Click to enlarge Orange County home sales for less than a residence’s total debt increased 33.8% in January from the year before, Southern California Multiple Listing Service figures show. The listing service reported that 487 of January’s deals were “short … Read More

Online real estate tracker Zillow reports that the share of Orange County single-family homes with mortgages larger than the current value of the home — so-called “negative equity” or “underwater” — was 14.4% percent in the 4th quarter of 2009, barely up … Read More

Orange County’s housing mix has changed in a year, with more short sales and equity sellers and fewer bank-owned homes on the market compared to last January. That comes from Steve Thomas of Altera Real estate , who does a … Read More

Slice CA OC US 90+ Day Delinquency 9.84% 6.85% 7.10% 1 yr. ch. +67% +77% +70% Foreclosure Rate 3.54% 2.50% 2.86% 1 yr. ch. +60% +58% +73% REO Rate 0.92% 0.34% 0.53% 1 yr. ch. -50% -66% -34% First American … Read More

FAQ: How can the unemployment rate fall if the economy is losing net jobs, especially since the population is growing? This data comes from two separate surveys. The unemployment Rate comes from the Current Population Survey (CPS: commonly called the … Read More

From the Las Vegas Sun : The worst investment over the past year was apartment conversions … [Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq] said. The worst of the that segment was the Meridian at Hughes Center on Flamingo Road, east of … Read More

“We’re dumbfounded. We’ve been working on this deal for four-and-a-half years. I don’t know how, all of a sudden, the numbers don’t work.” JMW Development Principal Mark Johnson From the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal: SuperTarget planned for Woodbury … Read More

The Herald Tribune has a series of article on mortgage fraud in Florida (ht Ed) Here are the first three in the series: ‘Flip that house’ fraud cost billions Fraudulent property flipping ran rampant during this decade’s housing boom, with … Read More

Haruki writes in: I am putting 15% of my salary into my 401(k) which gets a 5% match from my employer. I also contribute the max to my Roth IRA. I followed up with Haruki and found that his salary … Read More

Click to enlarge DataQuick reports that Orange County foreclosures made up just 29% of all home resales in June, the lowest percentage in more than a year, as banks fall behind in bringing delinquent loans to foreclosure and demand rises … Read More