Mortgage rates are low and applications and prices are up! – More excitingly here in the Southern California Mortgage Market is the great news that the number of Mortgage Defaults in California has dropped 24.3% over the last quarter!

The number of homes which enter the first state of foreclosure (defaulting on their mortgage) fell in the forth quarter. In 2009, 190,360 California homes were lost to foreclosure, down 19.42% from 2008, when foreclosures topped 236,000.  The decline in the default number is significant because any new wave of foreclosures, which could swamp the housing market’s recovery, would be preceded by a surge in defaults.The Obama administration’s $75-billion program to help troubled borrowers hold on to their homes appears to be keeping more California families out of foreclosure as thousands of California borrowers have had their mortgages modified through the “Making Home Affordable” program.

However there is a concern about those homeowners who are “underwater” – that is, owe more on their home than it is worth.Banks have been negotiating with distressed borrowers to keep them in their homes and increasingly turning to “short sales”.

Watch this space over the next few months and we will report back on what is occurring!

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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There is a flood of development and permitting going on in Malibu at the moment! Christmas may be right around the corner, but the media is full of growth for Malibu!

 U2’s Guitarist has developed a Web site promoting the five-home development for above Malibu’s Serra Retreat as environmentally friendly - The project calls for five homes in unincorporated county land just outside Malibu city limits, and has received international media attention because one of the partners in the ownership is David Evans, known to music fans as U2 guitarist The Edge. A proposed 1,600-foot long private road that will connect the City of Malibu to the development is not up for Coastal Commission consideration. The Malibu City Council in January chose to delay a vote on that road until the Coastal Commission rules on the homes.

As described on the Web site, the project consists of five LEED-certified homes that will sit on a Sweetwater Mesa ridgeline. They will be made of “sustainable building materials,” and feature “passive design techniques to minimize energy use.” – although whether the homes and their design will satisfy environmentalists remains to be seen, what is for sure is that this is a great development in a beautiful area.

In addition to this there is also a meeting by the city council earlier this month voting on whether to approve a coastal development permit and various zoning amendments for a proposed project located at 30732 Pacific Coast Highway. The project consists of three components: a development standard for beach front lot width to conform to the certified Local Coastal Program and Local Implementation Plan; development standards for the proposed four-lot subdivision to conform to the certified LCP; and the four-lot subdivision in conformance with the certified LCP. No physical development is proposed at this time and subsequent development of each lot will require a CDP from the city.

Also the city is deciding whether to approve a reconstruction contract for Malibu Canyon Road improvements. The project consists of resurfacing Malibu Canyon Road from Pacific Coast Highway to the city limits with an asphalt-rubber overlay. This project will improve the quality of the roadway and reduce road maintenance.

Malibu is also discussing an alternative wastewater treatment plan for the broader Civic Center area, after its assessment that septic systems are the major cause of pollution in Malibu’s watershed. More on this as it develops.

In short, you can see there is alot of action in Malibu at present and with green living and green homes being high on the agenda for most people it is no wonder that the development  championed by U2’s guitarist is making headlines!

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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Exciting changes are on the way for Condo buyers – yes, come early in the new year you will have a great opportunity with FHA financing for Condos as the current guidelines are changing!

With FHA loans playing such a big part in the markets right now it is no wonder that everyone wants to make more of them and ensure that more properties are eligble.

With Condominiums,”FHA approved” may become the most popular condominium amenity in the United States soon, thanks to the new guidelines established by the FHA to take effect February 1, 2010.

These guidelines could really boost condo sales as they address two important aspects of condo sales: down payments and the financial integrity of condominium associations.

“FHA approved” right now means a 3.5% down payment. Starting early next year, “FHA approved” will mean 3.5% down plus a financially stable association approved by your lender. These new guidelines really ensure that condo associations are managing their affairs well to minimize the risk to borrowers and lenders. First time home buyers are generally thought of as the primary market for FHA financing. There is something to that, but in today’s world, many who bought their first homes years ago and lost them during this recession will appreciate the FHA financing availability even more than those coming out of rentals. Particularly with the current FHA loan limit having been extended as well as the tax credit incentives.

To qualify for FHA mortgages, associations must:

• Maintain a reserve equal to 10 percent of the annual budget
• Make sure no more than 15 percent of its owners are more than 30 days late with condominium fees
• Allow lenders to review their financials and insurance policies
• No more than 10% of the units may be held by a single investor
• Fidelity insurance must be obtained for 20+ unit projects
• No more than 25 percent of space allowed for commercial use.

For a new condominium to qualify for FHA financing the following guidelines apply:

Effective February 1, 2010:

• 50 percent of the total units must be presold before FHA financing is approved
• 50 percent of the total units must be owner occupied
• No more than 10% of units may be held by a single investor
• Unit owners must obtain individual HO-6 insurance policies if the master policy doesn’t cover interiors

Recertification is required every two years. Projects that received approval between October 1, 2008 and December 7, 2009 will be “grandfathered” and will have to follow the new guidelines’ recertification process .

The marketing benefits are significant with this move as more buyers will enter the market, more inventory will be available as more developments are approved and lenders will be keener to lend on condos!

Exciting news for Condo buyers here in Malibu California and Westside LA area and across the country!

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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Exclusive 37 Acre Tuscan estate in Malibu offered for sale for $65 million.

This luscious estate property contains a 9,000 square foot home which is due for completion around spring 2010, as well as its own vinyard! is the most expensive listing on the Multiple Listing Service in the ocean side community. Only a few Los Angeles-area residences for sale are priced higher.

Rocky Oaks Estate consists of a nearly completed Tuscan-style home, a 9,500-vine vineyard (which first produced its own wine in 2006) and pads for a potential helicopter landing site, guesthouse and guard gate. Perched on a ridge line, the 9,000-square-foot house has 360-degree views. Its surrounding hillsides are filled with about 75 citrus trees, 50 fruit and nut trees, 100 avocado trees, 100 olive trees and more than 500 rosebushes.

The property features a 350 foot drive, and what will be (when complete) and infinity pool and spa, 5000 square feet of decking as well as an elevator to reach all three floors.

Watch this space as more on this listing unfolds, naturally its sheer size, features and pricetag are ensuring that it is receiving a lot of  media attention.

If you are interested in this property please contact us!

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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Malibu is home to many celebrities who enjoy its fabulous climate, views and lifestyle. Including Tatjana Patitz who was one of the models in George Michael’s Freedom 90 music video. In the video she starred along with supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington. Tatjana is a German model and actress who had a great career in the 1980s & 1990s. He career has allowed her to adorn the cover of over 160 magazines.

Tatjana has just listed her ranch style Malibu home for sale at $3.485 million. The property is located in the Central Malibu neighborhood at 5737 Busch Drive, and is a four bedroom, four bathroom home which was constructed in 1978 and contains 2,807 square feet of living space.

Despite her European roots, she thinks of Malibu as her home and has lived here since 1988. Click here to view some interior shots of her home!

Malibu offers a great selection of properties for many types of buyers and gives residents an enviable lifestyle!

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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Contractors for the long awaited Legacy Park project have broken ground!

 Malibu residents, city officials and state representatives gathered at the 17-acre Legacy Park Project site Monday to celebrate the official start of its construction with the groundbreaking ceremony which aims to improve local water quality.

The project is costing $45 million and is located on a vacant parcel between Pacific Coast Highway and Civic Center Way. It will include a storm water treatment system designed to capture, disinfect and recycle more than 2 million gallons per day of storm water and urban runoff from the surrounding watershed. Completion is scheduled for October 2010.

The scheme is all part of sustainable water management in Malibu and it will create an open space for recreation and environmental education, and drastically improve water quality of Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach.

This is a great project for Malibu where all residents and tourists benefit from the initiative.

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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A while back we suggested a great afternoon activity in the area is pony trekking the Santa Monica mountains, however local equestrians want to take this further.

According to the Malibu Times Local equestrians and the state parks department have agreed upon the perfect spot for a public equestrian campground-the site of President Ronald Reagan’s Malibu ranch at Malibu Creek State Park.

There are nearly 10,000 horses residing around the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, which provides 359 miles of horse-riding trails on about 153,000 acres of public park land. However there is no where to camp with the horses!

Set on seven acres in a flat, grassland meadow at the junction of Mulholland Highway and Cornell Road, the proposed Ronald Reagan Equestrian Campground (RREC) will feature 30 campsites, with two corrals at each site and access to 500 miles of public trails. The planned development would however, need $1.5 million to be constructed.

Equestrians have been pushing the issue for years to the state and local government and finally there is going to be a meeting to discuss the current plans. It will be held at the Mill Creek Equestrian Center in Topanga on September 26th and will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by a dressage demonstration at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. A donation of $60 per person is requested.

This is exciting news for Malibu and the surrounding area!

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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Exciting news reported by the Malibu Times that Santa Monica College is looking to open a satellite campus on Civic Center land in Malibu.

Santa Monica College was in discussions with Los Angeles County officials, including the Malibu Public Facilities Authority during a special meeting last week at city hall.

The move makes sense in many ways for both the county and for the college.  The question of how to best spend $20 million for development of the civic center facility continues to work its way through the bureaucracy of a Joint Powers Agreement, a $135 million bond measure approved by Santa Monica and Malibu voters in 2004.

SMC has already used $2.5 million of the bond money to help the City of Malibu purchase land in the Civic Center for Legacy Park, and has earmarked another $2.5 million for the park project.

Definately exciting news for Malibu and the surrounding area. Of course Malibu already has the prestigious Pepperdine University within its confines which welcomes thousands of students every year from around the world.

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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The Real Estate world is always full of confusing jargon, particularly at the moment it seems that there is a complete alphabet soup of abbreviations about – BPO’s, REO’s and more!

Well we are here to help de-mystify it all for you!

Realty Times has recently written an article discussing investing in Bank Owned Properties (REO’s) and Short Sales. However with much press at the moment about foreclosures how are you to know the difference? Well, here is, in short, a description of both types of properties:

Bank Owned Properties:

Ownership: Typically a bank or a national servicer.

Formulation of an Offer, Paperwork/Rules for Offer Submission: Standard purchase and sale agreements are used as well as the banks’ own addendums and disclosures. Before a Bank forecloses they have one or more brokers provide an opinion of value. (BPO) Then at the time of foreclosure/listing they have the listing broker determine if that value is still valid. Most of the time the Bank is pricing the property near market value and is expecting to sell the property close to the asking price. Note that with regards to repair contingencies, the Bank prefers not to make repairs so an “as-is” sale is best.

Money: Earnest money will need to be in the form of a cashier’s check. Proof of funds for the down payment and loan approval for the balance will also need to accompany the offer. If financing may be difficult for you as a buyer then the deal may not work, so be realistic! Don’t get your hopes up!

Closing Date: Fewer days on the market mean lower holding costs for the Bank which works to your favor. Many institutions are beginning to have penalties for closings that run beyond some date so make sure your lender can perform in that time frame and that you are ready to go at a moments notice.

Response and Timing: Once a buyer’s broker has submitted all the appropriate paperwork in accordance with the bank’s rules you may receive an answer within hours or it may take up to a week. Be patient! These are not normal transactions so do not relate it to how fast you closed on your existing home in the past!
Short-Sales:

Ownership: Legally the property is owned by a person or entity (e.g. company – LLC, Corporation, Trust, etc) and the house could be occupied by an owner or tenant or it could be vacant. However, the owner is in a negative equity situation (the sales price less closing costs is less than the debt on the property) and needs lender approval to affect the sale.

Formulation of an Offer, Paperwork / Rules for Offer Submission: A standard purchase and sale agreement is used along with an addendum acknowledging the fact that this is a short-sale transaction. It’s listing price for the property may be well above market, well below market or at market. Similarly as with REO’s, although it might be nice to have repairs made, often the seller doesn’t have the resources to make them and the lender is very unlikely to do any, so don’t get your hopes up! Therefore “as-is” contracts are common.

Money: Earnest Money should be in the form of a note that is converted to cash (check to Escrow) after acceptance or even after removal of the inspection contingency. Also you should supply proof of funds for down payment and pre-approval from the lender for any new loan to make your offer stronger. Being prepared with paperwork is key here and supplying as much information about how strong a buyer you are will help.

Closing Date: Closing can occur within 30 days but the 30 day clock will not start until the lender gives their approval – The approval process may take one week or it may take up to three months. One thing to keep in mind is that while all parties are waiting for an approval of the offer another department of the lender/bank is working on the foreclosure and may actually foreclose on the property with offers in for approval. If that happens, the deal is dead and the listing terminated as the former seller is no longer the owner of the property and does not have authority to sell.

In short – have patience and persistance and you may be successful! The National Association of Realtors has published a “field guide for short sales” available here.

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.

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Just in!

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has released a letter today regarding all eligible for the First Time Home buyer Tax Credit of $8,000 as defined in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).

The letter goes on to give information on how the credit work and the latest update, per FHA defining its position, allowing it to be used towards the downpayment requirement for a home.

This is achieved through several different ways – through a secondary lien on a property for the amount of the credit, this would mean that when the borrower received their credit check they use it to pay off the secondary lien. Another method discussed is the Purchase of a Tax Credit – this means that an entity can purchase the credit (subject to regulated fees and conditions) – this entity could be a local government organization, Federal or State level organization or private company. FHA will carry out strict due diligence on every organization.

These new guidelines are definitely welcome allowing first time home buyers to take advantage of the credit in the most flexible way. Additionally, this document clears up any uncertainty and creates a structure to deal with the process.

In 2008, 41% of all home purchases were made by first time homebuyers. In the first quarter of 2009, that
number was 53% (according to NAR).

Being the leading Real Estate company in Malibu, rest assured that we will keep you informed through our blog. Subscribe to our blog using our RSS feed. (Click here!)

If you are interested in purchasing a property or selling a property in Malibu, Pacific Palisades or the surrounding Beverly Hills/southern California area then please contact Judy Kunisaki for professional real estate advice in the Westside Los Angeles area, on 310-317-8396 or via her online contact form on her website.