Linsey Planeta - Your 'OC Real Estate Voice'

Recently Jonathon Lansner posted a podcast that he did with Steven Thomas of Altera Real Estate. Great information whether you are a buyer or seller in Orange County. Mr. Thomas posts his Market Time Report every two weeks and continues to be an excellent resource for analysis on Orange County real estate.

If you are sizing up a purchase or sale, looking for an opinion on 'the bottom', this is worth 13 minutes.

Originally posted on OC Real Estate Voice.

After years in this business, my husband has learned a few realities about my business:

1. "I just have to return this one phone call." Translation: 30 minutes and several phone calls.
2. "I just have to run down to my office and shoot out a quick email." Translation: 20 + minutes in the office.
3. "I'll be in my office catching up for just a bit." Sadly the translation: I'll be in bed about an hour after you.

Consequently, he has affectionately referred to my home office as, 'The Black Hole.' I have three children so he certainly appreciates the fact that I get things done when I have time and unfortunately, that isn't always 9 to 5. This week, something fun came out of 'The Black Hole' that I'm excited to launch: My Las Flores hyperlocal community blog.

After working in the Orange County community of Las Flores for several years, I began to rethink the methods for marketing. Since the launch of OC Real EstateVoice, I knew my business was headed in a profoundly new direction. I knew that consumers were looking for information about a community (listings, trends, values) not just another, 'Look what I sold!' marketing piece from an agent. Hence, the birth of the My Las Flores site.

I've got a couple tweeks to make as of yet - the video has to be redone. It's excruciatingly long and I made the video on garbage day with garbage cans out on every street. Bad news, so this will be my project for the coming weekend. But overall, I like the direction it's heading in.

Every now and then I emerge from 'The Black Hole' and something satisfyingly 'tangible' is born. This is one of those weeks. :)

Originally posted on OC Real Estate Voice.

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan was recently released. It attempts to address some of the issues that the current housing market is struggling with and I have been through some of the details and as it currently is written, I'm disappointed.

Near the end of December last year I posted the article about about the top 10 worst housing markets in the country, according to CNN. Unfortunately, 8 out of 10 were in the state of California. Now keep in mind, California is a massive factor in our national economy. Our Gross Domestic Product is larger than all but 8 countries in the world. You will not fix this housing crisis if you don't address the state of California.

The plan that came out has one elemental problem (there are others but this one is a deal breaker) - it only applies to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac backed loans. Translation: if the loan is over $417,000, no deal.

Let's examine this just a bit. In most parts of Orange County, in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, you couldn't get much more than a very small condo for $417,000. You couldn't buy a single family home in most parts of Orange County for under $600,000. The people that are most at risk are the people that purchased during that period of time- and the big Affordability Plan - doesn't apply to them.

Look at the numbers for the big California markets - Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area - it doesn't change. So call me crazy, but I don't get it.

Hell, I'm happy for the folks in the midwest that this has an impact on. I'm happy for the people that will benefit from it. But I'm not sure this solves the problem at hand.

You can solve this for the folks in Kansas, but if you leave out 8 out of 10 of the worst housing markets in the country, are you really addressing core of the problem? Just sayin'.

Originally posted on OC Real Estate Voice.

Las Flores is not unlike many communities these days in Orange County. We are plagued by low demand and a good deal of short sale inventory. Short sales are when the encumbrances/loans against the property are higher than today's market value plus costs of sale.

Currently we have 19 Active Listings in Las Flores. Of that inventory, we have no bank owned homes presently and 8 homes, or 42% of the inventory, are short sales.

Consumers that have actively been looking understand the challenges today with short sales and unless they are very attractively priced, they generally shy away from them. Consequently the short sales are forced to price themselves very aggressively which has the unfortunate side effect of a downward pull on pricing in the neighborhood. The average Days on Market is 105 days for the active market.

Currently there are 6 homes in escrow - 2 bank owned homes and 4 traditional, equity sellers. The average days on market for the homes in escrow is 41 - which helps to illustrate the buyer demand today. They are focusing heavily on properties that they can close.

There were only 2 homes that closed escrow in the last 30 days in Las Flores. One was a bank owned home. The demand for this distress inventory in the under $500,000 range remains high all over Orange County. The bank owned home sold for 101.54% of original list price.

The other closed sale was a short sale that listed at the end of August last year. The sale price was 84.9% of the original list price.

As always, if you have questions about your individual situation, current values, or neighborhood trends, I am always here to help. If you are considering buying a home in Las Flores, please visit the Search For Homes page for all the Las Flores homes currently available and let me know if you have questions