Real Estate News for Thursday, January 12th, 2006

Economist: Real estate boom over. The year 2006 for the housing market brings with it rising interest rates, declining home sales and slower price appreciation in other words, the housing boom may be officially at an end. That's the opinion that California's top housing economist offered during her annual forecast delivered Wednesday. And in her view, it's just right. "We're calling this the Goldilocks economy not too hot, not too cold," said California Association of Realtors Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young, who echoed the belief of most economists that the nation's economy is heading into a period of modest job growth, moderate inflation and continued business investment. Appleton-Young delivered her forecast for the 2006 housing market at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes. The forecast confirmed what she and other housing prognosticators have been saying for the past year: The market is on course for a soft-landing, with slowing housing appreciation and falling home sales, and that there is not a housing bubble waiting to burst. "There is a bubble a bubble in the number of articles about the housing bubble," Appleton-Young said of the "hype." She added, "The median price of a U.S. home has never declined." Click here to read more.

Insurance Commissioner vs. Title Insurers. Title insurance isn't the sexiest part of a real estate transaction. But according to a recent report issued by California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, San Diego's homebuyers should be paying more attention to title insurance fees. The report shows that a few big players dominate California's title insurance industry. It says the price of policies is kept high by a lack of competition in the market, a lack of consumer knowledge, and cozy relationships between realtors and title insurance providers. Title insurance is required in California whenever a buyer purchases real property or a lender borrows money for the purchase of property. It is intended to guard against the chance that the title purchased might not be legally transferable. Garamendi claims that real estate agents and escrow companies essentially choose title insurance companies for their clients. In other words, the home buyers and sellers are not taking advantage of the rights they have to choose lower-priced options. Click here to read more.


Hokua sells out all 247 condos. Units at the luxury high-rise averaged $1.1 million at the initial sales in 2002. Sales of all 247 residential units at Hokua, the first of Ala Moana's new crop of luxury high-rise condominiums to reach completion, resulted yesterday in the largest number of residential closings in Hawaii in a single day. The first luxury high-rise condominium to be marketed and developed in Honolulu in years, Hokua has proved that there is life in Honolulu's high-end condo market, once pronounced dead after the Japanese investment bubble burst in the early 1990s. The success of Hokua is proof that buyers, especially empty-nesters and baby boomers, have been drawn in recent times to high-rise condos because of their combination of location and pricing compared with previously owned homes on the market, said Ricky Cassiday, a local real estate market researcher. Click here to read more.

~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
Work: 951-845-5520 Ext. 105
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tina.jan@coldwellbanker.com
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