Rancho Santa Fe News

Recession Proof  Real Estate

Looking for a new home? Rancho Santa Fe definitely has you covered, according to Ranch Coast News. Conditions are ideal in this North County city—with 338 homes alone listed last month. There’s no better time than now to purchase in this luxury community.



Only The Best

The Art Jury for the construction of R. Roger Rowe School, a future school to be located in Rancho Santa Fe, is looking for “the best possible designs” according to Rancho Santa Fe News. The $34.5 million construction of the school is to begin this month, but Art Jury President Paul Slater strongly feels that there are additional items to be added that can by funded by the community. Ah, only the best, for Rancho Santa Fe

The Fantastic R. Roger Rowe Elementary School in Rancho Santa Fe

R. Roger Rowe Elementary School in Rancho Santa Fe is a California Distinguished School whose vision is to inspire through revolutionary education.

The construction of the new Performing Arts Building is underway.  This wonderful center will provide a venue for the School District and Community of Rancho Santa Fe to hold events, performances and other related cultural programs.

Visit their website at http://www.rsfschool.net/ for more information and an thorough overview of the R. Roger Rowe school.

An International Reach

The buyers and investors are coming from all over the world.  China, Europe, Russia, South America are only a few of the countries where interested clients are coming from and looking for great property in San Diego.

Knowing this, I have implemented a link for the international clients to be able to translate my website http://www.ranchosantafehomes4sale.com/ into one of 43 languages.  The link is located in the top right hand corner of the site and titled  International Website Translator.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Mortgage Rate Edges Back Above 5%

Los Angeles Time/Money & Company

The average rate for a 30-year fixed home loan edged back up to 5.01% this week after spending two weeks slightly below 5%, Freddie Mac said in its survey for the week ending Thursday.
The Primary Mortgage Market Survey from the government-controlled mortgage company assumed that borrowers owned a 20% stake in the house, had good credit and paid 0.7% of the loan amount in upfront points and fees to the lender.
Many people pay additional points to lower their rates.
The 15-year fixed mortgage, which is a popular option for homeowners refinancing to pay off their loans faster, averaged 4.40%, also with 0.7% in points and fees. That was up slightly from 4.39% for the week ending Jan. 28.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4.27%, with an average 0.6 point. The one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4.22%, with 0.5 point, Freddie Mac said.

Job Security is the key to 2010 Housing Market Recovery

Jobs, foreclosures, option-adjustable-rate mortgages and interest rates are among the top trends that could dictate what will happen in California's housing markets this year.

The Feeling Better Theory
The implications of high unemployment for housing aren't easy to sort out since the link betwen housing and jobs remains something of a mystery.  "Housing is the leding indicator relative to economic activity , but housing markets seem to have their own rhythms" according to Richard K. Green, director of the USC Lusk School of Real Estate in Los Angeles. "While employment trends usually follow housing trends, the cause hasn't been determined.  Speculation is that people are just feeling better,and they are more willing to make a commitment like buying a house," he says.
The "feeling better" theory suggests that job security, rather than employment prospects may be the key to unlock California's housing markets this year.  Californians who feel secure about their income for the next five or 10 years may be more likely to buy a home than thow whose job situation seems less stable.

Interesting that in my conversations with buyers and sellers, there is an undertone sense that they are "feeling better" about the market overall.

2010 will prove to be a better year than 2009 for real estate in San Diego, is my humble prediction.

San Diego Housing Prices Buck Trend

County one of four U.S. areas on rise

By Roger Showley, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER


Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.

San Diego County, where housing prices rose and fell ahead of most of the country, was one of only four areas nationally to see an upturn beginning late last year, according to a widely watched housing index released yesterday.

Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for November showed San Diego-area prices up nearly 0.4 percent from both October 2009 and November 2008. On a seasonally adjusted basis, it was up 1 percent from October and up 0.4 percent year over year.

The only other markets to be up year over year were Dallas, Denver and San Francisco.

However, the 20 metro areas in the index collectively were down over the same period — off 0.2 percent for the month and 5.3 percent year over year — an indication that any housing recovery is uneven around the country. At the extremes, prices in Dallas were up 1.4 percent and those in Las Vegas were down 24.5 percent from November 2008.

The index was set at 100 for all areas as of January 2000, based on a three-month, rolling average of single-family resale homes involving the same property over time.

San Diego’s index for November was 156.06, meaning that prices here were up roughly 56.1 percent from 10 years ago. The index rose as high as 250.34 in November 2005, before falling to a low of 144.43 in April. Since then the index has risen steadily and, when seasonally adjusted, is up 6.9 percent from the trough.

The Case-Shiller index, limited to certain transactions and averaged in three-month chunks, has risen a bit slower than the MDA DataQuick monthly median price report that include all sales. Its November median for single-family resale homes was $365,000, up 1.4 percent from October and 9 percent from November 2008.

David M. Blitzer, S&P index chairman, said in a statement that despite four metro areas being up, there were four others that set index lows since the housing boom peaked.

“On balance, while these data do show that home prices are far more stable than they were a year ago, there is no clear sign of a sustained, broad-based recovery,” Blitzer said.

David Goldberg, an analyst for UBS, predicted that prices could fall between 3 percent and 5 percent before unemployment levels out.

“We’re probably in the latter stages of seeing home price declines,” Goldberg said.

S&P reported indexes in all metro areas except Detroit were higher than where they stood in January 2000, not factoring in inflation. Detroit’s index stood at 72.59, meaning its prices are roughly 27 percent below their 2000 starting point. Washington, D.C., with an index of 179.2, had the highest index value among the 20 areas; it fell from a peak 251.07 to 165.93 before rising again.

As further signs of a seesawing housing market, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said yesterday that its price index, based on mortgages, was up 0.7 percent from October to November, after having revised the October figure down. First American CoreLogic, a data firm, reported a decline of 0.2 percent in its November report issued last week.

Analysts said the apparent slowdown in housing recovery may be connected to a burst of activity last fall, when buyers rushed to close escrow to take advantage of an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers. The credit was extended and expanded in November, reducing the urgency to buy until the next deadline, April 30.

Norm Miller, a housing expert at the University of San Diego and vice president for analytics at the CoStar Group, a commercial real estate company, said the future is uncertain because of an expected rise in foreclosures, which could depress prices, and interest rates, which could hurt affordability.

But San Diego may not feel much of a backslide because of the relative shortage of homes for sale.

“We’re one of the least-affordable markets in the country on a long-term basis,” Miller said. “When things become more affordable (as they have since 2005), there’s more a sense of urgency than in Cincinnati. OK, prices are down (there) a little bit, but here they’re three times down as much as in the Midwest. So, gosh, now’s a good time to buy.”

Miller said San Diego is likely to continue seeing a sluggish upper-end market as owners refrain from listing their homes for sale because they hope prices will return to their previous highs and buyers hope for additional bargains.

But for buyers, Miller said now may be an opportune time to get a property, even if prices might dip a bit over the next few months, because any rise in interest rates would wipe out any marginal drop in prices.

“If you can get interest rates at 10 percent less than a year from now, that means more than missing the bottom of the housing cycle,” he said.

Analytics for RanchoSantaFeHomes4Sale.com

From January 1, 2009 to October 31, 2009, have a look at the following statistics for my website:

Total hits: 4,130,666



Average visits per day: 181


Average visits per week: 1,265


Average visits per month: 5,489


Average pages viewed per visit: 4


Average pages viewed per day: 659


Highest volume time of day: 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.


Highest volume day of the week: Tuesday


Highest volume day: Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009


Highest volume month: April 2009

Looks like people are certainly visiting RanchoSantaFeHomes4Sale.com!