KingsburghomeBlog

Nationally, housing prices have bottomed and are on the rise.   Same here in Kingsburg.  The average PSF (price per square foot) is almost dollar for dollar what it was one year ago this month, which is right at $113-115 PSF.  What makes the difference in the market is the low inventory of existing home sales ….. still low at 31 for April, and how quickly these homes are selling; average of 58 DOM (days on market).  Supply and demand; works every time.  Supply goes down and demand goes up!

The list of Kingsburg pre-foreclosures, foreclosures and auction properties remains about the same as over the past 4 to 5 months.  Remember, if you are interested in getting into the investor market, our Bulls Eye Investor Team is here to help. So far we have taken 5 clients to the auction in Fresno and assisted them in their purchase of investment properties.  We do all the research and hand-hold our clients throughout the process.  This is a great way to obtain property at a good price, before it hits the MLS and goes public.

An interesting article in the Drudge Report this week:  “The Government Accountability Office just completed its study of a study ordered by the Pentagon into studies ordered by the Pentagon.   In 2010, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was interested in the growing number of studies at the Pentagon and their costs so he ordered a study of the studies.”  What??  Can’t make this stuff up folks …… your tax dollars at work!

Remember the Swedish Festival this weekend.  Lots going on with the season opening of the Farmer’s Market on Thursday at 5:00 with pea soup/pancake dinner,  the Smorgasbord Friday night at 5:30, the Swedish Pancake breakfast Saturday morning starting at 7:00 am, the Dala horse Trot early Saturday, the Grand Parade at 10:30 and of course, arts, crafts and food vendors set up throughout the day.

 We also are privileged to have visiting our town this weekend, the Jenkins Family Reunion, which is made up of survivors of World War II and the USS Jenkins.  There will be a free concert in the park on Saturday night featuring the Sons of the San Joaquin performing a lot of patriotic songs in honor of these wonderful men.

Be sure to visit our booth to pick up your FREE Vote cloth grocery bag, provided by Kingsburg Insurance, New Era Financial and The Housing Connection.  The purpose of the exercise is to encourage everyone who is of age, to speak out and vote in the upcoming election. 

Please feel free to call us if you have any questions regarding the real estate market or lending.  We are here to help!

March started off like a lion and ended up like a quiet little kitten! Low inventory, quick sales and some small bidding wars sort of looked like it might be the beginning of a real estate recovery. However, overall, the March numbers ended up worse than February numbers. By the end of the month, inventory was back up to 29 homes For Sale as opposed to only 16 at the end of February. There were 12 Sold properties in February and that number dropped down to only 7 for March. We’re still trying to figure out what happened. Accept that the phones have started ringing again, we’re very busy and that’s a wonderful thing.
Look for our exciting new video blog starting next month. We have been working diligently to provide a much needed service to the community of Kingsburg regarding events that are happening. Not just like the Car Show coming up on the 21th, but little bits of interesting things; such as where is the downtown Dala Horse and what’s happening to the water tower otherwise known as the Coffee Pot?
Speaking of the Car Show, it’s scheduled for April 21st from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm and is brought to you by the Kingsburg District Chamber of Commerce. Friday night festivities include a Cruise Night with The Beach Band performing at 6:30 …. all in downtown Kingsburg on Draper Street.
Please feel free to call us if you have any questions regarding the real estate market or lending. We are here to help!

Baby boomers are becoming seniors at the phenomenal rate of 10,000 per day or 80 million people per year. By 2020, 80 million people in the U.S. will be 65 or older. Many will uproot to flee ice storms and frost heaves (not here in Kingsburg), move closer to the kids and grandkids, or seek gated retirement communities for security and social activities.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, The percentage of people who changed residences between 2010 and 2011 – 11.5 percent – was the lowest recorded rate since 1948. But again, studies show that the economic and population indicators don’t take into account the pent-up demand of families who have “doubled” up in this current recession. When the economy does improve and the glut of foreclosed homes lessens, the senior market and all those baby boomers will become a boon to the real estate industry.
Speaking of a glut of foreclosed homes, we still have not seen the predicted wave of distressed homes hitting the Kingsburg market. Our indicators show that they are looming on the horizon, just haven’t made it to the street level yet. The new stimulus bill is intended to keep homeowners from losing their homes, so we will see how this one plays out in the next several months.
As you can see in the CMA (comparative market analysis) to the right of this blog, our inventory of available homes for sale in Kingsburg continues to drop each month. November we had 37 available, December was 36, January was 28 and February dropped way down to a whopping 16. We Sold 12 homes in January and 12 in February, traditionally very slow months in the real estate industry. Business is good!
Don’t forget the 18th Annual Car Show scheduled for April 21st from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm brought to you by the Kingsburg District Chamber of Commerce. Friday night festivities include a Cruise Night with The Beach Band performing at 6:30 …. all in downtown Kingsburg on Draper Street.
Please feel free to call us if you have any questions regarding the real estate market or lending. We are here to help!

February has been a busy month for the national housing market. In a nut shell:
1. February 1st, President Obama announced details of a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages to the tune of somewhere between $5 billion & $10 billion. Also included in this plan is a pilot program to transition bank owned properties into rental housing. What???? The government as a landlord? And what happened to the HARP money, the HAFA money and the HAMP money? We have not seen any of these programs benefit borrowers, buyers nor sellers down here in the trenches.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) question why this program would work when others have failed. He asked reporters:
“One more time? One more time? How many times have we done this? I don’t know why anyone would think that this is next idea is going to work.”
2. February 9th, President Obama announced that a $26 billion foreclosure settlement with five of the largest home lenders. California is to receive $12 billion in principal write-downs, including short sales over the next 3 years.
But don’t hold your breath just yet, because the rules only apply to the big five banks and don’t apply to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae loans.
Anyone interested in reading the full article from CNN, just click on this link: CNN Money Article . With all this said the Short Sale and full Foreclosures are here to stay for a while. It does amount to about 80% of the current sales, even here in Kingsburg.
As you can see by the CMA to the right of this post, the January inventory keeps dropping and now sits at 28 Active listings. To put that in perspective, last January we had 45 of Active listings. We had 12 homes close escrow this past month, which is a really good number for January. DOM (days on the market) and Price per square foot continue to drop, the last one due to the foreclosures.
Please feel free to call us if you have any questions regarding the real estate market or lending. We are here to help!

News from the National level strikes a familiar cord here in Kingsburg.
From Reuter news comes interesting facts that 1/3 of first time home buyers received either a large gift for their down payment or a loan from families to finance home purchases. The mortgage side of our business is seeing a lot of financing help from the “bank of Mom and Dad”.
From the New York Times an article sites that the Federal Reserve and Freddie Mac will maintain long-term interest rates through 2012. I wonder if an election year has anything to do with that decision.
And last but not least ……. CNN Money is reporting that FHA has waived their anti-flipping regulations in an effort to help stabilize the housing market. Now investors can purchase that distressed piece of property, rehab it and sell it on the FHA market. Maybe this waiver will help with some of those Shadow Properties we talked about last month that are expected this spring.
Now on with the housing market here in Kingsburg. In recapping and comparing the sales from 2010 to 2011, the numbers do show that our market here has stabilized somewhat as I have been stating for the past 6 months. In 2010 we had 101 sales and in 2011 we had 126 sales. Even the December 2011 numbers were good compared to most markets during the holidays. Inventory of available homes for sale still continues to stay low right at about 40 listings, give or take a few. Compared to a few years ago, we typically had 85 to 100 Active properties on the market.
The launch of our new “Bullseye Investor” services has been very well received. If you are interested in learning more about investment properties here locally, visit our new website at www.bullseyeinvestors.com or call us at 897-4077 and we’ll be glad to create a profile just for you.
All of us here at The Housing Connection and New Era Financial wish you and your family the very best in 2012!

The latest buzzwords in the real estate industry are …… Shadow Properties. These are bank owned/foreclosure properties that are looming on the horizon.
Following are the national REO (real estate owned) statistics:
1,600,000 homes are currently owned by lenders/banks
3,600,000 mortgages are delinquent and at risk of foreclosure
14,000,000 mortgages are at 125% or greater LTV (loan to value) than the actual home value
Here in Kingsburg we are currently looking at 12 homes pending short sale approval by the Seller’s lender. Since we only sold a total of 10 homes and almost all of them were distressed, the percentage of short sales and foreclosures is pretty high. With the above statistics of Shadow Properties, it looks like we will continue to see the same for a while. You can see by the CMA (comparative market analysis) for the month of November, our numbers are stayin pretty close to the same as previous months.
What an opportunity. NOW is the time to buy! We are seeing some great deals and awesome mortgage interest rates. In fact, it is actually less costly to buy than to rent.
We would like to extend our very best wishes for a Very Merry Christmas. We ask that you take the time to remember those here in our great little town that are less fortunate. KCAPS is in need of donations and sponsors to adopt a family for Christmas. If you are able, please give. Thank you and God Bless.

According to a recent article in the Consumer News and Advice the past several weeks have showcased numerous signals that the real estate market is on the rise. Briefly, these signals include 15% rise in housing start, a surge in builder confidence, an increase in mortgage applications and regional market improvements across the country. Curiously, the weakest market, nationwide, is Bakersfield, California where foreclosures have been a huge problem. The articles wrap up with these words of assurance; while prices aren’t on the upswing in many places, at least they’re not expected to fall that rapidly in the coming year.
Thankfully, we’ve been experiencing a stabilization of the market here in Kingsburg for about a year now.
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EXSITING NEWS! Look for our new venture that will be launched sometime early in January. Our “Bull’s-eye Investor Team” is a pre-screened foreclosure service that will connect local investors to local distressed property. Flipping, rentals, private funds, joint venture; we’ll offer it all!
The CMA (comparative market analysis) to the right of this post still shows our market here in Kingsburg is relative flat. We currently have 38 homes on the market as compared to 43 at the end of September. Our DOM (days on the market) for SOLD properties went up in October to 113 days. We closed escrow on 8 properties in October and in September we closed 15 transactions. So again this month as last month, some of the numbers are good, some not so good.
Leonard, I and our Staff wish everyone a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving with wishes that you are surrounded by your loved ones, whether they are family or friends.