Archive for August, 2009
Terramar beach: Why homeowners association can be a blessing
August 30th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Bike Rides, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week, San Diego county Real Estate News
CARLSBAD- I have had quite a few clients who avoid communities with homeowners association 
like the plague. This has nothing to do with the fee levied by the association, but everything to do with not liking to be told what you can and can not do with your private property.
I have often times suggest that buyer’s view a communities HOA as a form of an insurance policy protecting property values. By maintaining uniformity in construction and colors, maintaining and improving common areas and preventing your neighbor’s teenage son from starting a mechanic’s garage in his driveway, they truly can be a blessing. Yes, I have hear the arguments about property rights and the lack of common sense board member’s often use in decision making, but I do believe they perform a very beneficial function for the community unfortunately at times at the individual’s expense.
Here is a great example of why at least one owner wish they had an association.
The Terramar beach community in Carlsbad was first developed in the late 1940’s. The community boasts the only private beach in the city of Carlsbad and while they have the Terramar association, I am not aware of this association having any powers over individual homeowners. As is the case up and down San Diego’s coast, they ranch style homes that once were a simple of southern California are being replaced by massive homes worth millions.
On a recent bike ride down the coast I almost crashed doing a double take as I rode past the intersection of Tierra Del Oro and the coast highway in the Terramar community. Crossing the intersection to this bluff top community, the first thing you now see is a freshly painted classic ranch home in PINK. And not all of it, just the front!!! It’s hard to imagine that this homeowner is not trying hard to make some type of statement at the detriment to their community at large.
Now, to the north of the ho me is an ocean front lot which recently sold for 2.7 million dollars. To the south, is a newly constructed, 5019 Tierra Del Oro, home currently listed for sale for $9.9-10.8 million dollars.
Imagine the impact on this seller!!
With an HOA the chances of this one homeowner being able to hold their neighborhood hostage would be prevented thus protect the other homeowners from the impact this action can have on a neighborhood. Imagine the hesitancy anyone would have in dropping any amount of money to live next door to this “problem”, which by the way is for rent.
This may be the perfect time for the homeowners of Terramar to come together and institute an association to prevent this type of thing. It’s always someone else’s problem until it is not and then it’s usually too late.
So the lesson here is, when looking for your next home consider EVERYTHING a homeowners association can do to help maintain the value of your home!!!
If you are in the market for a $10. milllion dollar beach home or a $100K condo, call me. I appreciate all my clients large and small!! 760.415.3329
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Race entry winners
August 28th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO- TCSD’s own Steve Koci and Laurene Booth, by way of roll down, won free entries into the 80th Oceanside Labor Day pier swim. CONGRATS!!
I have an email out to the winner of the Mission Bay Triathlon, but I have not heard back from them, so if you are seeing this and your email address is doodlesim14@gmail.com please contact me or I will be selecting another name.
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First time buyer’s tax credit to be extended?
August 23rd, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week, San Diego county Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO- The constant chatter about low inventory in the first time buyer market has been 
overshadowed this last week by the realization that the first time homebuyer’s tax credit was approaching its expiration date. Now November 30th is still a ways off by the calendar, but in real estate ‘years’ it is appropriate to be concerned.
“an especially urgent matter if you’re a buyer just starting to shop and you see entry-level prices bottoming out or rebounding in many local markets and you want to take advantage of the credit, which is more generous than last year’s”- 08/22/2009, Washington Post*
Currently short sales are still the dominant transaction in the San Diego County real estate market and with the short sale process averaging 3-4 months, you can see why this topic has moved to the front of the line. Without an extension of the current expiration date, this is crunch time. In order to qualify for the tax credit you must have closed your transaction by 11-30-2009.
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Investing in real estate without buying a house
August 18th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week
SAN DIEGO- If you could buy property at ten cents to the dollar of peak value, would you? Well Brookfield Properties Corp and its sister Brookfield Asset Management are teaming up to do just that and more. In fact they are raising $4.9 billion dollars to buy, buy, buy!!!
There are 3,200 unfinished McMansions sitting in a suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood, where developers spent more than $150-million (U.S.) to build sewers, grade lots and pave roads for an upscale development, only to see the market crash.
“We do know this is currently one of the worst residential markets in the U.S.,” Mr. Flatt(CEO of Brookfield Asset Management) said in explaining the Riverside project during a conference call last Friday. “However, just to put it into perspective, the lots are within an hour of Los Angeles [and] were purchased for less than 10 per cent of the value attributed to land and infrastructure at the peak. … So these are at pretty low values.”
“Over all, we believe the infrastructure asset management industry is in the early stages of a multidecade growth trajectory,” he said.
And Brookfield is thinking about real estate holdings in terms of decades. During last Friday’s conference call, Mr. Flatt said it anticipates making up to a seven-fold return on its recent investment in Riverside, Calif., over the next 10 years(edit). -The Globe and Mail, 08/12/2009
Both companies BPO and BAM are trading near the midrange of their 52 week ranges and may be the perfect venue for those looking to capitalize on low real estate values yet are not able to purchase their own properties.
From Todd Sullivan writing for Seeking Alpha, “The beauty of investing in real estate this way is that you get the benefit of these folks’ expertise which, based on results, is tops in the industry. You also get a global opportunity and the patience they have to execute the right deals at the right time.”
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San Diego’s housing affordability continues to climb
August 15th, 2009 Categories: Client Testimonials, Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego county Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO- In December of 2008 I wrote a post stating that the San Diego housing affordability 
rate had gone up in excess of 800% climbing from a low of 3.7% in 2005 to over 31% in 2008. Fortunately for buyers and investors that trend has continued and it was reported today by the San Diego Union Tribune that our local affordability rate is approximately 59%. Stop renting!!
According to the California Association of Realtors the average monthly cost of a first time buyer’s home in San Diego county would be approximately $1750 a month. Add to this the fact that with this comes the ability to write off close to $18,000 a year and there are very few reasons to continue to rent.
“The realty group(California Association of Realtors) defines a first-time home as one priced at 85 percent of the median for all single-family resale houses. The affordability level is based on what percentage of households, earning the qualifying median income, can afford those houses.
For San Diego, the latest figures showed a median price of $295,000, qualifying income of $52,550 and monthly housing payment of $1,750, including principal, interest, taxes and insurance. Nearly 60 percent of local households have the income necessary to buy such a house”- San Diego Union Tribune 8/15/2009**
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Continued low interest rates plays well for San Diego real estate market
August 10th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Community News, San Diego county Real Estate News, What to do in San Diego
SAN DIEGO- There is speculation that the FED will not be raising interest rates at their meeting this week but will in fact keep them at current levels. I fell strongly that this is a very important ingredient to the recipe that is keeping our real estate market afloat. On July 16th, I wrote about the importance of current interest rate levels to the San Diego real estate market and to San Diego first time buyers.
My take on the market at this point is the market will remain flat from this point. In order to maintain this stability, knowing there is a boat load of distressed properties not yet on the market, will be the continuation of these historically low interest rates as well as incentives such as the tax credit. There is a continuing strong appetite for San Diego properties at these price points and it is high demand that is propping up our market.
If we lose the incentives for buyers that currently exist in our market we could easily see a pricing decline approaching or surpassing that $280,000 median price we saw in January.
The next ingredient being the tax incentives, while nice, is probably the least important of the two. Being able to lock into a 30 year fix mortgage of 5.5% will have long term benefits on homeownership. Additionally, as time passes the ability to convert this purchase into an income property becomes great and that is how wealth is built in real estate.
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