Times are tough in Redding. There have been over 225 bank -owned homes for sale on any day here recently. That number has been trending upwards for months.  But we don't have it nearly as bad as Vegas. The higher you fly, the farther you fal

Got some results for June here. Again, our brokerage is the local sales leader, by far. So what? Well, this is important because most homes are sold through agents. Our brokerage networks in-hous

Several local brokerages offer education and training as an incentive to have agents join their firm. What you quickly discover is that the "training" is often all about sales, and little emphasis is placed on the accumula

The LA Times reports that the City of Los Angeles has adopted ordinances that can allow for fines of up to $100,000 against the owners of nuisance foreclosure properties. They have also instituted a registry that identifies the bank/owners, making it easier to fine those responsible for blight. Is this a policy that coul

This legal news from the New York Times yesterday. Here is the gist of the issue as I see it. The idea of PACE is to fund expensive energy upgrades to homes with a long term bond. Let's say you put up an expensive photovolt

So this can't be good news. The federal tax credit for homebuyers ended in April, and then pending home sales dropped off pretty steeply nationwide, according to the

We ran a post a few days back about the auction of this home in Palo Cedro. Having helped a client do a rather rigorous examination of the home

The mayor of Shasta Lake City, Greg Watkins, and Councilwoman Delores Lucero addressed the membership of the Shasta Association of Realtors on June 30 to let us know of their vision for the future o

It's a bit early in July to be looking at June numbers, but we noticed bank owned and government seized homes accumulating quantity, and so we ran the numbers for June today. The chart below shows sales over the last 24 n months  in the greater Redding Metro area, roughly from about Shingletown to Whiskeytown, and Lakeh

"Research found that the median borrower who “strategically” defaults doesn’t walk away from the mortgage until the amount owed exceeds the value of the home by 62%." So if you owe the lender $324,000 on your house and it would only sell for about $200,000 today, you might consider walking away from your mortgage.

I find it ironic that Fannie Mae, itself completely on the public dole, should adopt a fake moral attitude about people who walk away from bad business deals on their home mortgage. Shouldn't they be encouraging more home ownership? Given Fannie Mae's accelerating huge losses, how can they justify artificially placing bu

Life is unpredictable. The owners of this historic building had finished renovating it into a really nice restaurant, and it was nearly ready to open. But Life had other plans.

We've been thinking that the State of California's Homebuyer's Tax Credit would be around for quite some time, but apparently it's going fast. From the article below, "nearly 80% of the credits for first-time home buyers has been applied for, the state Franchise Tax Board has announced." While not as generous as the $800

We attended the Auction on June 18 at a Palo Cedro home on 1.8 acres. The auction was run by Williams and Williams Auction. It started on time and seemed to run very well. I was asked to take no pictures,

A few days ago I pointed out that Loan Modification fraud still happens.  So what to do if you need real mortgage help? Here's the resource I set my clients up with for real help. Nonprofit help for homeowners. These folks know all the programs, and if there is so

I received a call over the weekend from a bewildered young man who was wondering if he should pay a mortgage modification firm up front to help him out from under a horrid 10% mortgage loan. NO NO NO! I'd never met him before. He stumbled on my website via Google, and found this

Erin and I were surprised to find ourselves on the cover of our local newspaper, the Record Searchlight for Friday June 11, 2010. Obviously, we were interviewed and photographed, but had no idea we'd be on the front page

We gathered a few of our agents together for this group shot at the Sundial Bridge. I don't know how many, but you can see we are a big bunch. We network to help buyers and sellers connect. There

I recently saw a Re/Max commercial on TV where they make the claim that "Nobody sells more real estate" than they do. Not sure what they use to base that claim. Independent Real Trends Magazine points out that nobody does more transaction sides - by far- than Coldwell Banker. 

Well, it's always a bit early to look at last month's results when we are only a few days into the following month, but here we go. This looks like the new normal: Somewhere around 159 homes sold last month a

Seller has reduced the asking price on this 9.75 acre 2547 sq ft home with it's matchless views of Clear Creek and West Redding. Now, at only $107 per sq ft, the home seems priced well beneath what it would cost to build today. That's just $284,900. Check out the video if you haven't already:

We've really been super impressed with the Coldwell Banker App for the iPhone. We often find ourselves using this information instead of the Shasta MLS FLEX software that is designed for professionals, and for which we pay quite a bit. These smart phone applications are totally FREE! Try one, and we think you'll agree. C

Confirming what I wrote on May 10, our local newspaper ran 2 stories today about Shasta County local home sales moving at an increased pace. I didn't go much into home prices on my post. When you are talking about only 1

Photo by Skip Murphy of home in Old Shasta CA 2010 I keep thinking mortgage rates have to go up, but apparently bad news EVERYWHERE ELSE made mortgages look better all the time to investors. Hence, we have "onc

We looked back to see how bank-owned home sales (REOs) were averaging over the last 6 months in Anderson. We see there were 48 homes sold in that period, and that they averaged about $98 per sq ft. You can argue the whole "per square foot" measurement validity, but there really is no better way to compare unlike properti

So you are thinking about buying some real estate to round out your investment portfolio with a tangible asset. Here's a very fast and easy tool for analyzing individual properties for their investment value:

Home shoppers now expect expect well produced video tours of homes for sale online. If you simply search randomly at YouTube, you will find videos of homes that sold long ago. Very frustrating. This new website at Coldwell Banker makes sure all the videos posted are ACT

Here is a home we toured on yesterday's agent caravan. It's located on a very private ridgetop on the westside. Diggins is off Placer, somewhat before you get to the Veteran's Memorial Bridge. The home has terrif

The last month of the federal tax credit for homebuyers pushed sales over 150 homes in our area. This next month will be revealing. If the effect of the generous tax credit was similar to the automotive "Cash for Clunkers" stimulus program, then we may see a crash in demand as it ends.

Here's a unique property with an unmatched setting. Located inside the Active Adult 55+ community of the The Vineyard, and perched at the far corner, overlooking the McConnell Foundation's Lema Ranch, this large 4/3 2983 sq ft home is secure and stunning.

The waterfall photo you see here was taken from the deck of this home, now for sale at a very attrac

I guess it depends on whether you are buying or selling. Also, whether you believe Zillow. T

We retrieved the latest Median Home Price chart from the California Association of REALTORS. This chart is for home prices statewide up to last February. All real estate is local, so this has no real bearing on the Redding area.

This morning at our weekly staff meeting, we were informed that ERA Select Properties was merging with Coldwell Banker C&C Properties. We don't know much more than that, except that the agents who had worked at ERA were being invited to work at

Heck that's 13 years after the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. Anyway, that's the conclusion of this article. I say, no way! We could easily hit peak again by 2024 at the latest.

I wrote a short snippet for the RS in response to their weekly Real Estate question, and caught some flack for saying that you might not need an agent. That definitely isn't the agent party line, but I meant what I wrote. I actually wrote D

We've taken a listing from a trust for a lovely home in Anderson that was set up for a professional pottery studio. Check out the video tour: Be sure to click the higher res 480p option. Call (530) 244 7603 for more information

Like 'surf's up', the wave metaphor seems appropriate. This article from today claims that 1 in 138 of all US homes are in some stage of foreclosure. It could be worse. In Nevada, it's 1 in 33. Locally it seems to be continuing as it has been with no signs of slowing down. Good opportunities for buyers, to try and spin t

This is something I noticed a while ago, and commented on before. Homebuilder demand projections are based on pure population demographics, but real demand is a function of real economics. No jobs = no demand, as households combine under one roof. Looks like I'm not the only one to notice the effect.

Not only is the very generous federal tax credit ending shortly, Mortgage interest rates are climbing, and promise to get higher.

Images of homes for sale represent material fact. Lately, we've seen some imaginatively manipulated images of local homes listed for sale. Since these marketing images are meant to represent a true and accurate picture of the subject, when do such photo manipulations cross the line?

This chart purports to show 120 years of inflation adjusted home pricing. Looks plausible enough, although we can't vouch for the data. We can surely say we've lived through one of the largest boom/bust bubbles in recorded history. But will ho

Erin Murphy and Jim Gillespie at a training session in Sacramento. Jim is the head of Coldwell Banker, overseeing an empire of around 100,000 real

In retrospect, this seems predictable. Extreme Makeover recipients tap into their new equity, and then lose the home. Perhaps Extreme Downsizing will be a spin-off hit. The show is endemic to our materialistic times. A new house won't change your life. Or it might, but not in a way you expect. Perhaps we'll all get

It's a bit early to rely on the MLS data for March. It takes a while for the complete data to be entered by the brokerages. But there's no question that the full results will show local home sales are up. A lot. And inventory is down.

This article in Business Week details the findings of the Consumer Product Safety Commission reaches that conclusion about Chinese drywall products. "“All of the problem drywall

$8,000 from the feds, plus $10,000 from the state for buying a house? Timing would be tricky, but from this article in SF Gate, getting both the federal and state homebuyers tax breaks would appear to at least be possible.

The government is supposed to start handing out money for people to sell their underwater homes for less than they owe the original lender. This should make Short Sales easier, or at least that's the intent. This from CNN Money: "Short sales are the hottest thing going in the distressed-property market

We received this message today: Front of home to be auctioned on Girvan "The Live Auction for this home and a few others here in Shasta County and one in Trinity County will be at 7:30 pm, Wednesday Apri

There is a report out that one of the nation's largest homebuilders, KB Homes, is thinking of building 800 sq ft 2/2 homes to compete with the existing inventory of homes for sale. This from Business Week, " "In