We had a great introduction of our new company, MagnumOne Realty at the Fall Carnival for Mikie’s school.  We raffled off a holiday inflatable yard decoration and gave out trick ‘r treat bags to the kids.  Had lots of questions about the new company and overall a very positive response.   The Carnival was a huge success, even though we had to move it from Friday last week to Monday because of rain.  I think everyone had a good time and we raised some money for the school Parent Teachers Club.  I think we may have picked up a listing too!

So that appears to be two nice forward steps for my business, when I learned one of our short sale transaction we have worked so hard on the past two months is in serious trouble.  For several reasons we had to go back to the lender and ask them to discount their payoff even more than they had previously approved.  According to our contact there, it is not looking good but there has been no final decision.  Some parts of this business are much harder than they should be!

The real estate headlines around the state read, lowest this and lowest that.  From a sellers perspective as well as many real estate agents there is not a lot of positive news as we read these stories.  Too many houses on the market, too few sellers, foreclosures, tighter credit standards and buyers waiting for lower prices seem to make up the bulk of the reason for our slower than slow real estate market.  For some of the details see my weekly column at Rocklin & Roseville Today, “How low can we go?” and on my website at www.jalone.com.

Since the week of August 27, according to HousingTracker, inventory has dropped from 18,844 to 18,007 for the week ending October 15.  Although not falling as much as some of us would like to see it is clear we have reached our peak high for the year and should see declining inventory until we get into the March/April timeframe of 2008.  The drop in the past seven weeks is 837 homes or 4.4 percent.

This has been a busy and fun week at our new company, MagnumOne Realty.  We are working on our new website, changing out “For Sale” signs, ordering business cards and generally just getting our name out there.  On Friday evening we will be sponsoring a raffle at the Fall Carnival for Mikie’s elementary school.  If you have some free time and are in the area, stop by, it is really a nice family event.

According to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), in their 2008 Housing Market forecast, the areas of the state where homes are more affordable will be the markets who will perform the worst in 2008.  This appears to be due to the large number of new homes built in these areas, including Sacramento, in the past few years.  Read my weekly column over at Rocklin & Roseville Today, “Will 2008 be better?” for more details.

I  don’t usually use my blog to promote one of my listings but because my  clients with the home on Willard Way in Rocklin are anxious to get their home sold they have made a significant price drop making this home one of the best bargains in the city.  At less than $175 per square foot you can’t find more house for the money in this nice Rocklin neighborhood.  It you or someone you know has been waiting for a bargain and a great home, take a look at this one, Willard Way – Rocklin.  You won’t be sorry.

Although we finally have started to see plateau and even slight decreases in the inventory of homes for sale in the Sacrament area the median asking price is falling faster than the number of homes.  The number of homes for sale has decreased by about 100 in the past month and stood at 18,394 according to HousingTracker.  This is a decrease of 444 homes from the inventory level at the beginning of the month.  During this same time we have seen the median asking price fall from $375,000 to $364,500 or 2.8 percent. 

Speaking of sellers, I do have some nice listings right now, check out my two listings in Rocklin, Willard Way and Tanus Circle. 

With the growing number of homeowners having difficulty making mortgage payments and faced with homes that are now not worth as much as they owe we are seeing an increase it short sales.  This is where a homeowner attempts to sell the home and then convince the lender to take less than they are owed.  We just received approval from a lender to move forward on one of my listings.  What you may not know about these arrangements is that the homeowner must pay taxes on the amount of debt forgiven just like it was income. 

A summary of H.R. 3648 is available at the Ways and Means Committee site.