California Statewide Housing News

California Senate passes mortgage default warning bill
[L.A. Times - Business]
The first major bill designed to help prevent more home foreclosures in California won final passage from the state Senate on Wednesday and was sent to the governor, who was expected to sign the measure into law.
The legislation, which passed on a 32-8 vote, would require lenders to give homeowners more -- and earlier -- warnings that their home loans were heading toward default. The bill, SB1137, would take effect immediately once it had the signature of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Survey: Loan changes lag foreclosures in California
[editor@mercurynews.com (Alex VeigaAssociated Press)]
A survey of non-profit mortgage counseling agencies in California suggests more homeowners are losing their homes to foreclosure than receiving loan modifications and other payment workarounds from lenders.

Freefall: California median home prices down 35% in May

May 2008 home sales and price trends
[SacBee -- Real Estate News]
Data for resale single-family detached homes that closed escrow.

Northern California Housing Roundup

Prudential Shuts Down Offices In Expensive Marin County
[The Real Estate Bloggers]

Massive Lennar Project Misses Out on State Funding
[NewsGator: Keyword search for landsource]
Lennar intends to appeal a decision by state officials in Calfornia to reject a $25 million grant proposal by the city of San Francisco that the builder could have tapped for its massive Hunters Point redevelopment project there.

Yuba, Sutter suffer most
[SacBee -- Business]
Builders started 141 single-family homes, condominiums and apartments in the two counties from January through May. That's 77.2 percent fewer than the 619 begun during the same time last year, the CBIA reported.

Southern California July Housing News

Stealth Growth for LA?
Even as the Related Cos. moves into overdrive on its massive, high-profile Frank Gehry-led redevelopment of Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, a South Florida developer is hoping to bring off its own ambitious apartment complex redevelopment plan in a low-profile LA submarket: the $2 billion makeover of the 70-acre Wyvernwood Garden Apartments, east of downtown, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood.

Valley Foreclosures Soar 242%

Foreclosures skyrocketed 242 percent across the San Fernando Valley during May amid continued weak sales, factors that pushed prices down to levels not seen in four years, according to two reports released Thursday.

Big Calif. land bankruptcy won’t hit Lennar’s O.C. plans
[O.C. Register]
Lennar’s Aliso Viejo office, home to the Miami-based builder’s West Coast operations, played a role in arranging the bankruptcy filing of major California land owner LandSource. But LandSource’s woes should not impact Lennar’s plans for El Toro and Tustin airbases in O.C.

July Housing Trends

The Housing Abyss
[BusinessWeek]
Why the worst may be yet to come as forces battering the market gain strength. And the remedy coming from Congress? It's likely to fall short of the mark.

Exisiting Home Sales Fall 15.9%
[The Big Picture] [Barry Ritholtz]
• Resales increased 2% to a 4.99 million annual rate (4.89 million pace in April)
• Median existing house price dropped 6.3% from May 2007
• Sales were down 16% versus May 2000.
• About one-third of total sales last month were “short sales'' that reflected foreclosures or distressed properties;
• Banks repossessed twice as many homes in May as in the same month last year;
• Inventory of unsold homes at the end of May fell 1.4% to 4.49 million;
• Mortgage Bankers Association's index of loan applications to purchase homes fell last week to the lowest level in more than five years.

Harvard on Housing
[BusinessWeek: Hot Property]
Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies came out with its annual snapshot of the housing industry this week and it is bleak. The report, the university’s 20th, calls this the worst housing downturn in a generation.

Public pension fund executives are pushing ahead with investments...
Public pension fund executives are pushing ahead with investments aimed at revitalizing urban areas in their backyards despite the political risks that come with pursuing non-financial goals. Sponsors of a recent Harvard Law School/Oxford University conference on “Pension Funds: Investing to Build Strong and Sustainable Communities,” said their data suggest growing momentum for such “economically targeted investing.”

July Mortgage Markets

Fannie, Freddie Fail to Relieve Jumbo Loan Pressure
Instead of using powers granted by Congress to buy jumbo loans for the first time, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are purchasing their own mortgage-backed securities, helping reduce losses, company filings show. The large loans, above $417,000, made up almost a third of the U.S. market last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Second-Largest New England City Seeks Foreclosure Moratorium
[Housing Wire]
City officials in Worcester, Massachusetts have asked state lawmakers to give them immediate local authority to halt subprime foreclosures for six months, limit evictions and force a judicial review of foreclosures.

The rate of option ARM delinquencies is already spiking
[BusinessWeek: Hot Property]
The next wave of foreclosures is expected to gather strength when the million or so option ARMs start resetting in large numbers next spring. But it seems that many of these loans, which allow borrowers to make minimum payments that don’t even cover the accrued interest, are already going delinquent.

Questions Over FHA Down Payment Assistance Programs Hit Mainstream
[Housing Wire]
Industry participants that have been around for some time are likely familiar with the ongoing debate over seller-funded down payment assistance programs, a Federal Housing Administration program that allows borrowers to get into a home for little — if any — money down. The program has become nearly the last bastion of zero-down, only-$500-puts-you-into-a-home! lending for borrowers with damaged credit in the wake of the subprime mortgage meltdown, and it’s one that has some government officials very worried.

US-Backed Mortgage Program Fuels Risk
[WSJ]
Mortgages that allow consumers to put little if any money down when buying a home have largely disappeared as a financing option available from private lenders. But they are still available -- and growing more popular -- through a government-backed program.