Mortgage Relief May Give Housing a Winter Boost

14099 Brent Wilsey Pl Unit 3 San Diego, CA 92128

**New Listing!**

3Bed-2.5Bath-1,427 Sq. Ft.

Priced at $659,000!

Welcome to one of the best locations in desirable Cypress Greens community of Carmel Mtn Ranch! Enjoy fantastic views from private backyard & upstairs balcony in addition to spacious grass area directly outside front door! Home meticulously maintained by original owners & shows like a model! Boasts all the upgrades incl. travertine flooring, granite counters, SS appl, walk-in pantry, plantation shutters, crown molding, zoned A/C, fireplace, 2 car garage & more! Complex has resort style pool/spa, tot lot!

CLICK HERE for more information and photos!

404 W 4th Ave Escondido, CA 92025

**New Listing!**

2Bed-1Bath-816 Sq. Ft.

Priced at $399,000!

Great opportunity to own charming craftsman bungalow style home in lovely part of Escondido! Property sits on spacious corner lot and offers tremendous potential for redevelopment or expansion! Property features original hardwood floors, murphy bed in guest bedroom, ceiling fans, dedicated laundry room, quaint front porch, detached 2 car garage, large backyard, mature trees and more! Walking distance to movie theater, performing arts center, schools, parks, restaurants and shopping! Investors welcome too!

CLICK HERE for more information and photos!

C.A.R. releases its 2019 California Housing Market Forecast

Market shift underway as housing shortage issue becomes demand issue

LOS ANGELES – A combination of high home prices and eroding affordability is expected to cut into housing demand and contribute to a weaker housing market in 2019, and 2018 home sales will register lower for the first time in four years, according to a housing and economic forecast released today by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ (C.A.R.).

C.A.R.’s “2019 California Housing Market Forecast” sees a modest decline in existing single-family home sales of 3.3 percent next year to reach 396,800 units, down from the projected 2018 sales figure of 410,460. The 2018 figure is 3.2 percent lower compared with the 424,100 pace of homes sold in 2017.

“While home prices are predicted to temper next year, interest rates will likely rise and compound housing affordability issues,” said C.A.R. President Steve White. “Would-be buyers who are concerned that home prices may have peaked will wait on the sidelines until they have more clarity on where the housing market is headed. This could hold back housing demand and hamper home sales in 2019.”

C.A.R.’s forecast projects growth in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product of 2.4 percent in 2019, after a projected gain of 3.0 percent in 2018. With California’s nonfarm job growth at 1.4 percent, down from a projected 2.0 percent in 2018, the state’s unemployment rate will remain at 4.3 percent in 2019, unchanged from 2018’s figure but down from and 4.8 percent in 2017.

The average for 30-year, fixed mortgage interest rates will rise to 5.2 percent in 2019, up from 4.7 percent in 2018 and 4.0 percent in 2017, but will still remain low by historical standards.

The California median home price is forecast to increase 3.1 percent to $593,450 in 2019, following a projected 7.0 percent increase in 2018 to $575,800.

“The surge in home prices over the past few years due to the housing supply shortage has finally taken a toll on the market,” said C.A.R. Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “Despite an improvement in supply conditions, there is a high level of uncertainty about the direction of the market that is affecting homebuying decisions. This psychological effect is creating a mismatch in price expectations between buyers and sellers and will limit price growth in the upcoming year.”

Outmigration, which is a result of the state’s housing affordability issue, will also be a primary concern for the California housing market in 2019 as interest rates are expected to rise further next year. The high housing cost is driving Californians to leave their current county or even the state. According to C.A.R.’s 2018 State of the Housing Market/Study of Housing: Insight, Forecast, Trends (SHIFT) report, 28 percent of homebuyers moved out of the county in which they previously resided, up from 21 percent in 2017. The outmigration trend was even worse in the Bay Area, where housing was the least affordable, with 35 percent of homebuyers moving out because of affordability constraints. Southern California did not fare any better as 35 percent of homebuyers moved out of their county for the same reason, a significant jump from 21 percent in 2017. The substantial surge in homebuyers fleeing the state is reflected by the home sales decline in Southern California, which was down on a year-over-year basis for the first eight months of 2018. Outmigration will not abate as long as home prices are out of reach and interest rates rise in the upcoming year.

SOURCE: CAR dot org

Phantom Renters And Scammers Equal Serious Losses For Landlords

Renters aren’t the only ones losing money to fraud and scam artists. According to new data, a whopping 80% of property managers have fallen victim to fraud in the last two years.

A full 75% of those landlords were unaware of the scam until after move-in, only noticing when a rent payment was missed or another issue occurred. More than a quarter didn’t notice until seven months later or more.

By then, thousands of dollars in rent and other costs have already been lost. According to TransUnion data, an average of $4,215 is owed per fraudulent tenant, and that doesn’t even include the costs to evict, the lost rent during the months-long eviction process and the additional costs of marketing, readying and re-leasing the property.

An Even Bigger Problem

It doesn’t stop there, though. According to Mike Doherty, senior vice president at TransUnion, there are even more long-term costs to consider.

“Besides the huge potential financial losses, reputational damage is also a top concern of how fraud impacts the organization,” Doherty said. “With some of these emerging fraud types, such as synthetic fraud, the process can become even trickier as the ‘resident’ may not even exist in the first place. This saddles property managers with an even longer time frame for identifying and addressing the issue.”

Synthetic fraud — one of the more common types of renter fraud — occurs when the applicant creates a fake identity in an attempt to secure an address, open lines of credit using that address, and then run up the balances until they’ve been maxed out.

“Synthetic fraud has become a new weapon of choice for fraudsters in which the applicant is nothing more than a manufactured identity,” Doherty said. “In the rental industry, these fraudulent identities are used during the application process and if approved, the fraudster now has access to an address for the purpose of establishing credit. While the fraudster is running up high balances or maxing out credit cards under this false identity, property managers are left with a renter that does not exist and is likely not paying rent.”

The problem lies largely in online applications, which now account for 59% of all rental applications, according to TransUnion.

“Online applications are outpacing those that are submitted in-person,” Doherty said. “This shift to digital has increased accessibility and convenience but as a result, has also increased the propensity for fraud.”

Still, online applications aren’t all that’s at work here. According to James Hilliard, vice president of GM screening at RealPage, data breaches, cyber attacks, and easier access to falsified documents also play a role. Falsified documents only cost a few hundred dollars and take much longer to detect compared to other types of fraud, Hilliard said.

Proactive Prevention

Unfortunately, stopping fraud against property managers isn’t always easy — especially as scam artists get savvier. In fact, according to the TransUnion study, 95% of property managers say they have difficulty identifying, preventing and mitigating fraud.

There are certainly red flags landlords can look out for. According to Hilliard, these include things like exorbitant behavior, lavish income claims, refusal to meet in person or a thin credit file. Only listing friends or family as references is also a warning sign.

But noticing these things isn’t always a sure-fire way to recognize fraud — and denying a renter based on them could even pose legal issues.

“Oftentimes even these basic red flags can be deceiving,” Hilliard said. “Applicants live remotely, use a nickname or middle name, or are young or foreign-born and have no established credit history. What’s more, leasing staff individuals can open themselves to Fair Housing related legal issues if their fraud-seeking actions are not applied equally across applicants.”

Ultimately, the best approach is a multi-layered one, Doherty said. Properly pre-screening tenants, requiring all documentation and identification match exactly and using technology solutions designed to mitigate fraud can all help address the issue more comprehensively.

SOURCE: Forbes dot com, 

7958 Mission Center Ct Unit E San Diego, CA 92108

**For Lease, Available Now!** (LEASED!)

2Bed-1.5Bath-1,008 sq. ft.

Priced at $1,995 per month!

Light and bright 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom, upper unit condo in the heart of Mission Valley! Freshly painted interior and brand new carpet throughout! Hardwood floors, private balcony, spacious master with walk-in closet and more! Two reserved parking spots directly in front of unit. Complex includes heated pool and spa, BBQ area with picnic tables and laundry room, all walking distance from unit. Close to all shopping, dining, freeways, beaches and downtown!

Housing tipping back to a buyer’s market as sellers cut prices

After several years of rich home price gains, the market appears to have found a limit to what people can afford. Sellers are finally responding by lowering prices more often.

Approximately 14 percent of all listings in June saw a price cut, that’s up from a recent low of 11.7 percent at the end of 2016, according to a new report from Zillow. In addition, home price growth is slowing in nearly half of the 35 largest U.S. metropolitan markets.

Rising mortgage rates and affordability are behind the change. As the housing market recovered from its epic crash in the last decade, home prices began to gain slowly. And then they suddenly took off in the last few years.

The simple reason was supply and demand. As millennials aged into their homebuying years, homebuilders did not and are still not meeting the rising demand. In addition, millions of single-family homes lost to foreclosure were purchased by investors and turned into single-family rentals, further depleting the for-sale housing stock. The market was thus suffering a critical shortage, just as demand was taking off. Prices had nowhere to go but up. Until now.

“The housing market has tilted sharply in favor of sellers over the past two years, but there are very early preliminary signs that the winds may be starting to shift ever-so-slightly,” said Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas. “A rising share of on-market listings are seeing price cuts, though these price cuts are concentrated at the most expensive price-points and primarily in markets that have seen outsize price gains in recent years.”

While Terrazas admits it is too soon to call this a buyer’s market nationally, “the frenetic pace of the housing market over the past few years is starting to return toward a more normal trend.”

All real estate is local

And of course all real estate is local, so certain markets are tipping faster than others. In San Diego, 20 percent of all listings had a price cut in June, up from 12 percent a year ago. In Seattle, which continues to be the hottest market in the nation, 12 percent of all listings had a cut, the largest share in nearly four years.

In Austin, Texas, also a very strong housing market thanks to a recent influx of technology jobs, more homes are seeing price cuts as well.

“We saw intense bidding on homes over the past few years, but that is calming down with more inventory in the area,” said B Barnett, a real estate agent at Reilly Realtors in Austin. “Our inventory of homes is going up with new construction, and it is helping transfer power back to the buyer.”

Barnett, who said about 60 percent of her clients are relocating into the Austin market, is still seeing multiple offers, but there are fewer bidding wars, meaning prices are no longer out of reach. Buyers, she said, are getting negotiating power back and some are even able to get repairs in the deal. For the past few years, in most hot markets, buyers had to take what they could get — no contingencies.

There are still some markets where prices gains are increasing, but those are markets that have seen smaller price growth in the past few years. San Antonio, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Houston had fewer listings with a price cut in June compared with a year ago.

Among the largest housing markets, San Jose, CA, Indianapolis, IN and Charlotte, NC could see price growth slow the most over the next year, according to Zillow.

Source: CNBC dot com, Diana Olick

13408 Neddick Ave Poway, CA 92064

**New Listing!** (SOLD!)

3Bed-1Bath-1,278 sq ft.

Priced at $529,000-$579,000!

Beautifully remodeled Poway gem w/ entertainer’s dream backyard! Kitchen boasts quartz counters, shaker wood cabinets, travertine flooring, tiled backsplash, SS appliances! Family room includes wood floors, custom fireplace and huge permitted bonus room adds lots of space! Central AC, dual pane windows, ceiling fans in all rooms, solar recently installed, dedicate laundry room, entire house re-plumbed! Large backyard w/ multiple entertaining spaces, kids play area and more! Award winning Poway schools!

3386 Mt Acadia San Diego, CA 92111

**New Listing!**

4Bed-2Bath-1,400 sq. ft.

Priced at $674,900-698,900!

Welcome Home! This beautiful 4 bedroom “Mount Streets” Clairemont home features an updated kitchen with gorgeous counter tops, custom cabinets, & new Slate GE appliances. This turnkey home includes stylish floors, dual pane windows, central A/C, cozy wood burning fireplace, & is absolutely stunning! The turf lawns in both front & back yards provide you a low maintenance, water free outdoor space that is great for entertaining. Fresh paint inside & out, new carpet. Quick access to Mission Bay, Shopping, Dining, Freeways, Beaches, and Park.

5345 Via Bello San Diego, CA 92111

**New Listing!**

3Bed-2Bath-1,343 sq. ft.

SOLD for $655,000!

Welcome Home to your Fully Remodeled Clairemont Home. Located in highly Desirable “Mount Streets” Neighborhood, this home sits on large 6,400 ft lot just above Tecolote Canyon. Gorgeous Remodel includes Brand New Kitchen w/ Quartz Counters, Stainless Steel Appliances, & Modern Design. Open Concept allows for Huge Living Room Space w/ Breakfast Bar Area & Unique Feel. Bathrooms are light & bright & absolutely stunning. New Roof, Plumbing, Electric, Floors, A/C Heat Combo, Custom Closets, Paint, & Patio Cover. RV/Boat Parking, Washer and Dryer inside, All Appliances Included. Close to all shopping, freeways, and only minutes to Mission Bay.