Kristin Hamilton CDPE, SFR, CHS Realtor Redlands/ Loma Linda Homes for Sale, CA

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Clowns at Cal State San Bernardino? You Betcha!

The Cal State San Bernardino University is hosting the second annual “California Clown Campin” event throughout the week, offering classes in subjects from "Ventriloquism for Dummies" to "Pie Fight Theory."

This residential training camp, which celebrates National Clown Week, attracts campers from all over the country.

Date: Friday August 5, 2011

Location: The training camp with the International Clown Extravaganza in the Student Union Theater.

Time: Doors open at 6:15 p.m; Starts at 7:00 p.m..

Cost: Tickets are $10 each or $25 for a family pack of four.

These clowns take their business seriously. Enjoy the fun! The public is invited to see all types of clowning around.

Pictures in this article are from the 1^st Annual California Clown Campin in 2010.

Bring the family and come and enjoy the fun. National Clown Week celebrates with the public Friday August 5, 2011.

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PENDING SALES Tiptoeing Up…Real Estate Recovery

The number of contracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly rose in June as buyers tried to take advantage of lower prices and borrowing costs. The Real Estate Recovery trend is on the upswing nationwide.

PENDING SALES UP!

The 2.4 percent rise in the index of pending home resale’s followed an 8.2 percent May gain, The National Association of Realtors said Thursday in Washington, DC.

Estimates for Pending Home Sales ranged from a drop of 5 percent to an increase of 8 percent, according to 39 forecasts in the Bloomberg survey. Pending sales rose 17 percent from June 2010. Pending home sales increased in June following a wide swing down in April and then up in May, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Pending sales climbed 6.4 percent in the West and 4.4 percent in the South. They fell 3.7 percent in the Midwest and 0.4 percent in the Northeast.

Thursday's report showed a 90.9 index level for pending home sales on a seasonally adjusted basis. A reading of 100 is consistent with the average level of contracts in 2001, when record-keeping began, and coincides with "historically healthy" home-buying traffic, according to the NAR.

Thursday, Lawmakers had been urged to act quickly to find a workable solution, given the short time left, to take this step and not put the credit rating of the United States in jeopardy.

David Stevens, chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement last Thursday that "the likely impact to the financial markets, interest rates and to every family in America will be costly if the ceiling was not raised.

This Tuesday August 2, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bipartisan bill on raising the nation's debt limit into law, hours before the federal government runs out of borrowing capacity, ending a month-long perilous stalemate.

"It's an important first step to ensuring that as a nation we live within our means. Yet it also allows us to keep making key investments in things like education and research that lead to new jobs, and assures that we're not cutting too abruptly while the economy is still fragile," Obama told reporters

See the Pending Sales index published July 28, 2011 by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

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GOOD NEWS-Road to Recovery; Sales & Warm Weather Helping July Sales Nationwide!

Retailers are expecting to report higher sales for July, a discount-driven month that may do little to lift their margins. The sales statistics nationwide are tied to the Real Estate Recovery also. When the economy improves, it is a trend from Real Estate, Retailer Recovery, and Lower Unemployment trends which should help keep more companies and homeowners out of Bankruptcy Court.

July sales figures will give investors an early read on demand in the consumer-driven U.S. economy at the start of the back-to-school season, the second-biggest selling period of the year after Christmas.

Retail chains ranging from Target Corp to Saks Inc will report closely watched sales at stores open at least year on Wednesday and Thursday. “Wal-Mart” and “Best Buy” do not report monthly.

Analysts are expecting same-store sales to show a 4.1 percent rise for July, compared with a year-earlier increase of 2.8 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

"The hot weather has certainly helped drive people into malls and helped clear out summer seasonal merchandise at issue, but will the retailers be able to sell their merchandise at full price in the back-to-school season.

It is not uncommon for retailers to offer discounts in July as they try to clear store shelves for back-to-school merchandise. Some investor’s worry that the discounting may have been deeper than usual and could weigh on margins.

The back-to-school selling season has important implications as consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, which barely grew in the first half of 2011.

If the rise continues, it is a clear indication that the economy is improving. This is very GOOD NEWS indeed!

Hopefully we are on the upward swing to Real Estate recovery! $$$

BofA Donates Then Demolishes Houses to Cut Glut of Foreclosures

Bank of America Corp., faced with a glut of foreclosed and abandoned houses it can’t sell, has a new tool to get rid of the most decrepit ones: a bulldozer. The biggest U.S. mortgage servicer will donate 100 foreclosed houses in the Cleveland area and in some cases contribute to their demolition in partnership with a local agency that manages blighted property. Cali Carlin reported on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)

Click here to watch the video.

Click here to read “Bloomberg” article.

Click here to read “The Atlantic” article.

Click here to read “4closure Fraud” article.

It saves the banks money and helps to eliminate excess housing inventory, but is it really good for the economy? I am just so surprised as there are REO agent’s all over the county who could sell these homes and help to stabilize the neighborhoods. I sell REO’s and I have had some really awful ones but they sold and were fixed up. It was a win-win situation with the bank and the buyer. They are spending $7500 to pay for demolition but they could sell it cheap and pay less in closing costs than the $7500. I guess the cities are happy with them removing these dilapidated old houses. I am really surprised. Are we being replaced with bulldozers???