Real Estate News for Monday, December 19th, 2005

Housing market helps build job growth in state. The still-hot California housing market helped fuel strong job growth throughout the state last month, as homebuilders and mortgage operations continued to hire thousands of new workers, according to a report released yesterday by the California Employment Development Department. But in San Diego County, where the housing market has cooled, construction firms and financial operations shed workers last month, dampening the region's employment growth. "Our economy right now is mostly firing on two engines: construction and financial activity," said Esmael Adibi, director of the Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University in Orange. "Statewide, a large portion of the jobs created over the last five years are related to those two categories. If you take those two categories out of the mix last month, our overall job growth would have been much much lower." Click here to read more.

Dropping the real estate boom in 2005. The real estate market slowed in some markets in 2005. Some real estate professionals may remember 2005 as the beginning of the end of the boom -- the year when the housing market let out some steam and began to fall back toward Earth. Some super-heated markets cooled as interest rates climbed, for-sale inventory grew and home-price increases moderated. The Realtor association's chief economist, David Lereah, said in a statement in late November, "We are returning to more balanced markets between home buyers and sellers, one that places buyers on a more even footing. Housing activity has peaked and is coming down a bit, and we expect further cooling in the coming months." Real estate agents in slowing markets have said that sellers are in some cases unrealistic about the value of their homes and the continuing rate of price appreciation, and this has led to high listing prices, fewer offers and longer time on market. Some buyers, they say, are getting priced out of the market by rising prices and interest rates. Click here to read more.

Title insurers lash out at California competition report. Study says three title insurers control 75% of California market. A California title insurance organization lashed out Thursday at a report on competition in the state issued by California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, calling the report "bogus." The California report, "An Analysis of Competition in the California Title Insurance and Escrow Industry," released by the commissioner's office, concludes that three insurers control 75 percent of the state's insurance market. "The bogus report issued by (California Insurance Commissioner) John Garamendi … is not worth the paper it is written on," charged Lawrence Green, executive vice president and counsel for the California Land Title Association, in a statement last week. In response, Garamendi said, "This is the fifth report on this industry since 1977, and they all come to the same conclusion: the title industry does not compete on price." The commissioner said Thursday that he is taking steps to make title insurers cut the rates paid by California homeowners based on the 111-page report. Based on the report, Garamendi expects "in the coming months to issue orders directing rates to be lowered to the levels at which they would be were this a competitive market." The commissioner also plans to hold hearings to examine title insurance premiums. In response, Green issued a statement, saying title insurers were asked to produce information for the study by Dec. 8 while the results were announced mere weeks later. Click here to read more.

~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
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