Real Estate News for Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Beaumont tops Pass districts in performance index. SCHOOLS: Yucaipa- Calimesa straddles the midpoint, while Banning looks for better results. Beaumont schools generally ranked in the upper half statewide in academic-performance rankings released Tuesday, with Yucaipa-Calimesa schools posting mixed results and Banning schools mostly populating the lower half. Every Beaumont comprehensive school except San Gorgonio Middle School ranked in the upper half statewide and among similar schools, the rankings showed. Yucaipa-Calimesa had schools ranked as high as 10 and as low as 3, while Banning's elementary schools far outpaced its middle and high schools. Beaumont's Chavez Elementary earned an 8 statewide and a 10 among similar schools, tying it with Yucaipa's Ninth Grade Campus for the highest combined ranking among Pass-area schools. "My reaction was 'Wow,' " Brenda Erby, Chavez's principal, said of her school's ranking. "It's always exciting to be commended on those efforts." While she didn't expect her school to rank so high, Erby said the school's staff has been "laser-focused" on tracking students' progress. Among comprehensive high schools, Beaumont High led the way with a 6 statewide and a 7 among similar schools. Beaumont High School parent Yvonne Morales said while the school still has room for improvement, she is pleased to see her son's school excel and commends its student-assistance resources. Click here to read more.

California State's Air Is Among Nation's Most Toxic. "Only New York has a higher risk of cancer caused by airborne chemicals, the EPA says. In the Los Angeles area, the cancer threat is much higher, 93 per million in Los Angeles County — or one person in every 10,700 — and 79 per million in Orange County. The national average is 41.5 per million: one in every 24,000 Americans. Riverside and San Bernardino counties are near the U.S. average." Well, what can I say? The air is just better over here in the Inland Empire! Click here to read more.

More Than 117,000 New Pre-Foreclosures and Foreclosures Reported. Georgia, Michigan, Indiana Post Highest Foreclosure Rates. February 2006 Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows 117,259 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure in February, a 13 percent increase from the previous month and a
68 percent increase from February 2005. The report shows a February national
foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure for every 986 U.S. households. "This is the third straight month the U.S. foreclosure rate has moved higher, and it's the second straight month new foreclosures have topped 100,000," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "However, several states, including California, Florida, Texas and New York, reported a dip in foreclosures in February. We'll see if the rest of the country follows that trend in March." Click here to read more.

Barriers to Realty. As licensed real estate agents continue to flood into California's shaky housing market, industry experts and Realtors have questioned how standards can be maintained within the realty profession. A new bill, sponsored by the California Association of Realtors, aims to address some of the industry's concerns by forcing potential professionals to complete their required education before getting their license to buy and sell real estate -- instead of being issued a license before they've finished their classes, as is the current practice. Click here to read more.

Silicon Valley's Tech Revival Spurs Fever for Cashing in Options. For the first time in years, many Silicon Valley technology executives are seeing their stock options move into profitable territory, and they are cashing in at levels not seen since the end of the tech-stock boom in 2000. That's helping restore, for a while at least, a once-major source of wealth for the local economy and California's coffers. In just the past two years, Yahoo Inc. CEO Terry Semel has cashed in about $400 million in stock options. Incomes overall are up in the area. Multimillion-dollar homes are changing hands at a faster clip, real-estate agents say. And people are pouring more money into home remodeling. Click here to read more.

Gains in school rankings an 'A' for sales. HOMES: For both real-estate agents and developers, API results are often a selling point. The winners and losers of the Academic Performance Index released Tuesday include not only students, teachers and principals, but home builders, real-estate agents and private home sellers looking for buyers willing to pay a premium to live near a superior school. "I think you will find the test scores from high schools down to the elementary level are the most significant driver of real-estate values," said Steve Johnson, a director of Metro Study, a Riverside-based real-estate consulting firm. "I always thought if Californians ever figured out how significant a role schools play in the value of their real estate, they would get more involved in and supportive of schools, whether they have children in the local schools or not," he added. The Academic Performance Index, which rank schools statewide and among others with similar characteristics, can also influence home builders choosing locations for new subdivisions. "Before we buy land, we spend time looking at API scores," said Scott Laurie, president of KB Home Inland division. "We even have strategic maps where we have laid out the API scores by school district and down to each specific school." School administrators say they are aware of the impact of students' test scores on real-estate values. Click here to read more.

Google Base -- the next MLS? Real estate listings now searchable via Google. Google Base, a Web site where property listings and other information can be uploaded and displayed online for free, can now be searched via Google, giving rise to visions of the service as a possible "new MLS." It has always been possible to search Google Base itself, but consumers can now input phrases such as "Miami real estate" into Google's main search box and the results will show listings from Google Base. While countless Web sites now exist enabling consumers to search MLS property listings online, those sites often extract personal information from the searchers to be used as leads. Google Base, which launched in November, does not require such information. The product works somewhat similarly to craigslist, making it possible to quickly and easily create a free posting that will appear online and can be located by searching specific terms, such as "real estate for sale." Now, it's possible to find Google Base listings via Google itself. "This looks like Realtor.com Lite," opined Vince Malta, president of the California Association of Realtors. "It's an advertising vehicle, just as Realtor.com is; people can go there and access properties up on the MLS, just as they can on Realtor.com. But it is only some listings and some agents, not a complete list." Click here to read more.

~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
Work: 951-845-5520 Ext. 105
Fax: 951-845-4916
Cell: 909-446-2666
Toll-Free: 1-877-TINAJAN
tina.jan@coldwellbanker.com
www.tinajan.com