Escondido code sweep nets pile of real estate signs; agents irked. Local real estate agents are incensed after code-enforcement officers collected more than 100 open-house signs and threw them in the trash behind City Hall. Real estate agents say that without the ability to post clear signs directing potential buyers to open houses, properties will languish unsold in an already tough real estate market. Escondido real estate agents and sellers say they saw proof Sunday of how important their signs were, reporting that attendance at open houses was much lighter than usual. Source.
Realtors react to summer slowdown. A slowing job market (statewide, California added just 900 jobs last month; its recent average has been 17,400 per month over the previous year according to the state Employment Development Department), combined with recent hikes in interest (though the Fed did not raise interest rates for the first time last month since May, 2004), have led to a basin-wide real estate slowdown. But some say there are signs of hope. The Bay Area, while experiencing a similar glut of housing and slow market to follow, is also currently in the midst of Internet 2.0 - a resurgence of web business models largely modeled after "share" sites like YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook; the ubiquitous access to broadband and Wi-Fi has also brought to fruition the heady dot.com expectations of five years ago. As the tech sector continues to grow, some predict a future splash for the second-home or "instant millionaire" buyer market which could mirror the heyday of 2002-'03. Three things seem certain however: 1) It's not 2003 anymore. 2) The "condo boom" is over, for now; and 3) While there are more than 400 homes, condos and PUD (free-standing homes with lots collectively owned) properties on the market, the most in the past half-decade, according to at least one long-time local Realtor, "the competitively priced, high-end home in a desirable location is still a solid seller." Source.
'Last hoorah' for real estate print ads. Survey: Realtors spend money on print ads because clients expect them to. Real estate companies spent more on newspaper advertising in the early part of 2006 than they did last year, but did so grudgingly, according to a survey that predicts the demise of print real estate ads. The Newspaper Association of America reports that first-quarter revenue for print classified real estate advertising was up 26.3 percent compared to last year. But Realtors say they buy print ads because their customers expect them to, not because they produce results, according to a survey by Florida-based Classified Intelligence LLC and Realty Times. The survey also includes insight from a panel of nine experts -- many who work for online companies -- who say the Internet is poised to take a bigger share of real estate marketing budgets. Of 101 Realtors nationwide, 58 percent said they are spending more on marketing this year than last, but 36 percent said they spent 10 percent or less of their total ad budgets on print ads. Nearly one in five didn't advertise in newspapers at all. But the Internet isn't yet siphoning off all of the newspapers' real estate ad revenue. National Web sites, such as Realtor.com and Move.com, actually received less business from Realtors surveyed than newspapers. Of those surveyed, 69 percent said they didn't advertise at all on real estate Web sites aimed at a national audience. Most respondents -- 51 percent -- are taking advantage of free classified Web sites, with two-thirds of that group using Craigslist and nearly half listing on Google Base. Only a few Realtors -- 33 percent -- spend more than $10,000 on advertising, and it's not print or online that gets most of their dollars. Flyers, yard signs and billboards that get the word out "on the street" remains the leading category for Realtors' ad dollars. When Realtors do shell out for online advertising, the biggest chunk goes for their own Web sites, the survey found. Source.
KB Home Cuts Holdings as Market Cools. Majority owner Empire Cos. acquires the builder's 49% stake in the master-planned Anaverde project in the Antelope Valley. KB Home has started pruning its land portfolio in Southern California, a byproduct of a slumping housing market that is forcing big builders to reevaluate their property holdings. The Westwood-based builder said Tuesday that it had sold its 49% stake in the massive Anaverde master-planned community in the Antelope Valley to the majority owner, Empire Cos. of Ontario. The deal gives privately held Empire 100% ownership of the nearly 2,000-acre housing development in West Palmdale where the first 1,400 homes of a planned 5,200 are under construction by KB and other building companies. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed. KB, the nation's fifth-largest home builder, in recent years has beefed up its land-development business to capitalize on rising property values amid a six-year housing boom. Land developers typically profit by acquiring property and increasing its value by upgrading it into lots ready for construction. But now with demand for new homes declining, major builders are under pressure from Wall Street to justify their ownership of land that isn't already primed for building and that doesn't have a prospective buyer lined up. Source.
Incomes fail to keep pace with inflation, but new census survey suggests poverty rate declining. Incomes have been creeping up in northern San Diego and southern Riverside counties in recent years, and proportionately fewer area residents are living in poverty than they did in 1999, according to results of a U.S. Census Bureau survey released Tuesday. However, population and economic experts say the modest six-year improvement was largely eclipsed by a soaring regional inflation rate fueled by nationwide increases in gasoline prices and Southern California's real estate market that once had been red hot. They suggest that in reality, the buying power of many residents has declined and that federal poverty statistics fail to paint an accurate picture of the financial pain that the area's low-income families are experiencing. Source.
~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
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