Dave Roberts

If you have been trying to buy a bank owned home in Sonoma County, it may seem like there aren't as many foreclosed homes on the market as there were in January. As I have written about before, REO houses in Sonoma County at affordable prices are selling fast and the inventory is being drawn down faster than it is being replenished.

The chart on the right illustrates how true that statement is. So far this year, February was the month with the most new REO listings coming on the market, but since then we have averaged less than 60 new bank owned homes per month. May provided us with less than 50 Sonoma County bank owned homes for sale.

This has the inevitable effect of driving up prices for the homes that do make it into the market. For regular homeowners trying to sell their property and banks trying to upgrade the value of properties that may be in foreclosure in the future this price increase is a good thing. For homebuyers struggling to get into their first home, this tight market with rising prices is a nightmare.

There are continuing reports of a vast pipeline of foreclosed properties ready to hit the market. Only time will tell if that new surge in properties materializes. For now, this chart shows the modest and relatively small flow of Sonoma County bank owned homes into the marketplace.

If you can't walk to the corner market for a few groceries, you might be suburban.

If you have never walked to the library, you might live too far from town.

If you can't walk to a nice restaurant and stroll home with your sweetie under a full moon, you might be missing something special.

Healdsburg, my work-base in the wine country, still retains it's original small town charm. We have a plaza where people can congregate for weekly outdoor concerts. There are markets at both ends of town and more shopping in the middle, so people can walk north or south and shop within walking distance of home. There is a real downtown area that's often thronged with people sightseeing, hanging out, or grabbing a meal. It just feels right to be here.

Our real estate office is only a block from the plaza and judging by the number of people who want to grab real estate flyers and brochures, almost everyone is intrigued by the idea of living here as well, Towns and neighborhoods built on a human walking scale are just plain comfortable..

100

This graphic is from the great website, Walkscore.com. Walkscore rates towns based on how many amenities are within walking distance of your location. The link above shows that Healdsburg scored 100 which is a great walkability result. You should visit the WalkScore site and put in your address to see how your town is doing for walkability.

In addition to simple scoring, the site has lots of useful information about walking, quality of life, and the existence of great walkable areas even in cities that aren't known for being friendly to walkers. If you feel at all civically inclined, their front page currently has a walkability link to encourage politicians to support walking, biking, and transit in the 2009 Transportation Bill.

Whether you are rural, subarban, or a city dweller, walking more is good for your health, good for the planet if you're cutting down on driving, and good for your spirit. A brisk walk on a crisp summer morning with the dew still on the grass is refreshing no matter where you are. Even if you just take one fewer driving trip per week, you are doing yourself and the planet a favor.

The famous bank robber, Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks answered simply, "That's where the money is." First time home buyers in Sonoma County and elsewhere need to start the process with the same simple approach. If the questions is "Where should you be looking for a house.", the answer has to be "Where you can afford it."

The first time home buyer faces daunting task

• Wading thorugh vast amounts of unfamiliar paperwork in the purchase process
• Understanding the arcane jargon everybody in the business tosses around casually
• Answering detailed and personal financial questions
• Scraping together a down payment

That's without even talking about locating and inspecting what will be your most valuable asset...and most expensive handcuffs.

I like using map based search tools on my sites since locations to schools, parks, roads, and other amenities are much clearer with maps. There's still something to be said for other ways of presenting information. I produced this recent chart of average Sonoma County REO prices by city as a guide for first time buyers thinking about purchasing an REO property in Santa Rosa, Windsor, Rohnert Park or any of the other cities where REO properties represent good values.

This is very useful for helping buyers of foreclosed homes in Sonoma County understand the cities where they are likely to be able to afford a home. When you are ready to start looking at some active listings that reflect this type of value, my REO.Sonoma.net site is always updated with real time REO listings and lists of Sonoma County foreclosed homes by city.

Yesterday, June 15, 2009, was the start of a new program in California called the California Foreclosure Prevention Act. The main goal of this legislation was to encourage mortgage loan servicers to be more aggressive with their loan modification efforts to try to keep people in their homes. There is an additinoal 90 day period between the Notice of Default and the Notice of Sale in which the lender and homeowner can work out a loan modification. The law was passed in February but is just going into effect now.

There's a lot of confusion in the public about the full scope of what this law really does. I found a great article by David Gibbs, an attorney in San Clemente, California explaining this bill in detail and laying out a great timetable explaining the new process. I'm reproducing his timetable here, but encourage you to visit the original article and get all the details about this new law.

Most of my plant posts are on my sonoma blog site, but the buckeye is interesting and prevalent enough that I wanted to share this with the AR audience. Ohio is the Buckeye state, of course, but buckeyes occur over much of North America. In California we have Aesculus californica, the only native buckeye to the state. It's also called a horse chestnut by many people.

This is a shrub or small tree for the most part, although it can grow to almost 35 feet tall. From my point of view as a frequent driver of backroads the spectacular impression the blooming buckeye makes is its most important characteristic. The flowers are big, abundant, fragrant, and striking against the green foliage of the tree. It's hard to miss these, and most people driving around California this time of year are presented with great displays from these broadly dispersed trees.

The other claim to fame for the buckeye comes from the adaptation to the California climate, More natives can handle the dry weather with their foliage intact, but the buckeye blooms early and loses its leaves before any other trees in the natural landscape. There are whole hillsides that look dead by the end of the summer, but it's just the buckeyes biding their time until they can put on another spectacular display near the end of May and beginning of June.

There's more information about the fish stunning power of the poisonous fruit and the ways the native Americans processed these for food, but you can google that. I just wanted to introduce you to this wonderful tree you may have passed many times, but never known about.