Redding, CA

Home inventory is going down and sales activity is going up! That is great news for the Shasta County real estate market. Anything under $200,000 sells...that seems to be where the buyers are. This is primarily due in part to the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit which was recently extended through 2010. For those that waited "until prices come down", their patience was well worth it!

The average days on the market for homes in the Redding, CA area are around 130 days. Almost 50% of our unsold inventory is a foreclosed property or pre-foreclosure (short-sale). Homeowners who have not been able to sell are being challenged by these rock-bottom, foreclosure properties.

Have we hit bottom? It depends who you ask. The local news-reporter will say one thing, while the local real estate agent will say another which will be entirely different from what a home-buyer or home-seller will say. One thing is for sure, it will take many years before we will begin to see double-digit appreciation on home values, California (and Redding for that matter) was out of control. We were past due for some correction and equilibrium of the market. Personally, we're keeping our eyes on unemployment and consumer confidence indexes. It's simple really, low unemployment means confident consumers, which equals more home purchases. The truth is, Redding is still facing double-digit unemployment rates, almost 15% as of October 2009, more than doubled from 2005 numbers when it was 6-7%.

For regular updates on our local market, follow us on twitter or visit our website at ShastaLiving.com.

Thank you for reading! Chris & Maria Jeantet Direct: (530) 510-8880

Experienced Residential Sales & Marketing Realtors

Short Sale Specialists

Helping Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

The senate voted to extend the first time home buyers tax credit and has offered up a move up tax credit to purchasers that have lived in their homes for 5 more years.

Here are the highlights to the new Bill-HR 3548

Trade up buyers that have owned for 5 or more years=up to $6500 credit.

First Timers or anyone that has not owned for 3 or more years=up to $8,000

Buyers MUST sign the purchase agreement by April 30th and close by June 30th 2010!

The credit is phased out for those with incomes above $125k single or $225k for joint filers.

This is a tax credit and not money back.

Looks like a GREAT time to trade up while interest is still low and inventory is high!

Regards

Richard

Search the local Redding Ca MLS

My husband and I are technologists. We were conceived of the world of technology in our days at Apple Computer, Inc. We were ever changed by our experience of working at Apple and have carried away those Values and a innovative perspective in how we see the world.

The Apple perspective was back then and continues to be to this day, customer centric. As software developers for over 20 years in our own software company and now in our Real Estate Business, we use technology to help our clients.

We also love art and have integrated a love of art and photography into our real estate business with the services we offer our clients. I love to continually strive to improve how I do business and to embrace leading edge technology to provide the best services in the Industry. High Dynamic Range photography will become standard as we move forward and video is and will remain king both for the Consumer and SEO.

With the Social Networking scene explosion, we have seen new opportunity to market pervasively and to target niche markets for the Consumer. Identifying buyers that will be interested in our listings offers the future of selling real estate from the listing perspective. With a combination of IDX solutions that help our clients find and learn about the market value and with Localism providing rich, dynamic and diverse hyper-local information, we have taken a huge step in helping the Consumer to move forward in their education of real estate markets and the trending market conditions.

By offering local market reports and supporting specific communities within our local markets, we provide useful information and data that helps our Consumer know more and make informed choices. This information helps our client know where they want to live or understand how their community is changing and generally be smarter. Helping the Consumer on a dynamic level of information management leads us forward in our quest to provide the best real estate services in our Industry.

I am Jeanean Gendron, your Redding and Shasta County Specialist. You can reach me at 530 276-7417. I answer my phone.

Here are the city of Redding and Shasta County demographics and links to the many things available to the people who live The Shasta Lifestyle here in Redding and Shasta County. Enjoy! Shasta County, Land area is 3,785.2 square miles, Density 47.4 people per square mile, versus California Density at 217.2 people per square mile. Population (2006 estimate): 179,951. House Hold Income: Median $37,696, Persons below poverty is 13.4% and Home ownership rate is 66.1%. Education: High School graduates: 83.3% of adults 25 and up. Bachelor’s degree is 16.6% of adults 25+ Redding, population is 90,033 (in 2000), incorporated in 1887. Average temperature in January is 55 and average July temperature is 98.

Information Links for Recreation and County and City Resources: Shasta County: A Guide to Shasta County ~ Shasta County Parks, Trails and Open Space Plan Shasta County Guide to Recreation ~ California State Parks - Shasta Cascade ~ City of Redding Information Center ~ Turtle Bay Museum ~ Redding Convention Center ~ Cascade Theatre Schreder Planetarium ~ Turtle Bay Exploration Park ~ Shasta State Historica Park ~ Sacramento River Trail/Caldwell Park ~ Sacramento River Trail Map Redding Community Services ~ Shasta County Library ~ Shasta Historical Society

Visit my main real estate website that provides you with the ability to Search the MLS and to set up an account so that you can save searches and select favorite properties. I also have many saved searches for you to take advantage of. There are saved City Searches and Community Searches. We also save Foreclosure Listings and Short Sale Listings.

Visit and learn more about The Shasta Lifestyle and the experience of living here in Shasta County.

Here are my blog sites:

Redding Properties and Land

New Homes Shasta County

Redding Elegant Homes

The Redding Golf Lifestyle

Owning Your First Home

Short Sale Help for Sellers

Jeanean Gendron ~ I love Redding and Shasta County, California

530 276-7417

Redding CA Realtors - Real Estate and Life - Where's the Line - Do you have a life other than being a Realtor? There are times when I've had to question whether my work takes over my life or if I have a life other than real estate.

I'd like to do some fly fishing on "The Hat Creek" and "The Sacramento River" here in Redding and Shasta County California. I would like to bake pies for my neighbors who are such good neighbors and friends. I'd like to take a three day weekend and go camping at Lewiston Reservoir. I would like to get my car washed each week. I have taxes to do and so on and so on.

I am fortuate to work with people I like. All my clients and I have connected on some level and enjoy working together. Some times our time together is short and sometimes it is a lifelong friendship.

It comes down to always doing my best for the client. Some times it means taking my client to the hospital after they just moved here and some times it means fighting the bank to get that short sale approval for a Buyer who is a disabled veteran. Putting my client in that perfect home and seeing that smile on their face is my life. Getting a hug and knowing that I helped in a significant way is my life.

Redding CA Realtors - Real Estate and Life - Where's the Line - Well getting some fly fishing and getting my taxes done are needful things indeed.....but overall I would say I have a good life and many clients that are my lifelong friends!

Things are changing on the short sale side of things and you should know about these changes.

Everything we knew about short sales is about to change. Good or bad, it is hard to tell. The government changed things with the "Making Home Affordable" (MHA) program. This program is now being managed by the Treasury and Fannie Mae. It covers more than 85% of mortgage loans, which include loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It also includes FHA loans and loans managed about about 50 major servicers.

It seems to be an attempt by the government to tidy up the short sale process. Having very little faith in the government at this point, however I have my doubts.

• One of the points being made is that there are all those Loss Mitigators out there that need to be trained before it can be implemented.
• Word is that Freddie Mac has been called into service to "audit servicers" files and fine servicers who are not using the new MHA process. WOW some regulation coming from the government. Interesting, however my guess is that for those few banks that are helping the Consumer, it will be a way to stop short sales.
• In the new plan, the Loss Mitagator is the initial point of contact for the Consumer in their search for options in keeping their home. If after all options are explored, then and only then will a short sale be considered.
• The Loss Mitigator will use a net present value formula to determine if the lender/investor will net more from a short sale than from a foreclosure. They say the decision is strictly a financial one. If a short sale is selected for the seller, the seller will continue to list with the listing agent, however the listing price and listing term will be determined by the Loss Mitigator. The servicer/lender must still approve the short sale.
• The servicer/lender can no longer negotiate down the short sale commissions.

This is all very interesting indeed. I wonder where the Loss Mitigator will come to understand local markets, trending marketing conditions and present market value for the property.

Additionally, how will they judge Realtors and Real Estate Agents and their ability to market the property.

All interesting questions. It seems to me that the government has just figured out a way to control more of the real estate market with a plan that let's them determination that more homes should go to foreclosure. Is the real agenda to take away all the homes from all Consumers.

One has to wonder.