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A Fresno broker is using West Nile virus and green pools to sell homes.
Talk about spin.
From the Blogging Broker blog:
Help beautify Fresno by purchasing a home with a green pool through Lazarus Realty. I will *pay for the cost of draining, cleaning and refilling the pool. When complete you...
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Reporter Vanessa Gregory headed up to Tehachapi this morning to catch up with residents of Alta Estates.
The developer of their new subdivision, Empire Land (aka Prestige Homes and numerous other entities) filed for bankruptcy April 25. The Ontario homebuider's attorney told us the company will...
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Here's a "raw report" press release from the state's Department of Housing and Community Development:
CalHome Program Workshop to be Held in Visalia
Sacramento, CA – California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) will hold a workshop in Visalia on Wednesday,...
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map to find Snowdrop Drive and Rose Petal Street. (Homes on those streets recently sold.) We’ve done the work for you.
The map is updated with homes that sold in Bakersfield from March 17 to March 23, color-coded by sales...
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Comments [2] - Views [64]
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Financial blogs in the big city can use more exciting terms, but here at the family paper let's just say we've got charts.
Kern County foreclosures and defaults. In April 2008, they set new records again.
These are from the county recorder's office, and you can enjoy the PDF files by clicking...
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Lawyers should do OK in the real estate bust if the Dunmore Homes bankruptcy is any indication. The Sacto developer's downfall (it has turned into a liquidation case) has created a nasty swamp of legal action.
Small companies, however — including many in Bakersfield — have ...
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Today's quote:
"Senators come and go. Presidents come and go. The lobbyist has been there for 20 years."
--J.R. Lewis, an agent with Scott Tobias Real Estate, expaining the benefits of professional political help to a room full of newbie Realtors
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Real estate agent David Crisp’s former mansion sold Friday for $1.2 million, according to the Bakersfield Multiple Listing Service, which indexes properties for sale.
The sale price was $500,000 lower than what Crisp, 28, paid for the 6,666-square-foot Seven Oaks home less than three years...
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Pebble Beach Drive and Anchor Island Court. (Homes on those streets recently sold.)
We’ve done the work for you here.
This map is updated with homes that sold in Bakersfield from March 10 to...
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Tucked at the bottom of today's California Association of Realtors' press release was a tidbit about none other than Ridgecrest.
Median home prices there rose 7.6 in March compared to the same month a year ago, putting the city in the top 10 statewide for communities that saw increases, rather...
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New-home construction stayed slow statewide in March, the California Building Industry Association reported this morning.
The report noted a 65 percent drop in permits pulled this March compared to a year ago.
And the first quarter, with a 61 percent year-to-year decline, was particularly rough...
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John D. Reynen of Reynen & Bardis Communities Inc. filed for Chapter 11 (personal) bankruptcy today.
Read more here.
Reynen & Bardis has 8 or so projects in Kern, mostly in metro Bako and Wasco, and mostly in trouble. One Wasco community has been left with partially constructed homes...
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Bakersfield appraiser Gary Crabtree released a report with some housing market statistics for the first quarter of 2008, broken down by ZIP code. (Click on the blue icon to see the PDF report.)
The house price statistics are given by mean, rather than median, so that's not ideal.
But this is...
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Comments [13] - Views [334]
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Loon and Memory courts. (Homes on those streets recently sold.) We’ve done the work for you.
This map is updated with homes that sold in Bakersfield March 1 to March 9, color-coded by sales...
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No surprise here: state foreclosures levels hit their highest mark in 15 years last quarter, Dataquick reported this morning.
Here's the beef:
Lending institutions sent homeowners 113,676 default notices during the January-to-March period. That was up by 39.4 percent from 81,550 the...
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Update April 23rd. Spoke with the Temple Manager yesterday. He has not finalized the paperwork and sent it to the State yet to complete the rental. Apparently I mislead with the original post. It is not a "trial" but a HEARING by the Real Estate Board.
...
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The idea of families being thrown into the street with all their worldly possessions strewn along the path is a tragic event regardless of the underlying circumstances. What happens to those with no friends or relatives with whom they can live? How will they find even temporary shelter or a place...
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I got an e-mail this morning from Jon Vaughn, a Bakersfield real estate agent who attended Tuesday night's auction of more than 80 bank-owned (foreclosure) homes.
I wrote about auctions for Monday's paper, and I thought you guys might be interested in hearing Vaughn's impression of the event....
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This week, Lennar will be served with a big lawsuit from almost 90 Bakersfield homeowners alleging defective construction in new northwest neighborhoods.
Click here for the article; you can download the complaint if you're so inclined:
It's not the only such lawsuit filed in Kern after...
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An opulent Seven Oaks home, one of the most recognizable symbols of real estate agent David Crisp’s rise and fall, was listed for sale Monday for $1.17 million.
Crisp paid $1.7 million for the home less than three years ago.
Details and photos of the home's interior are here.
The bank...
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Comments [8] - Views [267]
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Crescent Ridge Street and Meadow Ridge Avenue. (Homes on those streets recently sold.) We’ve done the work for you.
See the map here.
This map is updated with homes that sold in Bakersfield...
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Comments [1] - Views [48]
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Monterey Beach or Schooner Beach drives. (Homes on those streets recently sold.) We’ve done the work for you.
See the map here.
This map is updated with homes that sold in...
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Comments [16] - Views [100]
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Bakersfield appraiser Gary Crabtree released his preliminary housing market report last Thursday. Sorry it's late, folks; I was off Friday.
The quick summary:
-Bakersfield home sales were up 9.6 percent in March compared with the same month in 2007, Crabtree writes.
-The median sales price was...
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It's kinda remarkable how much money is evaporating from failed mortgages.
We counted about $2.1 million gone -- poof -- one day last week from Kern County foreclosures alone.
Imagine that expanded to include all the troubled markets around the country. Imagine that happening every business...
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Click on the blue icons and check out the CRAZY purple lines on these graphs.
Foreclosures were at a record-high again in March, according to the latest statistics from the Kern County Recorder’s office.
The county recorded 638 property foreclosures last month — a tally exceeding...
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Oops. I inserted a table and I can't
make it go away!!
LIUNA, the Laborers International Union of North America,...
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Barbara and Sally avenues. (Homes on those streets recently sold.) We’ve done the work for you.
See the map here.
This map is updated with existing homes that sold in Bakersfield Feb. 11...
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Comments [0] - Views [468]
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The national morning show "Good Morning America" aired a brief interview this morning with Lynnette Madden, an agent with Watson-Touchstone Real Estate.
Countrywide Financial Corp. suspended Madden's home equity line of credit in early February, citing falling home values as the cause....
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More chart fun! (Click on the blue rectangle)
Bakersfield appraiser Gary Crabtree just sent a chart of local home price trends after reading coverage of the recent economic summit.
Just follow the red line's sharp decline....I guess that's a 45 degree angle rather than a real nosedive. Still.
...
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Okay, real estate and econ junkies.
On Tuesday, I interviewed Los Angeles economist Christopher Thornberg, who spoke at yesterday's county economic summit. Excerpts of our conversation were printed in the Californian.
But if you're interested in hearing everything from our interview —...
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This morning's chart fun (click on the blue thing) is another trend analysis from residential appraiser and statistics devotee Gary Crabtree.
Current price per square foot in a Bakersfield single family home is hovering around $140, according to Crabtree.
At one point, it was up at more than...
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The Bakersfield business big shots were out in force this morning for the annual Kern County Economic Summit, held at the Doubletree Hotel near Rosedale Highway and Highway 99.
Recession was much-talked about, which I cover in a piece for tomorrow's paper.
Some other tidbits from the event:
...
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Tomorrow I'm scheduled to do a Q & A with Dr. Christopher Thornberg, a UCLA Anderson Forecast alumni and expert on market forces and regional economies.
He's coming to town on Wednesday to speak at the Kern County Economic Summit. His talk is titled "Peering Over the Edge: Real Estate...
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Comments [9] - Views [94]
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Lorelei Rock Drive or Pheasant Avenue. (Homes on those streets recently sold.)
We’ve done the work for you in this map.
The map is updated with homes that sold in Bakersfield Feb. 1 to Feb....
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Comments [14] - Views [222]
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In case you missed it Sunday, we ran an update on City in the Hills:
http://www.bakersfield.com/...
We hired an airplane for overhead photos. While we had a photographer up there, we shot some other sites around Bako as well (McAllister Ranch, for one). Look for those shots in...
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Sacto developer Reynen & Bardis defaulted on a $35 million construction loan Tuesday.
Here's the story link, including links to previous coverage:
http://www.bakersfield.com/...
At the moment this is our top-read story online...hmm...which...
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Comments [0] - Views [32]
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Sales of new homes in California dropped 62 percent in January compared to the year before, an industry group reported today.
It's a difference of 2,679 new homes this year vs. 7,109 in January 2007.
The numbers come from the California Building Industry Association/Hanley Wood Market...
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Comments [0] - Views [35]
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Our latest home sales map is ready for a peek.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Kings Canyon or Queensbury drives. (Homes on both royalty-themed streets recently sold.)
We’ve done the work for you in this map.
This map is updated with homes that sold in...
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Comments [3] - Views [50]
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Ah, graphic depictions of numbers! Who doesn't love a good chart?
(Click on the little blue thingie; I'm not smart enough to figure out how to embed the chart.)
Today's real estate trend chart comes from Gary Crabtree, a Bakersfield appraiser who prepares monthly reports on the state of the...
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Comments [5] - Views [137]
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We know SunCal has stopped paying bills at the McAllister Ranch project...but why? Bankruptcy plans? A sale in progress? They don't have money? It doesn't pen out so they're walking away from it? It's easier to process all the mechanic's liens as a group?
They seem to be buying land...
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Comments [4] - Views [177]
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I am constantly scanning the media, looking for signs about which direction our economy is going, and wondering how that will affect the housing market. They say that Economics is "the dismal science" but I find it exciting--especially when you translate all the numbers, graphs, and...
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Comments [16] - Views [96]
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There was another bash in a vacant Bakersfield home this weekend.
This time, the home was in the 15600 block of Chateau Montelena Drive, southeast of Rosedale Highway and Heath Road.
Sheriff's deputies arrested 16 adults and cited 10 kids.
That makes three instances of parties in unoccupied...
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The New York Times and other media outlets have reported that Countrywide may be under investigation for misrepresenting their financial position at a time when the sub prime mortgage melt down was looming.
Meanwhile, Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo was one of three mortgage industry executives...
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Comments [0] - Views [102]
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Our latest home sales map is ready to roll.
No need to grab a map and figure out where to find Madonna Avenue and Mark Twain Avenue. (Yes, they truly do exist in Bakersfield and houses on those streets just sold.)
We've done the work for you in this map.
This map is updated with homes that...
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Comments [0] - Views [114]
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A Californian "Oddly Enough" presentation
Amidst the onslaught of mechanic’s liens currently flooding the county recorder’s office — most submitted by subcontractors seeking payment for work and supplies on construction projects — is an unusual one from...
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• The New York Times has a feature today on longtime Sacramento developer Dunmore Homes, which is now tanking (including its Kern County projects):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008...
• The Sacto Biz Journal has a story on...
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Comments [0] - Views [74]
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Melody Duncan was suffering from spring fever. Hay fever actually. An allergy to pollen that was making the prospect of spring less than inviting. Medications had the unfortunate side-effect of making her drowsy. Someone suggested a folk remedy, and she tried it with great results. Local honey....
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Comments [3] - Views [67]
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New loan limits from the federal government may help locals buy, or refinance their homes.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is temporarily raising Federal Housing Administration loan limits in some parts of the country — including Kern County, according to a Wednesday...
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More folks than usual (some even wearing nice clothes!) showed up at the daily City Hall auction this morning to see the SunCal foreclosure go down.
SunCal's debt to Lennar on 515 acres in Shafter had reached about $86 million (with interest and fees).
Bidding opened at $10 million. The...
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The Bakersfield metropolitan market, which includes ZIP codes 93301 through 93314, had 1,946 single-family home foreclosures in 2007.
That's according to a report put together by the Kern County Recorder's office using data from First American Real Quest that reporter Gretchen Wenner got her...
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Comments [3] - Views [76]
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