This is one of those posts for which I'm looking to hear from others... I was speaking to an agent in Marin yesterday who told me he has a client applying for mortgages as a first time home buyer... he assures me they have no blemishes on their credit, which is in his words, "solid."

Here's where I'm stunned... total lenders fees come to $40,000...

Yep, $40,000... it's a local lender and I've confirmed the number with another local lender...

Can anyone explain how this came to be?

i always find stores like this one interesting because of the papers influence on readers...

Real estate info flows freely on the Web

Not so long ago, real estate websites offered little more than a thumbnail photo of a house and puffy prose about stainless-steel appliances. But with the housing slump making home buying a more considered investment — flippers and investors have all but faded from view — consumers crave more impartial information before they buy. And real estate sites are tumbling over themselves to provide the freshest, clearest data available.

The result is that buyers are empowered with more data about properties and neighborhoods than ever before. The bad news? You can lose days wading through it all.

On the websites spotlighted below, and many others, you not only get the price and square footage of the quaint neo-Colonial you've got an eye on. You can also access details about schools, photos of its fancy faucets, virtual tours of the kitchen and videos of a walk-through. You can even pinpoint locations of nearby hazardous waste sites and any sexual predators living in the neighborhood.

The sites are no longer limited to those strictly buying or selling, either. Several give estimates of home values and details on taxes, the number of fireplaces and recent improvements to homes not on the market. That can be of use to owners who are just considering selling or those who are buying next door.

Four out of five buyers used the Internet to search for a home last year, the National Association of Realtors says. The number of people who can access these multimedia sites — heavy with maps, pictures, graphics and video — is growing fast: 55% of Americans have a high-speed Internet connection at home, up from 47% in early 2007, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

click here for the complete story...

Who doesn’t want a home with stunning views and a gracious lifestyle with premier services?! Two units have been combined to create this awesome penthouse condominium that has views spanning the North to South, from Huntington Park to the Bay. You even get your own elevator to bring you to your gracious and spacious formal living room and dining room, offering views of Huntington Park, the Pacific Union Club, Grace Cathedral and some of the most famous hotels in San Francisco. Living room also includes high ceilings with ornate moldings, limestone fireplace, and beautifully polished hardwood floors. This isn’t all! Penthouse includes large kitchen with granite counters, and multiple bedrooms with one serving as a home theater. What a perfect place to call my crib!

Click here for more information.

Although U.S. home prices fell faster than ever in the second quarter, the rate of acceleration slowed in June, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday. Experts hailed the slight deceleration as a harbinger of an eventual recovery in the dismal real estate market.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index plunged by double digits in the second quarter, falling a record 15.4 percent compared with the previous year. The index covers all nine U.S. census divisions. A 10-city composite index fell a record 17 percent, while a 20-city index fell 15.9 percent, also a record.

However, observers seized upon a sliver of good news: Those indexes posted a rate of decline for June that was only slightly more than the May decline of 16.9 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively. "I consider it good news that you're seeing price declines decelerate," said Terrin Griffiths, economist and industry analyst with the California and Nevada Credit Union League. "While the markets haven't reached bottom, we're getting closer to there."

click here for the complete story...

Tankless water heaters don't always reduce energy bills

STEVE BROWNELL has a dim view of his tankless water heater, and he's in denial about his utility bills.

Three years ago, the Irvine resident installed the heater in his 3,000-square-foot, single-story home with the goal that the unit would pay for itself fairly quickly through lower gas bills and provide an endless supply of hot water.

"At the time, I was thinking it would be a total utility savings -- gas, water and electric," Brownell said.

Think again. Instant energy savings aren't necessarily guaranteed. Although manufacturers estimate that tankless gas-type water heaters can save between 20% to 50% on annual gas bills compared with standard tanks, improper installation or product sizing can extend the payoff time. Also, large homes with long pipe runs may require additional equipment to speed up hot water delivery to fixtures and actually drive up energy costs. This was the case in Brownell's situation.

Click here for the complete story...

For additional information contact Victor Fisher at 415.720-6100

Newly remodeled contemporary condo just listed in Duboce Triangle!

Just listed in Duboce Triangle, a newly remodeled contemporary condo! This top floor condo includes 2 bedrooms and 1 bath with new bamboo floors, museum-style Mecho shades, silestone counters and glass-tile backsplash. Both kitchen and bathroom include skylights! Centrally located too! Just listed at $668,000. Come take a look today!

Click here for complete details

Bargain-hunting home buyers scooping up foreclosure properties deserve credit for some rare good news about the battered Bay Area housing market: Home sales in the region were better last month than they were a year ago, the first time that's happened since 2005.

But in Santa Clara County, where the foreclosure problem is less severe, home sales were down 13 percent compared with July 2007, according to a report Tuesday from MDA DataQuick. That decline was less pronounced than in recent months.

Median prices, meanwhile, took a dive throughout the nine-county Bay Area, partly as a result of surging sales of low-priced homes. Of the previously owned homes sold in the nine-county region in July, one-third had been foreclosed upon in the past year.

"The good news about this is we're able to put first-time home buyers into all these REOs," said Joe Brown, president of realty brokerage Coldwell Banker Silicon Valley. "REO" means the property is "real estate owned" by a bank that has foreclosed upon it.

Click here for the complete story...

Bargain-hunting home buyers scooping up foreclosure properties deserve credit for some rare good news about the battered Bay Area housing market: Home sales in the region were better last month than they were a year ago, the first time that's happened since 2005.

But in Santa Clara County, where the foreclosure problem is less severe, home sales were down 13 percent compared with July 2007, according to a report Tuesday from MDA DataQuick. That decline was less pronounced than in recent months.

Median prices, meanwhile, took a dive throughout the nine-county Bay Area, partly as a result of surging sales of low-priced homes. Of the previously owned homes sold in the nine-county region in July, one-third had been foreclosed upon in the past year.

"The good news about this is we're able to put first-time home buyers into all these REOs," said Joe Brown, president of realty brokerage Coldwell Banker Silicon Valley. "REO" means the property is "real estate owned" by a bank that has foreclosed upon it.

Click here for the complete story...

Bay Area home prices plunged to a 53-month low in July as a brisk business in foreclosed properties depressed prices and buoyed sales volume, according to a real estate report released Tuesday.

The median price for both new and resale homes and condos stood at $470,000, down 29.3 percent from a year ago, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The last time the median was lower was in March 2005, when it was $469,500. For resale homes, the median was $485,000, a 34.3 percent drop from last July.

A full 33 percent of all resale homes were foreclsoed properties, which banks generally sell at a discount - further depressing prices in the vicinity. In July 2007, just 4.2 percent of existing home sales were foreclosed properties.

The highest percentage of foreclosed sales was in Solano County, where two-thirds of all resold homes were foreclosures. The lowest was in San Francisco at 4.6 percent of existing-home sales.

A total of 7,586 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in the nine-county region in July, up 2.2 percent from a year ago. For resale homes, a total of 5,585 sold, up 11.9 percent from a year ago.

The Vision Report - Ron Parks from Jeff Brooks on Vimeo.

It's "The Donald" to the rescue.

Mega-developer and TV personality Donald Trump has agreed to buy Ed McMahon's Beverly Hills house for an undisclosed amount and allow McMahon to continue living in it. Details of the deal are still being ironed out.

"I don't know the man, but I grew up watching him on TV," Trump said in an exclusive interview with The Times.

McMahon, 85, was facing foreclosure within two weeks on his Beverly Hills home of 18 years. The aging television icon, who was Johnny Carson's sidekick for three decades, defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans with Countrywide Financial Corp. He said in interviews that he was unable to work because of a neck injury that occurred about 18 months ago.

Click here for the complete story from the LA Times...

Here’s a great condo located just off Third Street! Unit features a gourmet kitchen and an in-unit washer and dryer. You can walk to AT&T Park, Safeway, Caltrain and MUNI. Community features gym, spa private theatre and an outdoor pool so you can train like Michael Phelps!

Click here for the complete listing...

RealtyTrac®, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its July 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 272,171 U.S. properties during the month, an 8 percent increase from the previous month and a 55 percent increase from July 2007. The report also shows one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

“Bank repossessions, or REOs, continued to be the fastest growing segment of foreclosure activity in July, posting a 184 percent year-over-year increase — compared to a 53 percent year-over-year increase in default notices and an 11 percent year-over-year increase in auction notices,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The sharp rise in REOs, combined with slow sales, has resulted in a bloated inventory of bank-owned properties for sale. RealtyTrac now has more than three quarters of a million properties in its active REO database, a number that represents approximately 17 percent of the inventory of existing homes for sale reported in June by the National Association of Realtors.”

Nevada, California, Florida post top state foreclosure rates
Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate in July, with one in every 106 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the month. Foreclosure activity in Nevada was up 15 percent from the previous month and 97 percent from July 2007, pushing the total number of properties with foreclosure filings to over 10,000. Bank repossessions in Nevada were up 384 percent on a year-over-year basis, while default notices were up 59 percent and auction notices were up 31 percent.

One in every 182 California properties received a foreclosure filing in July, the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate, while one in every 186 Florida properties received a foreclosure filing, the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate.

Despite increasing foreclosure activity, Arizona’s foreclosure rate dropped from the nation’s third highest in June to fourth highest in July. Foreclosure filings were reported on 13,350 Arizona properties during the month, a 3 percent increase from the previous month and a 127 percent increase from July 2007. One in every 195 Arizona properties received a foreclosure filing, a rate that was more than twice the national average.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 were Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Utah and Virginia.

California, Florida, Ohio report highest foreclosure totals
Foreclosure filings were reported on 72,285 California properties in July, the highest total among the states. The state’s foreclosure activity increased 5 percent from the previous month and was up 85 percent from July 2007. On a year-over-year basis, bank repossessions in California were up 427 percent, while auction notices were up 67 percent and default notices were up 34 percent. However, default notices declined 4 percent from the previous month.

Florida foreclosure activity in July increased 14 percent from the previous month and 139 percent from July 2007. The state posted the nation’s second highest number of properties with filings — 45,884. On a year-over-year basis, bank repossessions in Florida increased 678 percent, while auction notices were up 180 percent and default notices were up 100 percent.

Ohio’s total of 13,457 properties with foreclosure filings in July was third highest among the states despite an increase of just 2 percent from the previous month and 1 percent from July 2007. On a year-over-year basis, bank repossessions in Ohio were still up 33 percent, while auction notices were down nearly 20 percent and default notices were up nearly 8 percent. One in every 375 Ohio households received a foreclosure filing during the month, the nation’s fifth highest state foreclosure rate.

After Arizona, Michigan documented the fifth highest state total in July — 11,591 properties with filings — but the state’s foreclosure activity decreased 4 percent from the previous month and 17 percent from July 2007. The state’s foreclosure rate — one in every 389 households received a foreclosure filing — ranked seventh highest among the states.

Other states with total properties with foreclosure filings among the 10 highest were Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Illinois and New York.

Top Metro Rates in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona
The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area registered the highest foreclosure rate among the 230 metro areas tracked in the July report. One in every 64 households in the metro area received a foreclosure filing during the month — more than seven times the national average.

Three California cities followed in the metro foreclosure rate rankings: Merced was at No. 2 with one in every 73 households receiving a foreclosure filing; and Stockton and Modesto were in a virtual tie, each with one in every 82 households receiving a foreclosure filing.

With one in every 85 households receiving a foreclosure filing, the Las Vegas metro area’s foreclosure rate ranked No. 5, followed by three more California metros: Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield and Vallejo-Fairfield.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., documented the ninth highest metro foreclosure rate, and the foreclosure rate in Phoenix took the No. 10 spot.

The good folks over at Roost just sent me an email to let me know they've launched their new home search service for San Francisco...

Three things stand out about the new service...

1. it's not terribly intuitive - instead of simply inputting numbers they have a series of sliders
2. compared to other services service like Trulia, it seems light years behind the times
3 Roost doesn't offer anything new...

I understand sometimes you go for a completely different look and feel to stand out in the crowd, but this was it wasn't for the better....

To each their own, plenty of internet searchers using Yahoo instead of Google... whatever works for you..

In response, here's what Roost had to say about themselves...

Roost (www.roost.com) this morning announced the launch of service in the San Francisco and Seattle real estate markets, giving local home buyers the most accurate and up-to-date listings of single-family homes, new construction and for sale by owner properties on the Web.

Roost is a blazing fast search engine with intuitive filtering controls to customize your home searches and find exactly what you’re looking for – with the confidence that the listings are completely accurate and up-to-date. Unlike other search sites, which often contain inaccurate or out-of-date information, Roost’s listings are powered by the Multiple Listings Service, the industry-standard database used by agents and brokers to share listing information.