Dean Guadagni Helped to Keep the Public Informed on the 1031 Mess Surrounding Ed Okun

My buddy, Dean, over at Dean's guide ended his series on Ed Okun recently. Dean wrote over 70 articles on the scandal and massive fraud. Dean's series attracted a couple of insiders that regularly fed him the inside details. His series was picked up by news networks and helped to keep the victims up to date on developments.

Dean's series on Ed Okun is a fine example of blogging in the public interest.

Kudos to Dean Guadagni.

Foreclosure and Housing Price News for the End of March

MONEY Magazine: Latest forecasts and projections for the nation's 100 largest metro areas show Bay Area home prices settling another 5% to 10% in the next 12 months.

Prices of U.S. single-family homes in January plunged a record 19.0% from a year earlier, showing a U.S. housing market that is still in the throes of a deep recession, according to a Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller report on Tuesday. S&P said its composite index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 2.5% in January from December for a 19.4% year-over-year drop, also a record. The 10-city index dates back to 1988.As of January, average home prices across the United States are at similar levels to late 2003. From the peak in the second quarter of 2006, the 10-City Composite is down 30.2% and the 20-City Composite is down 29.1%. The three worst performing cities, in terms of annual declines, continued to be from the Sun Belt. Phoenix was down 35.0%, Las Vegas declined 32.5% and San Francisco fell 32.4%.

Coming SOON to a Theater Near You – Beware of Foreclosure Scams by the Federal Reserve: To reach more homeowners troubled by foreclosure listings across the country, the Federal Reserve will use movie theaters to launch its advertisements warning homeowners about various foreclosure scams. The Fed will run its ads in 28 movie theaters in 14 large cities with the highest number of foreclosure listings.

Homeowners who applied for refinancing to avoid foreclosure accounted for almost 78.5 percent of the total number of mortgage applications. The seasonally-adjusted index of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) for mortgage applications jumped by 30 percent as of March 20, 2009.

The California Association of Realtors posted some surprising stats today. Existing, single-family home sales increased 83 percent in February to an annualized rate of 620,410 homes. The statewide median price decreased 40.8 percent to $247,590.

“Home sales in California continue to be considerably stronger than the nationwide sales figures,” said California Realtors' President James Liptak. “The market will continue to register large, but diminishing year-to-year percentage gains in the coming months, as current sales are compared against the extremely low numbers that prevailed during the early months of the credit crunch.”

“The California median price has declined by a larger margin than the nationwide median price,” said the association's Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “This can be attributed to the under $500,000 portion of the market, which has experienced larger price declines than the other market segments due to the large share of distressed homes for sale.”

Real Estate Stress on the Spine

As a practicing Chiropractor in Livermore, it’s no surprise with all the downturn in the real estate and mortgage industries that a lot of new patients have come to my office complaining of symptoms such as neck pain, headaches, jaw pain and back pain.  

As stress increases, so does muscle tension.  Even though most people begin to feel the tightness in their muscles, what many people don’t realize is that these tight muscles are the precursors to pinched nerves.  Muscles are connected to the bones including vertebrae of the spine.  If one muscle pulls on one side of the body more than the other side, it can pull bones out of the proper position enough to put pressure on the nerves.  The nerves not only have the pain receptors to tell you it hurts, but they are also the message link from the brain to the organs of the body.  When pressure is placed on a nerve by the spine or muscles, it will decrease the nerve flow (messages) from the brain which can alter the way the body functions. This is why many patients who start treatment for headaches for example, will also tell me how the dizzy spells or balance issues also disappear. 

So to counteract the stress and its damaging effects on the spine and nerves keep the following tips in mind:

• When feeling tense and tight, take a moment and stretch the tight muscle.
• Find an outlet for stress such as exercise or meditation so that it doesn’t get stored into the body.
• Don’t ignore aches and pains as it may be a warning signal of decreased nerve signals to organs and muscles.
• If you feel pain in areas of the body, get your spine checked by a Chiropractor who can help to restore the body’s proper alignments and minimize pressure off the nerves.

More information can be found on Dr. Anita Haque's blog. You can email her

Homeowners Facing Foreclosure are Demanding the Bank Produce the Note

Here are five videos talking about foreclosures and why homeowners should demand that the bank produce the note.

More Information on The Consumer Warning Network

More Information on The Consumer Warning Network

More Information on The Consumer Warning Network

More Information on The Consumer Warning Network

Contact Craig for more info on foreclosures & short sales 925-984-4910

Dublin CA Housing Market is Not Following Traditional Sales Cycle

The home sales cycle in most communities follows a traditional yearly trend – active listings are up in the summer and down at the end of the year. Dublin, California, under pressures from a large inventory of new construction and a higher volume of condos than other surrounding communities, has broken the trend.

The graph below shows the Active Listings (top Line) versus the Pending Sales (bottom line) for Dublin, San Ramon & Pleasanton California from August 2006 to present.

Our FREE In-Depth Market reports updated weekly, break local real estate data down by zip code and price point.

If you get this week's Dublin California Market Report, you will see that the price per square foot continues to drop as do the days on market. If you note the Characteristics per Quartile you see the action in Dublin is in the middle of the market (according to price). The bottom quartile represents smaller homes and the oldest homes on the market. The upper quartile represents the largest square footage homes.

There are two significant factors that affect the Dublin market as compared to Pleasanton and San Ramon – new building inventory and condos. The Dublin housing market continues to feel pressure from builders discounting prices to maintain cash flow. The plethora of condo sales in Dublin when added to sales of foreclosures and short sale properties represents the majority of buyer activity in Dublin.

The median price range per quartile shows the same declining rate in all price points

This continues to be the best advice we can give to home sellers wanting or needing to sell their property in a timely fashion: How to Sell Your Home – Price it Right is #1

Contact Craig for more info on homes for sale in Dublin, San Ramon & Pleasanton  925-984-4910