Real Estate Blog - Tracy, Ca

I am very happy to announce that Sarah and I are having a baby boy in November, our first born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







Andrew W Barringer?














Brian Barringer
912 West 11th Street
Tracy CA 95376
Primary: 209-613-8945 Secondary: 209-833-7777 Other: 800-894-7282
Brian@Tracyhomes.com
http://www.tracyhomes.com/

California Prevention Act

The California Prevention Act that went into effect June 16th. Filings dropped by nearly 50 percent as soon as the act went into effect. The new law adds 90 days to the existing 3 months between the filing of a notice of default and a notice of trustee sale, but exempts servicers (lenders) who put in place a loan modification program. This law only applies to owner occupied mortgages made between 2003-2007.

Complete text of California Foreclosure Prevention Act

Brian Barringer
912 West 11th Street
Tracy CA 95376
Primary: 209-613-8945
Secondary: 209-833-7777
Other: 800-894-7282
Brian@Tracyhomes.com
http://www.tracyhomes.com/

ForclosureRadar.com report is out today it is a company based in Discovery Bay, that tracks every foreclosure in the California. San Joaquin county sits at number 4 for the rank of forclosures per population. 1 for every 734 people....

ForeclosureRadar.com released its June 2009 CA Foreclosure Report today. While foreclosures were generally trending upward, Notices of Trustee Sale unexpectedly dropped, apparently due to the new California Prevention Act that went into effect June 16th. Despite the majority of major lenders in the state receiving an exemption from the act, filings dropped by nearly 50 percent as soon as the act went into effect. Filings were climbing back toward previous levels by the end of June so we still expect the law to have little long term impact.

Check out our July pod cast.

http://www.talkrealty.com/billbarringer

Bill Barringer

Click on the link above to listen. This is a audio file that is a great reference to our market report.... Listen to the wisdom of my dad(Bill Barringer) speak about our current market activity. :)



Brian Barringer

brian@tracyhomes.com

800.894.7282

What drives the market here, then, are all those foreclosures. Two-thirds of the 2,092 existing single-family houses and condominiums sold here in March were bank repossessions, up from 8.5 percent two years ago, according to MDA DataQuick, a real estate research firm.These cut-rate properties are engendering the same frenzy and frustration that symbolized the boom, as Rebecca and Chris Whitman discovered when they started looking for a house in December. Ms. Whitman’s new job as an athletics director at Sacramento State required an immediate move from Chico, two hours north.In two months the couple looked at 100 houses, nearly all foreclosures priced under $200,000, making verbal offers on 20. Only rarely did they get a response. Banks trying to unload large numbers of properties are less interested in traditional transactions with individuals than all-cash offers from investors.As interest rates fell, the Whitmans were able to increase their price limit. They ended up buying from investors. A syndicate had bought a three-bedroom foreclosure on a cul-de-sac in eastern Sacramento last fall for $172,000, made a few improvements and was flipping it — another boom-era element that is back. The Whitmans bought it three weeks ago for $224,500.

brian@tracyhomes.com

800.894.7282

Starts with the buyer filling out an application..... Brian

brian@tracyhomes.com

brian@tracyhomes.com

800.894.7282

Made by Brian W. Barringer in 2006 for
http://www.tracyhomes.com/ and http://www.blogger.com/www.tracyrealestate.blogspot.com

Leagal Update

New California tax credit....
-10K home buyer tax credit if close home after march 1st.
-spread over 3 years .
-200K home=full tax credit, if less 5% of purchase price
-on top of 8k federal tax credit
-100m fund, first come first serve, 10K homes.
-non-refundable(must pay taxes to benifit.)
-dont have to be a first time buyer



For home buyers

The federal and state governments have both created credits for home buyers, but the rules are quite different.

Under the federal plan, if you have not owned a home in the past three years and buy a new or existing home between Jan. 1 and November 30, you could get an $8,000 federal tax credit. This credit is refundable, which means you can get it even if you don't earn enough money to owe taxes. The credit phases out between $75,000 and $95,000 in income for singles and $150,000 and $170,000 for couples.

Under the state plan, if you buy a newly built home in California on or after March 1, 2009 and before March 1, 2010, you will be eligible for a state tax credit equal to 5 percent of the purchase price or $10,000, whichever is less, according to Gina Rodriquez, Spidell Publishing's Sacramento editor. The credit must be spread over three years, and you don't have to be a first-time buyer.

Within one week of the sale, the seller must certify to the California Franchise Tax Board that the home was new and unoccupied. The state has set aside $100 million for this program and will dole it out on a first come, first served basis. There is no income limit on the credit, but it's nonrefundable: You can't benefit from it if you don't pay state taxes.

You'll have to pay back the state credit if you don't live in the home for two years, and repay the federal credit if you move out before three years.

In the weeks ahead, I'll try to explain more details of these plans. If you have questions, drop me an e-mail and I'll answer as many as possible in my column.

Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-mail Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.

Kathleen Pender

Near Patterson California!!!!!!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/
Please watch the video. I found this very educational.

As the housing bubble burst and trillions of dollars' worth of toxic mortgages began to go bad in 2007, fear spread through the massive firms that form the heart of Wall Street. By the spring of 2008, burdened by billions of dollars of bad mortgages, the investment bank Bear Stearns was the subject of rumors that it would soon fail.

"Rumors are such that they can just plain put you out of business," Bear Stearns' former CEO Alan "Ace" Greenberg tells FRONTLINE.

The company's stock had dropped from $171 to $57 a share, and it was hours from declaring bankruptcy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acted. "It was clear that this had to be contained. There was no doubt in his mind," says Bernanke's colleague, economist Mark Gertler.

Bernanke, a former economics professor from Princeton, specialized in studying the Great Depression. "He more than anybody else appreciated what would happen if it got out of control," Gertler explains.

To stabilize the markets, Bernanke engineered a shotgun marriage between Bear Sterns and the commercial bank JPMorgan, with a promise that the federal government would use $30 billion to cover Bear Stearns' questionable assets tied to toxic mortgages. It was an unprecedented effort to stop the contagion of fear that seemed to be threatening the rest of Wall Street.

While publicly supportive of the deal, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Wall Street executive with Goldman Sachs, was uncomfortable with government interference in the markets. That summer, he issued a warning to his former colleagues not to expect future government bailouts, saying he was concerned about a legal concept known as moral hazard.

Within months, however, Paulson would witness the virtual collapse of the giant mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and preside over their takeover by the federal government.

The episode sent shockwaves through the economy as confidence in Wall Street began to evaporate. Within days, in September 2008, another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, was on the brink of collapse. Once again, there were calls for Bernanke and Paulson to bail out the Wall Street giant. But Paulson was under intense political pressure from conservative Republicans in Washington to invoke moral hazard and let the company fail.

"You had a conservative secretary of the Treasury and conservative administration. There was right-wing criticism over Bear Stearns," says Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Paulson pushed Lehman's CEO Dick Fuld to find a buyer for his ailing company. But no company would buy Lehman unless the government offered a deal similar to the one Bear Stearns had received. Paulson refused, and Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.

FRONTLINE then chronicles the disaster that followed. Within 24 hours, the stock market crashed, and credit markets around the world froze. "We're no longer talking about mortgages," says economist Gertler. "We're talking about car loans, loans to small businesses, commercial paper borrowing by large banks. This is like a disease spreading."

"I think that the secretary of the Treasury could not fully comprehend what that linkage was and the extent to which this would materialize into problems," says former Lehman board member Henry Kaufman.

Paulson was thunderstruck. "This is the utter nightmare of an economic policy-maker," Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman tells FRONTLINE. "You may have just made the decision that destroyed the world. Absolutely terrifying moment."

In response, Paulson and Bernanke would propose -- and Congress would eventually pass -- a $700 billion bailout plan. FRONTLINE goes inside the deliberations surrounding the passage of the legislation and examines its unsuccessful implementation.

"Many Americans still don't understand what has happened to the economy," FRONTLINE producer/director Michael Kirk says. "How did it all go so bad so quickly? Who is responsible? How effective has the response from Washington and Wall Street been? Those are the questions at the heart of Inside the Meltdown."

Tax Incentives to Spur Energy Savings and Green Jobs —
This provision is designed to help promote energy-efficient investments in homes by extending and expanding tax credits through 2010 for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation.


Landmark Energy Savings —
This provision provides $5 Billion for energy efficient improvements for more than one million modest-income homes through weatherization. According to some estimates, this can help modest-income families save an average of $350 a year on heating and air conditioning bills.

Expanding Housing Assistance—
This provision increases support for several critical housing programs. It includes $2 Billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to help communities purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed, vacant properties.

More Help for Homeowners in the Future
Another thing to keep an eye on in the coming weeks is President Obama’s plan to help struggling borrowers before they are faced with a default on their mortgage.

According to reports, the Obama administration is discussing plans to help borrowers who are struggling to stay afloat, but who have not yet fallen behind on their payments. At this point, details are scarce; however, reports indicate that President Obama is looking to spend approximately $50 Billion to directly help homeowners before they face foreclosure and financial disaster.

While this is good news for individual homeowners, it will likely be good for the housing industry as a whole. That’s because, assisting struggling borrowers before they default should help stop the wave of foreclosures, which are estimated to top two million this year. That, in turn, will help stabilize home prices.

The Economic Stimulus Plan is huge, and impacts a number of industries. I’ve highlighted some of the major provisions that may impact you now and in the future.

As always, if you have any questions or would like to discuss how this may specifically impact you, I’d be happy to sit down with you. Just call or email me to set up an appointment.

The 3 changes to the first-time home buyers tax credit program include:

Tax credit has been increased to $8,000.

Homes have to be purchased between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009

No repayment/recapture clause for homes sold after 36 months of occupancy and ownership.



1.The Tax Credit is for home buyers (either spouse if filing jointly) who have NOT owned a principle residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase. Ownership of vacation property or rental property does not disqualify home buyers from this program.

2. The maximum credit is $8,000 or 10% of the home purchase, whichever is less.

3.The credit is available for homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 31, 2009.

4.To qualify for the full tax credit, married couples' modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) should be under $150,000 and single filers' MAGI should be less than $75,000. Partial tax credits may be available for married couples with MAGI incomes of over $150,000 but under $170,000 and single filers with incomes over $75,000 but under $95,000. If married couples who qualify for the first-time tax credit file separately, they would both claim 5% of the home purchase or $4,000 each (whichever is less) on their tax returns.

5.Home buyers who qualify for this program, but who do not intend to purchase a home till the end of 2009, may elect to alter their tax withholdings (up to the amount of the of the tax credit) in order to save up money for a down payment. However, if the purchase of the home does not occur, the taxes must be repaid to the IRS.

6.There is no recapture or repayment clause IF the home is owned for at least 36 months.

7.The effective date of purchase for new construction (even if buyer owns title to the lot) is the date the owner first occupies the house. So even if construction began in 2008, as long as the home and buyers qualify for the tax credit, they will be eligible if they take possession any time during 2009. However, new construction bought from the builder is only eligible if the settlement date (closing) takes place between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009.

8.The law allows taxpayers to elect to treat qualified 2009 purchases as a 2008 purchase so that they can receive the tax credit on their 2008 tax returns.

9.The full amount of the eligible tax credit is refunded to the buyer, regardless of whether the buyer has paid an equivalent amount in taxes.