Let’s all hope this bill passes. It will continue to spur the economic and real estate recovery.

WASHINGTON — Buying a home is about to get cheaper for a whole new crop of homebuyers — $6,500 cheaper.

First-time homebuyers have been getting tax credits of up to $8,000 since January as part of the economic stimulus package. But with that program scheduled to expire at the end of November, the Senate voted 98-0 Wednesday to extend and expand the tax credit to include buyers who already own homes. The House is expected to vote on the bill Thursday. Buyers who have owned their c... Read more

Recession’s over, but it doesn’t feel that way in capital area

It looks like the longest U.S. recession since the 1930s is over.

So why doesn’t it feel that way?

After four quarters of shrinking, the nation’s economy – as measured by its gross domestic product – grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

But the news did little to erase the gloom that has settled over Sacramento’s economic landscape like a thick tule fog.

Local businesses are keeping the umbrellas within arm&rsquo... Read more

Home Front: Quarterly home sales worst yet for Sacramento area

Sacramento-area home builders just keep singing the blues.

July, August and September brought their worst quarter yet in this long housing crash: just 616 sales in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, the Folsom-based Gregory Group reports today.

Actually, nearly all the region’s sales were in Placer and Sacramento counties alone. The suburban cities of Placer County accounted for 44 percent of third-quarter sales of new homes in the region. Sacramento County’s outer... Read more

California bill would extend tax credit on new homes

A popular state tax credit of up to $10,000 that helped sell hundreds of new houses throughout the Sacramento region earlier this year appears to be coming back.

A plan to extend the state tax credit to another 4,285 buyers of new, unoccupied homes in California – possibly as many as 500 in the capital area – is expected to receive a vote in the Legislature by Friday’s end of the session.

The buyer tax credit began March 1 and unexpectedly sold out by July 2 as many first-time California buyers combined... Read more

"We’re in a slow, but definite recovery mode"

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/real_estate/archives/2009/06/were-in-a-slow.html?mi_atom=Home%20Front


So says Alexis McGee, president of Fair Oaks-based Foreclosures.com, which tracks the nation’s foreclosure markets for real estate investors. Here’s McGee’s new national roundup:


SACRAMENTO, Calif. -While President Obama, Congress, and the American people debate financial regulatory reform, foreclosures continue to mount as embattled housing markets bump along the bottom. ... Read more

Sacramento area misses move-up homebuyers -- they’re staying put

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com


http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1959684.html

Almost four years into the real estate crash, a once-thriving sector of the Sacramento-area housing market – the move-up buyer – has become a virtual dead zone that must revive itself for a true recovery to take hold, analysts say.

Even as real estate rocks with enthusiastic first-time buyers and investors – accounting for up to two-thirds of area sales – one expert warns against being f... Read more

El Dorado County rejects some federal stimulus money

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1945169.html


El Dorado County officials turned down $1.6 million in federal stimulus funds, leaving an ideologically diverse group, including affordable-housing advocates and local contractors, angry and perplexed.

The Board of Supervisors last week twice rejected what staff members described as no-strings-attached funding.

"It’s as close to a no-brainer as I’ve ever seen come before this board," Richard ... Read more

Waiting game on low mortgage rates backfires

By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com


http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1903523.html


Sacramento-area homeowners and prospective first-time homebuyers might be wondering: Did we miss the boat on mortgage rates?

The short answer from experts is: Probably, but rates are still very attractive.

For 10 weeks, mortgage rates were riding well below 5 percent on 30-year loans, but housing and industry analysts speculated that many first-time homebuyers and homeowners looking to refinance existing mo... Read more

Home Front: European media want close-ups of capital-area housing crash

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com


http://www.sacbee.com/736/story/1883525.html

Europeans are making Sacramento a regular stop on media expeditions to the housing crisis that has been pounding their banks.

This year, Home Front has received inquiries from a Swiss newspaper, a German magazine, a Dutch television show and most recently a German public TV program about finding places that reveal California’s housing crash and the people who have endured it.

Kno... Read more

Home Front: Fewer empty new homes means supply, demand in balance

ShareThisBy Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, Apr. 10, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
The first quarterly report on new-home sales in the Sacramento area during 2009 is in – and there’s one good sign amid a new low of 699 sales in January, February and March.

Excess supply – houses built or almost built without buyers – are back to lows last seen in mid-2004 and early 2005, the height of the buying frenzy.

The tally as March ended was 1,159 empty houses in El D... Read more

Home Front: Don’t expect those Bay Area shoppers anytime soon
ShareThisBy Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 3, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
In area conversations about real estate it’s often an act of faith that a widening gap between Sacramento and Bay Area home prices might soon spark a new migration east to buy houses cheap and put an end to free-falling prices here.

Nice theory. But wrong.

The once-widening gap that seemed to promise help has already closed. While 17 months ago the median sales price in Santa Clara Cou... Read more

Home Front: Don’t expect those Bay Area shoppers anytime soon

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, Apr. 3, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
In area conversations about real estate it’s often an act of faith that a widening gap between Sacramento and Bay Area home prices might soon spark a new migration east to buy houses cheap and put an end to free-falling prices here.

Nice theory. But wrong.

The once-widening gap that seemed to promise help has already closed. While 17 months ago the median sales price in Santa Clara Co... Read more