Southern California real estate statistics show that since early 2007, the housing market has been in the hands of the property buyers. Since then, Southern California real estate prices have fallen, and along with those prices, interest rates have dropped as well. This has prompted more people to buy property in 2008 compared to 2007. Sixty nine percent of Southern California real estate buyers claimed that lower prices encouraged them to buy, and 31% cited the low interest rates as their main motivation to make a move.
What some of the causes were for the downturn in the Southern California real estate market were poor underwriting of contracts, leaving buyers unaware and unprepared for fluctuating interest and mortgage rates, which lead to an increase in foreclosures and lender owned properties. Drastically increasing food and gas prices also were devastating to many buyers who had then come to no choice but to foreclose on their home. The increase in costs of living also made potential buyers unable to buy a home or postponing purchasing a home. These trends together resulted in a large increase of empty, available homes and people who could not afford to buy them.
Since there has been such an increase in the number of homes available for purchase in the Southern California real estate market, this has led to a wide array of choices and variety of homes for buyers to choose from. Buyers in 2008 spent much more time searching for a home than they have in previous years. In 2007, buyers spent an average of about 5 weeks looking for a home, while this year, the average amount of time browsing the market is about 8 weeks. In 2006, Southern California buyers had only spent an average of 2 and a half weeks searching for property. Traditional buyers, those not doing searches and virtual tours online to find a home, also visited twice as many homes before they purchased one this year.
Because of the large variety of choices and the uncertainty of what direction the housing market will be moving in, potential homeowners are also taking more time to purchase a home than they have in years past, and they are more cautious about the process as well. In conclusion, Internet buyers also spent more time searching through homes before contacting an agent in 2008, averaging 8 weeks, as opposed to traditional buyers, who searched the old fashioned way for 3 1/2 weeks before having a realtor step in. This year, 19% of Southern California real estate buyers were first time homeowners. They spent an average of almost 10 weeks with their realtor before buying a house, and in 2007, first time homeowners had only spent about 6 weeks searching before choosing one.

The two-county Inland region once again led Southern California in the rate of foreclosure-related filings, including notices of defaults, trustee sales and lender repossessions. In Riverside County, 7.9 percent of homes faced foreclosure and in San Bernardino 6 percent of homes entered the foreclosure process. Riverside County’s foreclosure-related filings last month totaled 7,960, an increase of 30 percent from February and 127 percent from March 2007. San Bernardino County had 6,182 filings, up 25 percent from February and 118 percent from a year earlier.

Foreclosure activity is expected to peak later this year based on subprime mortgage resets, said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.

RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure filings on 64,711 homes were recorded in California in March, the most for any state for the 15th consecutive month. California’s foreclosure activity last month increased nearly 21 percent from February and almost 106 percent from a year earlier.

Los Angeles Foreclosures –

Hardest hit cities Los Angeles (2060), Lancaster (869), Palmdale (852), Long Beach (499) and Santa Clarita (264)

Orange County Foreclosures -

Hardest hit cities Santa Ana (629), Anaheim (413), Garden Grove (211), Orange (150), Fullerton (136)

Riverside Foreclosures -

Hardest hit cities Riverside (1028), Moreno Valley (945), Corona (742), Murrieta (494), and Perris (478)

San Diego Foreclosures -

Hardest hit cities San Diego (1620), Chula Vista (582), Escondido (373), Oceanside (370) and El Cajon (260)

San Bernardino Foreclosures –

Hardest hit cities Fontana (770), San Bernardino (668), Victorville (609), Hesperia (384), and Rialto (341)

With all the bad news about Foreclosure the Senate with an overwhelming decision in favor of the 84-12 voted to pass the “Foreclosure Prevention Act” Part of this package would give the buyers of foreclosure homes a $7,000 credit to help provide relief to struggling banks who have huge inventories of foreclosed properties.

If you are thinking about buying a home that is a bank repo, start shopping on the web with mortgage company web sites like countrywide has.

http://countrywide-foreclosures.blogspot.com/2008/04/14220-reos-offered-for-sale-on.html

Total REO (As of April 17, 2008)

State Count Total Asking Price($) Average Asking Price($)

CA 4,293 1,218,980,585 283,946

Daniel Doane can be reached at Hardmoney_direct@yahoo.com

www.Hardmoney-DIRECT.com

If you are looking for a suitable property in California, considering the city of San Diego could be a great residential option and buying a property through San Diego foreclosed homes would be even better due to the great bargain deals available at nearly half of the market rates.With its very unique features the city’s residents enjoy some great benefits which make it a perfect location to buy a property through San Diego foreclosed homes. •    Low interest housing loans – Buying a property in the city is quite easy with various housing finance schemes for first time homebuyers including several low interest loans offered by the state government of California which makes the city a very affordable place to purchase a property through San Diego foreclosed homes.•    Environment friendly neighborhoods – Ranked as one of the greenest cities in the country the residents of the city enjoy a healthy and clean environment through various environmental friendly initiatives such as the various noise and water pollution abatement and waste management programs in its communities.•    Exceptional schools – With 113 elementary schools, 23 middle schools, 27 high schools, and 25 charter schools including several nationally ranked institutions spread all over the region education facilities in the city are of very good quality which makes it a great place for families to reside in through San Diego foreclosed homes.•    Popular museums – Being a popular tourist destination the city is home to several famous museums like the Museum of Art and Natural History, the Museum of Man, the Museum of Photographic Arts which is located in Balboa Park as well as the historic ship exhibits belonging to the Maritime Museum.Best sources for finding good bargain deals through San Diego foreclosed homes 1.    Subscribing through online foreclosure listing services is one of the best tools for finding suitable properties at good bargain deals.2.    One can also look up various bank and government websites for getting information on their repossessed properties on sale.3.    Contacting the local county office is also a good way to get information on the latest foreclosure auctions taking place in the city.4.    One can also look up properties in the pre-foreclosure process and get in touch with the banks in order to purchase San Diego foreclosed homes at a lower price through a short sale.

There are many benefits from MLS that are enjoyed by the people of San Diego. MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is used by realtors, buyers, and sellers in San Diego to aid in the search for real estate. Sand Diego MLS has become a vital and critical ingredient to real estate success, but it wasnt always that way. Realtors, buyers, and sellers in the past have had a much more difficult time gaining access to properties, making the process of buying or selling a house take longer and very stressful for all involved.
San Diego MLS: Pre MLS Times
Before there was such a thing as the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, every single real estate company in San Diego had to maintain its own private inventory of real estate listings. The listings were handled by that real estate company, and realtors and brokers from other companies were not allowed to show a property or sell it without specified permission from the company that had listed it. The world of the real estate business was extremely competitive and rather protective of the properties that they had listed. San Diego sellers would have to search for permission quite often to show other companies properties, and oftentimes, the companies who did have a certain property listed would not make information on it available to any other realtor that was from another company. Because of this, every time a potential buyer found a property that he was interested in, he would have to find out what company was selling the house, find out who the realtor for the company was who was responsible for selling the house, and contact whichever specific realtor had their name on the FOR SALE sign that was out on the front lawn. It becomes apparent that the buyer who has a list of 15 available properties might have to set aside a significant amount of time to ask for information on them from 15 different realtors!
San Diego MLS: Benefits to Property Buyers
Before the days of MLS, people who were looking to purchase real estate would have no choice but to work with many different companies who had many more different realtors to try to explore a wide range of potential and available properties. The process often took a much longer time than today, in part because of the amount of searching that buyers had to do with so many different people. These days, thanks to MLS, San Diego buyers have the benefit of being able to work with any realtor for access to any property on the market. This really helps the buyer not only maintain a much higher range of available properties, but the buyer also can form a close relationship with one realtor, instead of repeating his introductions to 10 or 15 different brokers during his search.
San Diego MLS: Benefits to Realtors and Sellers
Since realtors before MLS only had access to their own listings and not those of other companies, each company usually would sell ONLY their own listings and would not give access to those listings to other companies. With the implementation of MLS, San Diego realtors and sellers both benefit from a much wider exposure market, because any potential buyer working with any realtor can have access to information about the property being sold. And of course, with more exposure comes a greater potential for more business, more offers, and more successful transactions, all with the help of San Diego MLS.

San Diego MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is used by realtors, buyers, and sellers in San Diego to aid in the search for real estate. The San Diego MLS is a great, convenient, time saving asset to realtors, buyers, and sellers of real estate. Even though currently the Sand Diego MLS is a vital and critical ingredient to real estate success, it hasnt always been that way. Realtors, buyers, and sellers in the past had a much more difficult time gaining access to properties, making the process of buying or selling a house stressful and time consuming.
Before the days of the San Diego MLS, people who were looking to purchase real estate would have no choice but to work with many different companies who had many more different realtors to try to explore a wide range of potential and available properties. The process often took a much longer time than today, in part because of the amount of searching that buyers had to do with so many different people. These days, thanks to the San Diego MLS, buyers have the benefit of being able to work with any realtor for access to any property on the market. This really helps the buyer not only maintain a much higher range of available properties, but the buyer also can form a close relationship with one realtor, instead of repeating his introductions to 10 or 15 different brokers during his search.
Before there was such a thing as the San Diego Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, every single real estate company in San Diego had to maintain its own private inventory of real estate listings. The listings were handled by that real estate company, and realtors and brokers from other companies were not allowed to show a property or sell it without specified permission from the company that had listed it. The real estate business was extremely competitive and protective of the properties that they had listed. San Diego sellers would have to search for permission quite often to show other companies properties, and oftentimes, the companies who did have a certain property listed would not make information on it available to any other realtor that was from another company.
Because of this, every time a potential buyer found a property that he was interested in, he would have to find out what company was selling the house, find out who the realtor for the company was who was responsible for selling the house, and contact whichever specific realtor had their name on the FOR SALE sign that was out on the front lawn. It becomes apparent that the buyer who has a list of 15 available properties might have to set aside a significant amount of time to ask for information on them from 15 different realtors!
With the implementation of the San Diego MLS, realtors benefit from a much wider exposure market, because any potential buyer working with any realtor can have access to information about the property being sold. And of course, with more exposure comes a greater potential for more business, more offers, and more successful transactions, all with the help of the San Diego MLS.

San Diego realtors have a duty to their customers and clients, and that is to do the best job they can to make you as satisfied as possible. San Diego realtors should respect and follow a number of obligations to the people they do business with, and when a realtor does everything he can to ensure that you are happy, whether you are a seller or a buyer, everyone benefits in many ways.
There is a certain Code of Conduct that San Diego realtors follow. Some of the points are rules just within the company or business of real estate, and some are actual laws that the realtor is required legally to follow. The first of these obligations to you is loyalty, first and foremost. The agent cannot advance interests that are that are not in the best interest of her customer or client. Decisions and suggestions made by your realtor should always be for your benefit. Your San Diego realtor should be honest, and willing to provide full disclosure about anything concerning the property of interest. This helps the realtors customer make choices that are based on as much good information as possible.
A very important obligation that a San Diego realtor, broker, or agent has to his customer is confidentiality. The agent is prohibited from relaying any personal information about the customer that she may have gathered from business dealings between them. Any personal information about the customer must be kept private unless the realtors customer gives the realtor permission to release personal information. What can never be kept confidential are facts about an available property of interest, whether those facts are positive or negative.
San Diego realtors are required also to report to her customer any dealings that have to do with accounting, and also the agent must responsibly keep track of and keep safe any money or property held on behalf of the customer. Obviously, the responsibility of accounting goes along with the responsibility of honesty. San Diego realtors are also held responsible for protecting his client from foreseeable risks or harm, whether it be financial or otherwise. If an agents expertise is not sufficient to assist her customer with something, the agent has an obligation to her customer to recommend that expert advice be sought out.
There are instances when one realtor is representing both the buyer and the seller. In these dual agency situations, a San Diego realtor is required to be responsible and honest with accounting issues and care and diligence to respect legal boundaries and laws. Other than that, the realtor must weigh every option very carefully not once, but twice, to make sure that any dealings are as fair to both customers as possible.

When you need to buy or sell San Diego real estate, there are many things that must be taken into consideration. Looking for a new home or selling the home you have now in San Diego shouldnt make you want to run to the store and stock up on pink bismuth. The process really should be a pleasant, low stress process, but these days it seems that real estate transactions have been buried in hidden costs, commissions, and that dreaded fine print. The best thing that you can do for yourself if you are looking to purchase or sell San Diego real estate is to find a great realtor that can help you every step of the way, from start to finish.
A San Diego real estate realtor or broker has many jobs. A great realtor or broker has even more. Your realtor should be someone you trust, someone you can count on, and someone who you are comfortable with. There are many important things that a realtor can do for you to help take some of the stress off of your shoulders when moving San Diego real estate.
First of all, your realtor should be very knowledgeable about the area that the real estate is in. Better yet, he or she should be knowledgeable about the area you are in now and if possible, the area you would like to move to. This will save you a lot of detail detective work and will ultimately spare you stress and save you your valuable time. A great realtor should be very accessible. Being easy to contact when you need him or her is invaluable. You never know when thoughts, problems, concerns, and ideas might turn up. Part of being accessible is being easy to talk to. You should feel at ease with your realtor, and feel free to ask questions and present your concerns to him or her.
The realtor you choose to help move your San Diego real estate should put forth great effort to match you up with a deal that is well suited to your needs. If you are looking for a 3 bedroom house with a basement and the first five properties that she suggests are high rise condos and townhomes, you may want to find a different broker to work with! You have enough to worry about when purchasing or selling a home without having to worry about your realtor. His job is to help you and take care of you, not add to your list of concerns.
Another much appreciated service that a great realtor can provide to you is referrals to service providers such as inspectors, plumbers, pest control people and general contractors. If you look at your realtor and tell her I dont know who does that she should be right there with suggestions and contact information for you. Your realtor should be honest about the quality of service that the providers turn out, and about any recommendations that he feels may be applicable.
Finally, to help simplify your San Diego real estate transactions, a good San Diego realtor will always offer you choices. You should never have to feel like you have to accept something that you are not comfortable with, just because there were no alternatives that were presented. A realtor is your guide through the process, and if at any point you feel lost or dont know how to go about something, let your realtor know. He is working for you, not the other way around, and a great realtor should never have to be reminded of that.

If you’ve ever considered moving to southern California, now is the best time to start looking for property. With house foreclosures on the rise throughout the state, buying foreclosure property is becoming a huge part of the market. On average, foreclosure resells now equal about 40% of the market. Back in 2007, it represented less than 6%. That means if you’re interested in San Diego foreclosures now is the time to act.Obviously, no one could accurately predict how bad the housing bust was going to be or how many house foreclosures would be in the forecast. However, identifying some of the hardest hit areas wasn’t as difficult given they were some of the places were prices skyrocketed the highest and the fastest. San Diego foreclosures are a great example of this trend and their aftermath. The good news is that what was once unaffordable is now easily obtainable so many people have started buying foreclosure property in the city.A recent story in the Wall Street Journal gave a great example of what people have started doing with all of these San Diego foreclosures. The man was in the process of raising $150 million in order to purchase and renovate about 1,500 house foreclosures properties in the city. The plan was to get the houses in great shape, rent them out for the next five years, and put them on the sales market once buying foreclosure property seems like a distant dream. If his plan works, he could walk away from these San Diego foreclosures a very wealthy man.Even if you don’t see the rapid number of house foreclosures plaguing the city as a great investment opportunity, San Diego foreclosures could open the door for people who have longed to move to the West Coast but who were scared off by the high cost of property. Now buying foreclosure property is an option that makes home ownership affordable to many residents and out-of-towners who love everything the city has to offer.And what does the city have to offer? Besides high house foreclosures, the city also has one of the best climates imaginable. The temperatures range from highs in the 60s during the winter to highs in the 70s in the summer. The area is also ethnically and culturally diverse and has a lower crime rate than most of the United States, especially among metropolitan areas. Overall, San Diego foreclosures could make it possible for investors and movers to fall in love with this wonderful city all over again.

If you are a home buyer looking for a perfect home that should suit your budget as well, buying one through San Diego foreclosures listings is one of the best and wisest choices you can make.Great advantages The second largest city of California, the regions infrastructure, services and good housing are just a few of the many reasons that make purchasing a home in San Diego foreclosures a great buy. •    Fast growing economy – The largest sectors of the city’s economy are defense and manufacturing, and the city is also home to major biotechnology companies like Neurocrine Biosciences as well as cellular firms like Qualcomm Incorporated offering diverse employment opportunities to its people.•    Important tourist destination – Tourism is also a major industry owing to the city’s climate as well as major tourist destinations like the Balboa Park, the City Zoo, Sea World, nearby Wild Animal Park and Lego Land, the city’s beaches and golf tournaments like the Buick Invitational.•    Unified School District (USD) – Well established elementary, junior and senior schools like Adams school, Mann Middle school and Hoover school managed under the USD focus on providing educational excellence which makes residing in the city through the help of San Diego foreclosures a wise option for your family.•    Museums – By buying a property through San Diego foreclosures you can explore various museums located throughout the region like Museum of Art, Natural History Museum, Museum of Man, and Museum of Photographic Arts located in Balboa Park. Best sourcesSearching for San Diego foreclosures is much simpler than you may think.One of the most efficient and time saving sources is to look through various government, bank and real estate websites in the city and obtain information on all the foreclosures available.To begin with log onto a search engine and type the words ‘San Diego foreclosures ’.You will receive various links to listing services in the city and you can choose one that offers genuine and updated foreclosure listing services.The local city newspapers as well as the county records are also some good sources of gathering information on various foreclosed homes.Always remember that while looking for information on foreclosures in the city you should be aware of the various market trends so that you can make a good price comparison and find a bargain deal successfully through San Diego foreclosures.