage for homebuyers with bigger down payments and better qualifications, said Realtor Robert Mickalson with Realty Executives in Valencia.

The competition exists because of low interest rates, pent-up demand and increasing consumer confidence, local

Realtors say. But sellers won’t see the rapid price accelerations they saw during the real estate bubble. There’s a limit as to how high bidders will go over asking price, Delgado said.

Many buyers may be limited by the amount of money they were prequalified to spend, and if they offer more on a home, they will have to come up with the difference out of their own pocket, he said.

Another hurdle is that property appraisals often will no longer support the higher sales price. Sellers may have to come down in price if the winning buyers can’t secure sufficient financing, local experts say.

“We are now in a trough where it will take four to six years before the market will elevate up,” Delgado said.

Compromise
Denise Wallig moved to the SCV in August 2011, and began looking for homes every weekend since September 2011.
Having worked as an occupational therapist, but as an independent contractor for 17 years, Wallig accepted a job and waited six months so she would be a stronger candidate to prequalify for a home loan.

“I noticed the market began changing around December,” Wallig said. “There were fewer open houses, less good deals, less foreclosures and the prices seemed to be increasing for like-floor plans.”

Wanting to find a home that would allow her daughter to remain in the Placerita Junior High School district, Wallig said she went out with her Realtors every day for the past month to look at houses.

“It was insane,” Wallig said. “This is the third house I’ve bought, and I’ve never experienced what I experienced in the past month. I thought it would be a buyer’s market but that wasn’t my experience.”

Four different offers were written for houses, and all became involved in bidding wars, said Cherrie Brown, Wallig’s Realtor with Keller Williams VIP Properties in Valencia.

Wallig said she also lost out to investors able to pay with all cash. But finally, she finally landed the home of her dreams, a short sale, when the bank wanted a buyer — not an investor — who would live in the house.

When she first began looking for homes, Wallig targeted the $250,000 price range. By the time she had been employed six months and was prequalified to buy a home, she had to adjust her price range to over $350,000.

“If I could have bought last year, I probably would have gotten the home for $20,000 to $30,000 less,” she said. “But I was willing and able to compromise to get what I wanted.”

Changing market
Realtors cautioned that patience is required by anyone thinking about venturing into the homebuying market.

Rather than trying to convince his buyers the local market was very competitive, Delgado said he takes his clients out to a house on a Saturday as car after car arrive to look at the same home. It allows his clients to witness the competition themselves, he said.

“Those who need to purchase a home and move prior to summer could find themselves without a home to buy if they continually run into multiple-offer situations against other competing Santa Clarita homebuyers,” Mickalson said.

Indeed, the number of active listings dropped again in the past month.

There were 844 listings as of March 16, said Brown. By April 19, there were only 665 listings, a 21 percent decline.

The number of standard sale listings where owners still have equity in their home hasn’t changed, but the number of distressed homes that experts spent the last three years saying would hit the market — is shrinking.

Listings for local short sales dropped 30 percent, and bank-owned listings declined 34 percent in the past month, Brown said.
With the scarcity of listings and the amount of qualified buyers, we are seeing multiple offers on properties and buyers are being outbid, said Erika Kauzlarich-Bird, owner of Triple D Realty and president of the SRAR SCV Division. “This makes it a positive gain for sellers in the current marketplace.”

Santa Clarita Valley homes sales strongest they’ve been since the same period in 2007

2012-04-13T04:58:35Z

In a report released by the Southland Regional Association of Realtors, sales of single family homes were up 19 percent in February over the prior year. Condo sales rose 3.8 percent, reversing what had been a downward trend in that market. February home sales recorded the fifth consecutive month of increases, the association reported.

For the past two months, Santa Clarita Valley existing condo and single-family-home sales were the strongest they have been since the same period in 2007, even surpassing points in 2010 when state and federal tax credits were available.

Still struggling to recover is the median home price, which was down 7 percent from February 2011. Condo prices dropped 15.7 percent from the prior year.

The upward trends in sales, however, began in June 2011. The 138 escrows that closed last month were 22 sales more than in the same period 2011 and up 39.4 percent from the record low set in January 2008, SRAR reported.

Open escrows at the end of February were up 31.9 percent over a year ago, and SRAR reported that pending escrows, a measure of future sales activity, suggest that sales will continue to pick up in the months ahead.

“Luckily, Santa Clarita is one of multiple communities throughout California reporting increases in home sales,” said Erika Kauzlarich-Bird, president of the association’s Santa Clarita Valley Division. “The market and economy would have improved even further, if only we had more homes listed for sale.”

Inventory
The lack of available homes for sale that has plagued other Southern California communities affects the SCV region, as well. Active listings in February were down 27.6 percent compared to February of 2011.

Sales in Southern California represented only a 3.9-month supply, according to DataQuick, which monitors real-estate activity nationwide.

Santa Clarita has continued to beat trends in other markets.

The 861 local listings last month represent a 4.5 month supply of inventory, and are inching closer to the desired five to six month supply that indicates a balanced market.

Numerous Realtors have reported bidding wars on the few homes that do go up for sale, and some believe the number of condo homes approved for Federal Housing Administration loans will increase.

We are hopeful that over the next 12 to 24 months, many of the condo communities not currently approved for FHA borrowers will earn back their FHA approved status, enabling homebuyers currently limited by inventory to choose from, to enter the condo market.

Overall, Santa Clarita Valley real estate market remains healthier than others.

“Santa Clarita has a lot going for it,” said Jim Link, the association’s CEO. “Yet full recovery will remain elusive until conventional equity sales dominate the market and current homeowners see the advantages of listing their home for sale.”

The recovery in the real estate sector has been more of a struggle in neighboring markets.

While SCV posted sales increases of 19 percent for February, home sales in nearby San Fernando Valley were down 1.3 percent from a year ago and condominium sales were off 7.1 percent from a year ago, reported SRAR.

Affecting the local market has been the lack of FHA loans available for condominiums in the SCV region, local Realtors report. When the administration required common interest properties to re-certify to make individual units eligible for affordable administration loans, most local properties lost the approval for a number of reasons – limiting condo purchase options for buyers.

Median prices also remain one of the last hurdles for a recovering market.

DataQuick reported the median price paid for a Southland home last month was down 3.7 percent from February 2011 compared to the drop of 7 percent for SCV homes and 9.4 percent in San Fernando Valley.

Locally, however, median home prices exceed the median price of $264,750 in Southern California. The median price for a home in SCV was $385,000 in February. The median price for a home in San Fernando Valley was $355,000.

Mixed into all these numbers, the question is: Who exactly is buying?

The majority of sales reflected in the numbers SRAR released were for homes selling for $450,000 or less. Nearly half of that inventory was selling for less than $250,000 reflecting investors are still heavily involved in the market.

DataQuick reports that distressed sales continue to make up more than half of the resale market. The company reported that investors and some second-home purchasers bought 29.7 percent of the Southland homes sold in February.

Bottom line. No one has that magic crystal ball, but things appear to be looking up.

Safari Tours This Weekend at Shambala Preserve Acton, CA

2012-03-08T18:48:23Z

One special weekend each month, The Shambala Preserve opens its gates to the public for a series of exciting and informative “safaris” through the world of the big cats, all of whom are endangered or threatened species. During this Safari tour you will meet African lions, Bengal and Siberian tigers, and black and spotted leopards, servals, and mountain lions, up close and personal!! All of these exotic cats have been born in the U.S. to be sold as pets.

This is a donation event of a min of $50. The money goes towards the preserve and of course the endangered animals. Please go onto the website and reserve a spot today and enjoy a safari tour! This is a rare event that your able to get right here in Acton but still feel like your in Africa! You must be 18 yrs or older to go on tour. It is a 3 hour event and you can bring your lunch and have a picnic. Fun for you and a date to go on or if your just looking for something new to do!

http://www.shambala.org

661-268-0380

6867 Soledad Canyon Road
Acton, CA 93510

Mardi Gras Madness 5k or 1k in Valencia, CA

2012-03-01T19:19:17Z

This Saturday 3/3 at Bridgeport Marketplace, come out and support the runners of the Santa Clarita Track Club! This is the second annual Mardi Gras Madness! 5K Race and Mini Madness benefiting Students Off And Running.

The race will be held at Bridgeport Marketplace, located at 24061 Newhall Ranch Rd Valencia, CA 91355.

7 am the mini 1k race will begin and the 5k will start at 8 am!

A little about the Mardi Gras Run:

http://mgm5k.com/

A fully supported, Los Angeles Marathon training
experience to youth in need ages 13-18 at no cost to participants or their
families. Students participating in the 24 week, 380 mile training season
receive full support including event registration fees, equipment, uniforms,
transportation, and training supplies.

Mardi Gras 5k Valencia, CA-Bridgeport Marketplace

Search Santa Clarita Foreclosures

2012-02-22T07:44:35Z

What is my Valencia Home Worth?

2012-02-20T20:21:06Z

Receive a custom evaluation for your home, including comparisons to other homes that have recently sold or are on the market. This guarantees you receive the most accurate information available. To find out what your home is worth, fill out the information below:

1.9 ACRES WITH 4 BEDROOMS, HOME IN SAUGUS, CALIF.

2012-01-13T03:06:33Z

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # f12004107 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

Special Financing Available, Call for details

2012-01-13T03:00:44Z

PURCHASE THIS CONDO WITH ONLY 5% DOWN AND NO PMI COST.
CALL FOR DETAILS 661-263-0441

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # F11135651 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

2012 Relay For Life Castaic CA

2012-01-11T17:52:02Z

You can do it too!! Mark your calendar’s! There’s a place for you at Relay. Each dollar you raise will help save lives. Help make a difference in people’s lives and maybe even a family member?

Walking in the Relay For Life are as unique and special as the story that motivates you. This is your opportunity to not only honor cancer survivors and remember people we have lost, but also to raise funds and awareness to help save lives. Because of your support and the community, we are creating a world where cancer can’t claim another year of anyone’s life. You are helping create a world with less cancer and more birthdays!

http://www.relayforlife.org/index

March 31, 2012

9:00 am at Castaic Lake

Survivor Lap: 9:30AM

Luminaria Ceremony: 9:00PM