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  7 Smart Strategies for Bathroom Remodeling

  Here’s how to get the bathroom of your dreams without making your budget a nightmare. Read

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Should You Go Forward With a Reverse Mortgage? 6 Favorite Home Improvement Apps for the iPad, iPhone, iPod What Affects Credit Scores? 7 Misconceptions.

Budgeting doesn’t have to be hard.You don’t even need to be tied down to the idea of “making a budget.” Saving money can be as simple as making a few small changes at home. This infographic shows you easy, convenient ways to save up to $8,800 a year, without ever feeling the pinch of a restrictive budget.

Created by Infographic World

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Should You Go Forward With a Reverse Mortgage?

California housing market to continue improvement; lack of inventory to hamper sales

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 2) – California’s housing market will continue to recover in 2013, as home sales are forecast to increase for the third consecutive year and the median price to rise for the second straight year, according to the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ (C.A.R.) “2013 California Housing Market Forecast,” released today.

The C.A.R. forecast sees sales gaining 1.3 percent next year to reach 530,000 units, up from the projected 2012 sales figure of 523,300 homes sold.  Sales in 2012 will be up 5.1 percent from the 497,900 existing, single-family homes sold in 2011.

“The market has improved moderately over the past year, and we expect that to continue into 2013,” said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold.  “Sales would be even higher if inventory were less constrained in REO-dominated markets, particularly in the Central Valley and Inland Empire, where there is an extreme shortage of available homes.  Sales will be stronger in higher-priced areas, where there are more equity properties and a somewhat greater availability of homes for sale.”

“Housing affordability has never been stronger – with record-low interest rates and favorable home prices, combining to create a once-in-a-generation opportunity to buy a home in California,” said Arnold.

C.A.R.’s forecast projected growth in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product of 2.3 percent in 2013, after a gain of 2 percent in 2012.  With job growth of 1.6 percent in California, the state’s unemployment rate should decrease to 9.9 percent in 2013 from 11.7 percent in 2011 and 10.7 percent in 2012.

The average for 30-year fixed mortgage interest rates will edge up to 4 percent after six consecutive years of declines, but will still remain historically low.

The statewide median home price is forecast to increase a moderate 5.7 percent to $335,000 in 2013.  Following a decrease in 2011, the California median home price will climb a projected 10.9 percent in 2012 to $317,000.

“The housing market momentum which began earlier this year will continue into 2013,” said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young.  “Pent-up demand from first-time buyers will compete with investors and all-cash offers on lower-priced properties, while multiple offers and aggressive bidding will continue to be the norm in mid- to upper-price range homes.”

“The actions of underwater homeowners will play an important role in housing inventory next year, with rising home prices inducing some to stay put and others to list and move forward,” she said.

“The wildcards for 2013 include federal, monetary and housing policies, state and local government finances, housing supply, and the actions of underwater homeowners – not to mention the strength of the overall economic recovery,” Appleton-Young continued.

2013 CALIFORNIA HOUSING FORECAST

f = forecast

Leading the way…® in California real estate for more than 100 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with more than 155,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.

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Should You Go Forward With a Reverse Mortgage? Short Sale Update 6 Favorite Home Improvement Apps for the iPad, iPhone, iPod

If you’ve jumped on the Apple “i” bandwagon, you’re never far from iPhone, iPod, and iPad apps that help maintain and improve your home — values near and dear to our hearts.

Here are a few of our favorites:

ColorSnap Sherwin-Williams (free)

Snap a picture of anything and this app tells you which Sherwin-Williams color most closely matches your photo subject. The coral shade in my kitchen curtains, it turns out, is Redbud. I press another button and coordinating colors — Palm Leaf and Cargo Pants — pop up. Browse color families to find ones you love, and then adjust for lightness and saturation.

Home Improvement CALCS  ($2.99)

This handy app has more than 115 calculations for every home improvement project imaginable — from determining how much asphalt you’ll need to repave your 10-by-10-ft. driveway (3.75 tons) to how many bags of mulch will cover a 40-by-6-ft. yard, 3 inches deep (30 2-cubic-foot bags).

Ruler 2 (99 cents)

This app is for emergency measuring when no ruler or tape is handy. Ruler 2 includes a pointer you drag along the length of an object smaller (preferably) than your i-gizmo. A digital readout gives you the length. To measure longer objects, you have to swipe and move the iPhone/iPad/iPod, and things get a little complicated, so Ruler 2 works best measuring smaller things, such as screws.

iHandy Carpenter ($1.99)

iHandy is a digital toolkit that turns your Apple device into a plumb bob, surface level, bubble level bar, steel protractor, and ruler. All tools, except the ruler, have digital readouts.

Dream Home ($1.99)

Dream Home contains hundreds of design ideas for your remodeling project: It’s all the fun of shelter magazines for a fraction of the cost and weight. The app presents pages and pages — I mean screens and screens — of photos of high-design rooms in real houses. Photos are sorted by color, style, and popularity. For an extra $1.99, you can add photos of rooms decorated for the seasons. If you feel like sharing, upload pictures of your home improvement project and they’ll become part of the app in 48 hours.

I.D. Wood: Your Pocket Guide to Woods From Around the World ($4.99)

This pricey app provides everything you need to know — and a few things you don’t  — about 160 species of wood, from the common (white oak) to the exotic (Australian black bean). The pictures are beautiful and true-to-life, and the tips for working with each species are useful: Did you know beech wood has one of the highest shrinkage rates of all hardwoods? Now you do.

What home- and garden-related apps do you use? What have you used them for?

Published: August 26, 2011

“Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.”

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80424 Green Hills Drive

LOS ANGELES (July 15) – The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) applauds Gov. Jerry Brown on signing SB 458 (Corbett) into law. SB 458 extends the protections of SB 931 (2010), to ensure that any lender that agrees to a short sale must accept the agreed upon short sale payment as payment in full of the outstanding balance of all loans.

Under previous law (SB 931 of 2010), a first mortgage holder could accept an agreed-upon short sale payment as full payment for the outstanding balance of the loan, but unfortunately, the rule did not apply to junior lien holders. SB 458 extends the protections of SB 931 to junior liens.

“The signing of this bill is a victory for California homeowners who have been forced to short sell their home only to find that the lender will pursue them after the short sale closes, and demand an additional payment to subsidize the difference,” said C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce. “SB 458 brings closure and certainty to the short sale process and ensures that once a lender has agreed to accept a short sale payment on a property, all lienholders – those in first position and in junior positions – will consider the outstanding balance as paid in full and the homeowner will not be held responsible for any additional payments on the property.”

SB 458 contains an urgency clause making it effective upon signing.

Call The Ozur Group with questions (760) 601-3070. We are here to assist you with your Short Sale.

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