Pending home sales rise in California

There's another positive report about California's housing market today. The California Assn. of Realtors report that pending home sales in the state increased 4.4% in June from one year ago and were up 1.9% from the previous month, the second-straight monthly gain.

The distressed property share of the market remained unchanged from the previous month, totaling 47% of all sales. Of these 19% were short sales, dipping from 20% in May. REO made up 27% of all sales in the state, relatively unchanged from the month before. Said CAR President Beth Peerce:

Pending home sales have improved in the last couple of months and the next few months should bring continued gains.

You can read more here.

Number of Foreclosures at lowest level since 2007

Alejandro Lazo of the L.A. Times reports on Wednesday that the number of Californians entering foreclosure dropped sharply in the second quarter to the lowest level since 2007, "a sign the foreclosure crisis in the Golden State could be easing as the housing market stabilizes and regulators increase scrutiny of lenders."

According to stats from DataQuick, notices of default filed against California homes dropped 17% from the previous quarter and 19.2% from the same period last year.

DataQuick President John Walsh attributed the second-quarter declines to a steadier housing market. "Homeowner distress spreads fastest when home price declines are steepest," Walsh said in a statement. "And it now appears likely that, barring some new economic shock, the worst of the price declines are behind us."

You can read the entire article here.

Rocketdyne unveils plans for major development in west valley

The home of the Space Shuttle's main engine would be converted into a large mixed-use development if plans announced by Rocketdyne come to fruition.

According to Greg Wilcox in the L.A. Daily News, the company hopes to transform its 47-acre Canoga Park campus into a 6 million-square-foot community with high-rise buildings and 4,000-plus homes. The parcel is also adjacent to Metro's Orange Line bus route, and company officials said it was an ideal location for transit-oriented development.

United Technologies, Rocketdyne's parent company, recently filed preliminary plans for the site with the city of L.A. City Council Member Dennis Zine, who represents the area, blasted the proposal, saying he wanted the site preserved for manufacturing.

It will undoubtedly be years before any development gets under way, but it's an intriguing proposal for an already high-density part of the West Valley.

Governor Signs Map Extension Bill

Gov. Jerry Brown announced today that he has signed AB 208, which extends previously approved subdivision maps for another two years. As we reported recently, the bill - authored by Democratic Assembly Member Felipe Fuentes of Sylmar - is extremely important to the homebuilding industry.

AB 208 is an urgency measure that will assist the California economy as well as local economies by legislatively extending the expiration date of existing and unexpired tentative tract maps and parcel maps for a period of 24 months. The bill will build upon the previous extension granted by AB 333 (Fuentes) from 2009.

With nearly 2,500 approved tentative tract maps representing nearly 330,000 housing units, this measure will help ensure that builders and developers do not lose significant economic investments made to-date by forcing the project proponent to begin the costly entitlement process anew.

This measure is necessary so that when the resurgence in the economy and the housing sector does occur California’s construction industry will be poised to recover as the economy begins to grow.

The BIA thanks the Governor for signing this important bill, which goes into effect immediately.

UPDATE, 12:36 pm: CBIA is asking members who will benefit from the legislation to thank the Governor and Assembly Member Fuentes. Here are letter templates for you to use. 

Click here to download a “Thank You” letter template to the Governor.

Click here to download a “Thank You” letter template to Assemblyman Fuentes.

Economist Nails It: Now's a great time to buy

Economist Michael T. Bond at the University of Arizona nails it in a letter to the editor in today's Wall Street Journal. Since Rupert Murdoch has bigger fish to fry these days, we'll quote it verbatim:

The significant reduction in home values has made buying a home today a good deal. Historically, home price-to-rent ratios have been around 15 for the last 50 years, with this ratio reaching 21 at the peak of the housing bubble. Given that price-to-rent ratios are now around 13, this makes homeownership at current prices an especially attractive proposition.

Update: Time magazine agrees!

No one knows what the economy or the stock market will do over the next six months. But when your time horizon is 20 years, the outlook is actually a lot clearer. And right now, all the trends are lining up to make real estate a fantastic long-term buy.