Long Beach Housing Market

I am surprised how many calls I get asking for an explanation of the 'type' of listing they are looking at.  I thought I'd give you a quick update and if you need or want more information on the subject give me a call and I'll spend some time helping you understand the difference.

Short Sale - This is a property that is for sale it can be anything, single family home, or condominium that the Seller owes more money on the property than they have listed the house for.

Foreclosure/REO - I think REO confuses people the most it stands for "Real Estate Owned" which is how the bank described property they own and have taken back.  A foreclosure is basically the same thing the owner lost the house for nonpayment.  Remember in California we do not use mortgages we use trust deeds and as a result we don't use judicial foreclosure very often.  It has become a generic term that means that bank took the house away from the owner for nonpayment.

Standard or Equity Sale - This is a traditional property sale.  The seller wants to sell the house at the list price. 

Remember an REO is not always a bargain because the bank may not really know the condition of the property and they aren't obliged to figure it out and tell you.  If you are considering purchasing an REO (foreclosure) check to see if there is other standard property on the market close by, it may be a better deal!

Everyday I follow blogs and news feeds about what's happening all over the country in the Real Estate market.  I was pleased to see the top 10 markets for the next year identified recently by Inman.  I was surprised when I read all the details on each listing that they all have 2 things in common.  Low unemployment and low foreclosure rates.  One of the cities on the watch list is Fargo, ND apparently they've had continued and sustained growth in their real estate market.  Now the average price of a home is no where near ours, but still all things are relevant.  The most interesting thing was that their unemployment rate is 5.9% and their foreclosures are listed as 1 in 10,000.  That's amazing to me.  I guess those that have been saying it for weeks, we need to have a significant change in our unemployment numbers and we need allot of the terrible short sale and foreclosure inventory off the market before we see prices go up, are right!  I follow a blog that has some pretty high powered real estate folks inputting to it, it's the KCM Blog "keeping current matters".  Today Barbara Corcoran, an east coast Realtor who is a contributor on several news programs on a regular basis said this “We have a regular real estate miracle happening right now. We not only have record low prices, but we also have cheap money.”

Donald Trump also said today - you should buy a house and in ten years when you look back and say that was the best decision I ever made you'll have Donald Trump to thank.  I'm not sure we're in the same places as the 10 top markets for 2011 but I do think they are right.  There really are some miraculous deals to be had today.

Seems like everywhere I turn these days there is mention of Long Beach and the "Bike Master Plan".  I knew we were a bike friendly City, because where I live near El Dorado Park, there is a bike path in the park and certainly bike lanes on the major streets around the park.  There is even the 'wash' with it's never ending bike path that goes through Long Beach to the Ocean but through many other cities on it's way.

I was thrilled when I got this month's issue of 'live Long Beach' a wonderful magazine if you aren't currently subscribing.  There is an article in the Health & Fitness pages entitled 'pedal power'.  If you don't realize how much this City is committed to being a Bike Friendly City, you need to read this article, or call me and I'll send it to you.  You'll be impressed.  Here are some of the items mentioned in the article.

The Bike Master Plan was approved by the City Council in 2001 and 90% to 95% of the projects in the plan have been accomplished or are underway.  Many of the projects were completed using more than $20 million in outside funding secured to support City bicycling programs. 

By the end of this year, there will be 122 miles of designated and shared bicycle lanes throughout Long Beach.  These lanes include three high-profile pilot projects - the green lane 'sharrows' short for shared lane arrows where bicycles and cars share the right hand lane on Second Street in Belmont Shore, the Vista Bike Boulevard in Belmont Heights and the soon to be completed Broadway and Third Street Separated Bikeways in Downtown.

I could go on but the article is wonderful.  These projects and others have led to Long Beach being named one of the top 25 bike-friendly Citites in America by Cycling Magazine.

If you didn't already realize what a great place to live Long Beach is, this should push you over the top.  I'm happy to send you this article or any others about the cities bike project, just give me a call.  Be sure to check out www.bikelongbeach.org for more information from around town on cycling.