Irvine, CA

One of my favorite places to visit at times during the past five years ... for about 15 to 30 minutes each time ... once about every three weeks ... is UNIVERSITY PARK BARBERS, 18048 Culver Drive, Irvine, CA.

This barbershop is located located in the University Park ... Irvine Company retail mall ... at Culver and Michelson ... and about 15 minutes from our home in the Turtle Rock area. It's a bit of fun and good haircut at a reasonable price ... and save time too.

Jim Anderson is a family man living at Lake Forest, CA ... he talks from time to time about his wife and son, who will start his junior year at Rancho Santa Margarita High School ... and involved with the marching band at school.

Jim was busy today at his UNIVERSITY PARK BARBERSHOP ... enjoying the attention received last week from reporters at Orange County Register and Irvine World News who visited and wrote about his being in business at this location for forty years.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JIM AND OTHERS AT UNIVERSITY PARK BARBERS FOR THE 40-YEAR ANNIVERSARY.

I got my money's worth and a good haircut today ... Jim and I visited about 10 minutes. I don't have the amount of hair to fuss with as in years passed ... not using the entire chair time. We talked about politics and had some laughs. The man moved on to the next customer.

Jim's next client after me today was Daniel ... seen here thinking about and getting ready for his 15 minutes in the chair.

UNIVERSITY PARK BARBERSHOP is close to our world of business, commercial office buildings, community centers, condominium complexes and homes, well-known grocery stores, tennis clubs, and busy Culver Drive near Interstate 405.

Jim's store is ancient at 40 years and counting ... THE OLDEST CONTINUOUS BUSINESS OWNED AND OPERATED IN THE CITY OF IRVINE, CA.

Anderson celebrated last week with lack of fanfare ... and then back to work and $13 haircuts. He and Mac and other barbers are busy and have strong client followings.

Many of our friends from Irvine and elsewhere visit Jim and others barbers there. Lots of these guys drive miles to get the good haircut at reasonable price ... UNIVERSITY PARK BARBERS.

Jim's resting here after brief celebraton and between the 15 minutes allocated for clients, like me.

This is a no-nonsense place ... my kind of business ... with not much worrying over styles ... no shampoo or hair coloring ... and no web site.

The six barbers at the shop keep the place old-fashioned, with cuts short and prices low. A normal haircut is just $13 ... or $12 for seniors "95 or older".

Jim Anderson ... like others there ... is on his feet most of the day. Bob, another barber, helps to keep the place clean.

If you want a good haircut ... at a reasonable price ... with little or no fancy stuff ... and like to save time ... check out UNIVERSITY PARK BARBERS, 18048 Culver, Irvine, CA, telephone 949-786-6404.

Posted by Harrison K. Long, Explore Properties Group, Irvine, CA

Sources: Jim Anderson and The Orange County Register

Is there a place for Open Houses in a real estate agent's marketing strategy these days? Elaine Carlson, of PalosVerdesSource.com, exploses this issue in her article entitled "Is the Jig Up on Open Houses? There is no short answer.

Open Houses can be a viable, valuable marketing tool under certain circumstances and in particular niche markets. Real estate is after all local, and buyers often like to check out neighborhoods and houses up close and in person without having to commit to using the services of a real estate agents in the beginning stages of their search.

Just as many buyers prefer to view homes first online, anonymously, and educate themselves before actually making contact with a real estate professional, buyers also utilize Open Houses as a way to familiarize themselves with those particular communities in which they may ultimately have an interest in purchasing a home or condo. To Continue reading ‘Do Open Houses Sell Houses?', originally published on June 13th, 2008 in http://IrvineRealEstateBlogger.com

Wild Rivers Recreation Park, Irvine, CA

We have enjoyed "Wild Rivers" at Irvine during past years and see this news about another year of fun for kids and families as positive.

The Irvine Company management has offered WILD RIVERS a one-year lease extension to give the water park another summer.

Details are still to be worked out. Under the current lease, Wild Rivers would close after this summer 2008 season. That includes nearby Camp James, which serves about 2,000 children each summer, which would have to move. This land near I-405 and Irvine Center Drive includes the water park and the camp would be used for new homes.

It was reported that economic conditions have made developing the water park land difficult, which is an advantage for the fun and Wild Rivers' advantage. The park has had about 5,000 daily visitors during 2008 season and provides summer jobs for 800 to 1,000 people.

This new lease on LIFE and FUN at WILD RIVERS will be a good thing.

Posted by Harrison K. Long, Explore Properties group, Irvine, CA

Source: Orange County Register, August 20, 2008

Market Time Report: THE FIRST TIME HOME BUYER WAVE IS GROWING!

May 1, 2008

Compared to last year, demand is stronger, there are fewer homes on the market and the expected market time is much lower. The first time home buyer wave continues to grow and plant the seeds to an eventual recovery. The reports from the streets of Orange County are unanimous: first time home buyers are fueling a surge in activity that continues to flourish and has been steadily growing since the middle of February. Multiple offers in the lower ranges, homes priced below $500,000, are now quite common throughout Orange County. This chart illustrates how demand has not only surged past the 2007 level, but is quickly approaching the 2006 level. Until just four weeks ago, year over year demand had not been stronger than the prior year since September 2005, the beginning signs of the current slow cycle. Demand, a snapshot of the prior 30 days of escrow activity, has climbed by an additional 166 escrows in the past two weeks to 2,540. Last year at this time, demand was at 1,863 escrows, 677 fewer than today. Two years ago it was at 2,701, or 161 additional escrows.

The active listing inventory has remained steady in 2008. In the prior two weeks, the active inventory has dropped by 119 homes to 15,437. We started the year with 14,724 homes, 713 fewer than today, but that was after shedding 1,050 homes in December 2007 with sellers pulling their homes off the market for the holidays. Still, that only represents a 5% increase so far this year compared to a 37% increase in the inventory last year. Two years ago there were 3,481 fewer homes on the market; however, the inventory was growing at an extremely rapid rate in 2006. The inventory had already increased by 65% to this point and it continued to grow by another 34% until reaching its peak of 16,006 homes back in August 2006. Today, the active inventory has steadily remained just under 16,000 homes and appears as if it will continue along that path.

With steadily increasing demand and a stable active inventory, the expected market time has dropped like a rock. Starting this year with a market time of 15.6 months, a deep buyers market, the market time has improved to its lowest mark of the year to date at 6.08 months, a 61% drop. Last year the market time was at 8.33 months and climbing at an alarming rate that would spook any buyer considering purchasing. Two years ago the market time was at 4.43 months and climbing. By the end of June 2006, the market time had blossomed to 6.33 months.

So, it is safe to say that the Orange County housing market has definitely changed gears this year. The lower ranges and the flood of first time buyers are entirely responsible for this change. What changed? The answer is quite simple: the significant drop in prices has allowed buyers that have been sitting on the fence to finally afford to buy once again. After being priced out of the market with rampant appreciation earlier this decade, affordability is finally improving and inviting buyers that have been waiting a long time to finally purchase. Properties priced below $500,000 account for 47% of the entire active inventory and 56% of demand. Last year, this same range accounted for only 26% of the active inventory and demand. Detached homes below $750,000 are actually experiencing a slight sellers market, below the five month mark. The volume of distressed homes in the lower ranges has provided the fuel for the decline in pricing. 77% of all distressed properties are priced below $500,000 and 94% are priced below $750,000. Short sales and foreclosures now make up 36% of the current active inventory versus 35% two weeks ago. There are now 5,576 distressed properties on the market. The overwhelming majority, 81%, are short sales, sellers with loan balances that exceed the current market value and are "subject to lender approval." For short sales, there are currently 4,504 active listings and demand is at 544 escrows. The expected market time is at 8.28 months, dropping from 9.86 months two weeks ago. But, this statistic is extremely misleading, just ask a buyer searching for a home. A large portion of the 4,504 active listings already have secured an offer on the property signed by both the buyer and seller, yet they remain active on the market. The reason is that there is also a signed short sale agreement that allows the seller to continue to actively market their home until formal lender approval occurs. This process takes anywhere from a couple of weeks to months. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing which short sale listings already have an agreed upon offer submitted to the bank other than contacting the listing agent directly for their verbal answer. So, true demand in Orange County is actually understated. The word on the street is that close to 50% of all active short sale listings already have an agreed upon offer submitted to the lender. If those were to be truly changed to "pending escrow" status, the demand count would increase considerably, the inventory would drop and the market time would drop as well. Unfortunately, not all short sales with offers submitted for lender approval are actually approved. Roughly 1 out of 3 are accepted. Many are rejected because they are priced too far under their true market value. With increased demand comes more realistic pricing of short sales. As this year progresses, expect the lender acceptance rate to grow closer to 1 out of 2.

Where's the demand in the upper ranges? The financial crunch is still impacting liquidity in the upper ranges. Demand is off by more than 30% compared to last year for all homes priced above $750,000. Remember, the conventional loan limit and FHA loan limit were both just raised to $729,750. However, there are now three tiers of loan rates: the old conventional loan limit up to $417,000, $417,001 up to the new limit of $729,750 and then $729,751 on up. The original intent was to expand the lower interest rates of conventional loans to higher ranges in areas with much higher prices, like Orange County. Historically, major changes in federally backed loan programs were carefully put together for the better part of a year. This time, the financial industry was given about a month to create and implement a significant change. The credit markets are just now adapting to the new loans. Part of that adaptation is the three tier system. Until the entire secondary market becomes more comfortable with these changes, the discrepancy in interest rates between each tier will be sizeable. There is about a three-quarter point differentiation between each tier. As the market adapts to the new program and liquidity is restored in the financial markets with investors once again purchasing pools of loans, the discrepancy between the tiers will shrink to about a quarter of a point. The experts are predicting that there will be considerable improvement by the end of the third quarter of this year, by the end of the summer. Currently, for loans above $729,750, the interest rates, loan qualifications and down payment requirements are extreme barriers to entry. That does not bode well for homes priced above $800,000, where the rate is approximately 1.5% above the $417,000 rate. This has impacted the upper range dramatically. All ranges above $1 million are experiencing market times above ten months; the higher the range, the higher the expected market time. Not surprisingly, the areas in Orange County that are impacted with market times above ten months are Corona Del Mar, Coto de Caza, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Newport Coast. These areas should all improve by the end of the summer with improvements in the financial markets.

With demand off in the upper ranges by more than 30%, do not be surprised when the media reports a significant year over year drop in the median sales price. With the lower ranges hot and the upper ranges not, the median value will be much lower. The average pending sales price a year ago was at $869,000 compared to $605,000 today. This is partially due to the decline in prices, but it also has a lot to do with a major decline in demand in the upper ranges. For the first three quarters of 2007, prior to the beginning of the financial crunch, the number of sales above $1 million in all of California was only off by 3% compared to the prior year. For homes below $1 million, sales were off by almost 30%. A month after the start of the financial crunch, September of 2007, sales above $1 million were down 26% compared to the prior year. The upper ranges have been impacted ever since. As liquidity is restored in the upper ranges, do not be surprised by an increase in demand in the upper ranges and an increase in the median sales price.

Please feel free to contact THE HOOPER GROUP with any questions or real estate needs at:

(949) 389-7853 or visit www.OCResidence.com.

Mariners Church in Irvine is holding a great seminar designed just for us girls this Friday May 2nd and May 3^rd. Faith in the Market Place. Speakers include: Author Laurie Beth Jones and Pastor Holly Wagner. Breakout topics include:

• Team Building
• Gender Communication
• Mom’s at Work
• Entrepreneur 101
• Value Based Investing
• Get Organized
• Balanced Lives
• I’m too busy to be lonely
• Market Yourself
• Establishing Your Mission & Vision

What a great way to spend the day. Come together, be refreshed and encouraged, through a conference designed just for you addressing the issues that face women everyday.

Enjoy!

Kelly Turbeville is one of South Orange County premier Realtors® focusing in the Saddleback Valley and the communities of Lake Forest, Portola Hills, Foothill Ranch, Trabuco Canyon, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita. It is her passion to help single women navigate their way through the real estate world, whether she’s helping a first time buyer accomplish the goal of homeownership, or coaching a homeowner on how to use their equity to step up into a nice home or use it to buy an investment property or finding exclusive properties for the high end consumer. Kelly is committed to making it happen. So if you’re considering selling or buying a home in Saddleback Valley, call Kelly to schedule a free consultation. Whatever your dream, with Kelly at your side, Its Possible!

The above information is provided as an opinion and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.