News

The National Association of Home Builders reports that builder confidence increased for the third consecutive month. The Mortgage Banker’s Association’s weekly survey shows that the volume of mortgage applications decreased by 8.6 percent from the previous week. John Isakson is pushing an extension of the $8,000 tax credit through the senate. Doug Duncan, of Fannie Mae, warns that if the Federal Reserve stops purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities then mortgage rates could jump by 30 basis points. The UCLA forecast predicts the nation will emerge from the recession this quarter although California will most likely lag in the recovery. The federal reserve is now looking into the vulnerability of small banks with commercial exposure as losses mount.

A survey from the National Association of Home Builders shows that buyers are unwilling to pay more for a new “green” home. DQNews reports that the total sales in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange Counties fell 10.8 percent from the previous month. Both Ben Bernanke and Bank of America believe the U.S. financial downturn is coming to an end. The Coopers Korpacz Real Estate Investor Survey estimates that U.S. commercial property will not recover until 2012. If you watched I Survived Real Estate 2009, it’s interesting to hear what industry experts are saying compared to some of these economists. Also, NAR reports in a recent survey less foreign real estate purchases measured year over year.

The Sacramento Bee reports that the New Home-Buyer Tax Credit extension failed to pass. According to John Burns analysis, investors represent approximately 26 percent of all the sales occurring within the 53 markets that he observes. JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief economist Bruce Kasman believes that the economy will grow by 3.5 percent per quarter during the next year, but won’t be enough to bring the GDP back to its $13.42 trillion pre- crisis peak. Realtors will be excited to hear that Docusign just got an iPhone app.

Freddie Mac estimates that sales of new and existing homes will increase by 11 percent from the second quarter. Attorney General Jerry Brown reports that an Orange County loan officer has been arrested for $30 million dollars worth of fraudulent loans. A report from Altera Real Estate shows that million dollar homes in Dana Point, Laguna Beach and San Clemente are losing value. Fraud arrests continue with detention of loan officer. Tonight is also our I Survived Real Estate 2009 event being aired online live from The Business Press. We are very excited to have the panel of experts join us.

Welcome to the new home for The Norris Group’s Real Estate News Roundup. You can visit all of our old archives from our old blog HERE.  The former blog has news article links all the way back from 2006. What a journey we’ve taken since then!  Hopefully you find this to be a useful tool.