Harrison K. Long, REALTOR, Broker, expert negotiator

We see ...

• Drop in home asking prices
• good low 30 year fixed mortgage rates
• government offered homebuyer tax credits

and believe that now is a great time for first time homebuyers in California.

Economist Leslie Appleton-Young at California Assoc. of Realtors predicted again on July 31, 2009, that median price of a California sold house will drop 28.4% this year to $248,000.

Homebuyer affordability is up. Appleton-Young said that the typical monthly house payment today in California is about half of what it was in 2007 ... when typical homebuyers paid $3,300 a month in principal, interest, taxes and insurance.

What this means ~ Now remains to be an excellent time to be a first time homebuyer in California.

• Now is Indeed an Excellent Time to Buy a Home (see article)
• How to Get and Use the First Time Homebuyer Income Tax Credit Money (see article)
• Take Advantage of the $8,000 U.S. Income Tax Credit ~ Buying Your First Home (see article)

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Harrison K. Long, Explore Group, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.

Irvine, California ~ with some of the best residential neighborhoods at Orange County, located near Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Newport Coast, and within a 10 minute drive of the Pacific Ocean at Crystal Cove.

Famous for pleasant weather, Irvine has lots of sunshine, award winning public schools, healthy business climate with good job opportunities, the University of California Irvine, wonderful parks and recreation areas, encouragement for business and development, diverse backgrounds of residents, many locations for recreation and fitness, places for freedom of worship, and is one of the safest cities in the United States.

LOCAL HOUSING MARKET REPORT

600 Irvine homes are now for sale on the market, with 164 homes sold the last thirty days, and 406 homes in pending status.

The large number of pendings (406) vs. active for sale (600) shows that market saturation ~ expected time on market before sale ~ is very low.

Comparing number of homes listed vs. sold this past month, market saturation if 3.6 months.

And comparing number of homes listed vs. sold last 30 days plus pending and in escrow, market saturation drops to less than 40 days.

At current rate of sale of 165 homes during past 30 days (1980 homes per year), Irvine sells 5.42 homes every day.

Of the 600 Irvine homes now for sale, 439 are regular equity listings, with 145 short listings and 16 REO listings.

(Number of REO listings is down).

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What this means is ~

• Buyers and investors have been busy snapping up bargains.
• We need more homes for sale at Irvine to satisfy needs of the buyers.
• There are still good Irvine buyer opportunities.
• Irvine trend appears to be in favor of possible sellers market.

If you want to buy or sell a home at Irvine, California, please contact us. Thanks.

Information Source: Southern California Multiple Listing Service.

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Harrison K. Long, Explore Group, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.

Some good income tax news for employers in the CA state budget 2009 ~ approved by the legislature and signed into law last week.

California companies that do business outside the state were previously required to pay state income tax on the portion of their sales, payroll and property within the state's borders. Tech companies argued this penalizes them for expanding operations in California.

The Legislature agreed to let companies pay state income tax solely on their in-state California sales and not their out of state sales.

The policy behind this is to inspire job growth by lightening the income tax burden on CA state employers for out of state business sales and profits.

See San Jose Mercury News article ~ For Golden State employers, a silver lining in California's new budget.

California businesses deserve this good income tax news, and we hope this change will inspire capital investment in business and job growth in the California den State.

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Harrison K. Long, Explore Group, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.

The Associated Press published an article several days ago ~ Poor leave Calif. at higher rate than rich ~ reported about a new study that showed:

• The poor are more likely to leave California than the rich, despite concerns that the state's relatively high income tax rate is driving away the wealthy.

That's silly. I disagree and don't see any need for such a study. We don't see any particular group leaving California.

• The poorest 20 percent California residents are twice as likely to leave the state as the richest 20 percent.

More silliness from the study.

Our freeways, schools, parks, beaches, airports, buses, hospitals, streets, shopping centers, are all too crowded to convince me that anybody is departing from our Golden State.

We tried without success to get tickets to one of the three California Angels v. Yankees baseball games this past weekend at Anaheim. They were all sold out, and the baseball club could have sold another 100K seats if available.

• California population, now about 37 million, keeps growing because of in-state births and international migration.

Now I can agree on something. The Yankee fans also love California and want to live here too. Even during these challenging economy times, California has so many people living here, and many more who want to live here if they could find a job.

People are in general not leaving California. We continue to have population growth, which is expected to get much higher during the next ten years, and these people will all need places to live.

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Harrison K. Long, Explore Group Properties, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.

www.ExploreTheOC.com

Tustin Ranch, California ~ beautiful residential community located north and adjacent to Irvine.

This is part of The Irvine Ranch and was land preserve until creation of residential communtity in 1986 by The Irvine Company ~ with about 4,000 homes.

Buyer and investor demand for homes at TUSTIN RANCH, CA, has significantly increased recently.

There are now more homes under contract with pending escrow and backup (62 homes) as compared to only 51 homes active for sale at Tustin Ranch.

Increased buyer demand shown by recent sales and pendings is squeezing the regular for sale market at Tustin Ranch, so Realtors and agents simply don't have enough homes to show and sell.

Market saturation (absorption) ~ number of homes sold during past thirty days (17) as compared to current listings (62) ~ TUSTIN RANCH homes on the market should sell within 3.6 months. A balanced market would be 5 to 6 months, so Tustin Ranch is again a HOME SELLER'S MARKET.

For your Tustin Ranch home and property search, click here.

If you have questions about Tustin Ranch and Orange County real estate, please contact us.

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Harrison K. Long, Explore Group Properties, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.

www.ExploreTheOC.com