Best Realty's Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog » Lake Oroville

There Goes The Neighborhood?

Mark Wisterman — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:51:00 +0000

In the nearly 18 years that I have been actively negotiating on behalf of buyers and sellers in the Lake Oroville real estate market, I have been involved in numerous transactions involving property located in the Kelly Ridge Subdivision.
For those of you unfamiliar with Kelly Ridge, it is a nice community overlooking Lake Oroville and Bidwell Marina; with a 9 hole golf course intertwined among many of the homes. For the most part it is a quiet neighborhood and pride of ownership is evident as you drive through the community’s winding roads.
As with nearly all subdivisions of this nature, there is an active homeowners’ association (HOA) there, as well as a document called Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions. (CC&R’s) recorded on each lot in the subdivsion. These CC&R’s are basically a set of rules established as a means of insuring a certain conformity among the homes in the subdivision, which in turn protects the integrity of the subdivision and helps in maintaining property values. For example, most CC& R’s that I have read over the years set minimum lot sizes, minimum square footage requirements, prohibit livestock, require that your RV be parked out of view of the street, and so on. For the most part, the CC&R’s in this area are not as restrictive as they are in the more urban areas, but are just restrictive enough to do the job they were intended to do.
The enforcement mechanism in these CC&R’s is generally the homeowners of the subdivision. If a homeowner notes a violation then he/she can normally take action to enforce the correction of the violation. In cases where there is also a homeowners association in place, the association itself can usually act to enforce the CC&R’s. If the violator fails to take corrective action, the complaining party, through a civil action, can ask a judge to force the violator to comply. As human nature would have it, there are sometimes instances in associations such as these where some get “too big for their britches, ” (as my parents used to say) and, in their own mind, become “Mayor” of the subdivision. Fortunately for the Lake Oroville real estate market, there are not many HOA’s in the area, but the 2 or three that we do have, have demonstrated, for the most part, a fairly reasonable approach in the administration of their duties.
But, as they say, the times they are a changin’.
The most recent newletter published by the Kelly Ridge Estates Owners’ Association (KREOA) contains what I view is a very disconcerting column regarding a new enforcement program they are implementing to address CC&R violations.
Now, before I continue, I want to be clear here that I am in total support of homeowners that want to see their neighborhood properly maintained. It is, after all, in everyone’s best interest that this be so. I just think this may be a heavy-handed approach that has the potential of causing a lot of unnecessary strife.
According to the newsletter, KREOA,

“……will contract with a person who will do as complete exterior inspection as possible,” to “identify CC&R violations on homes listed for sale and foreclosed homes owned by banks.”

“Both buyer and seller are to be notified that escrow will not close until corrections are complete.” “…..the notification letter will be sent to the escrow company handling the sale advising that they are not to close until we verify that corrections have been made.”

Sounds harmless and reasonable you say?
Maybe it is. But I do not think so.
Look who KREOA is targeting with this: “homes listed for sale and foreclosed homes owned by the banks.” Why are they not targeting ALL violators? Why are they engaging in discrimination in their enforcement of their rules? I will tell you why….because it is an easy target. But will it accomplish their goal or just prolong the process of getting the neighborhood in compliance?
For example:
What happens to the elderly widow who is trying to sell her house in order that she can move to an assisted living facility and needs every penny she can get out of her home in order to pay for her care? Let’s say she has her house on the market and has a buyer for her home who is willing to comply with any repairs that KREOA insists on being done. Because it is inadvisable that a buyer make repairs to a home that the buyer does not yet own, and the seller simply has no funds to pay for the required repairs, the repairs can’t get done and the house cannot sell. So the transaction dies, the widow takes the house off the market, and because the focus of KREOA is only homes listed for sale, the repairs never get done! Are you following me on this???
Here is another thing that KREOA is getting ready to do: They intend to hire someone to go out to the County of Butte Building Department and research building permits to see which homeowners have not pulled the proper permits when repairing their homes. Shades of Big Brother??????
It seems that KREOA has decided it is in the best interest of the neighborhood if they establish their own informal Kelly Ridge Association Patrol force (my words, not theirs)
Over reaction you say? I thought that too when I first reacted to the newsletter. Until I read this sentence in the newsletter that I think portends a coming conflict:

“If you have a problem with a neighbor leave a message at 589-**** and it will be handled by one of the Directors.”

In other words, if you don’t like something your neighbor is doing, like, as the newlstter says, leaving, “excessive amounts of dog poop in a yard constituting a health hazards (and driving neighbors off their decks to in homes with windows shut), call what I am now calling the Kelly Ridge Association Patrol People (K.R.A.P.P.) and it will be handled- whatever that means!
I wonder if all of the Director’s homes are in compliance? If not, I wonder how they are going to ”handle” it when they find K.R.A.P P. on their doorsteps. Or do they only intend to send a bunch of K.R.A.P.P. their neighbors way!!!!!
There goes the neighborhood? I certainly hope not!

A Market of Higher Lows

Mark Wisterman — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:12:00 +0000

My intent today was to report the weekly sales of the Lake Oroville real estate market to you for last week.
But during my number crunching I realized that it has been a while since I had updated my charts that I have been using to track the monthly and annual Lake Oroville home sales.
After updating these charts I noticed an interesting long term trend in one of the charts that I thought you needed to see. From past blog posts, you all know that I do not take the month to month numbers that are released into the media on an ongoing basis as important as what has happened over longer periods of time. I think the media is far too focused on what this month did compared to that month, which in turn has focused the consumer on the very same thing. This narrow focus is what I believe is going to cause many buyers to miss the great opportunities that currently abound in the marketplace as far as prices and interest rates are concerned.
Now before you get excited, thinking this is another one of those real estate blogs posts that tells you to BUY NOW!!!!, let me tell that it is not. This market is going to provide great buying opportunities, for those of you that still have jobs in this economy, for the foreseeable future. What I am telling you is to look at this chart and see for yourself what this Lake Oroville real estate market is whispering to you. When looking at a chart like this most people look at the peaks to see how high things have gone. What I suggest that you look at here is the lower side of this chart. The former stock broker in me says ignore what is happening in the high side and pay close attention to what is happening on the low side. In the stock broker world a stock that showed a trend of higher lows was one to pay attention to and was a good signal that the stock was poised to move to higher highs. (Click Here or on the Chart to Enlarge)
As indicated on this chart, the number of homes sold on a monthly basis in the Lake Oroville real estate market have been setting higher overall lows since 2008. The indication here is that, as far as the number of Oroville homes sold is concerned, the worst appears to be over and if this trend continues we will eventually begin selling units at a higher pace than the pace at which new listings are coming to market. It will be this difference between supply and demand that will result in an increase in values and prices. Let’s be clear here. We have a LONG way to go before any appreciable change in prices and values. The current state of our local, state, and national economies are now the main cause of the drag on the market. Unemployment has now surpassed the loan scandals of the past few years as the culprit for this ugly market.
Hopefully, information like this will keep you from being surprised while thinks SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLY gets better.

Oroville Sales Numbers Just Released

Mark Wisterman — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:36:00 +0000

Here are your weekly home sales numbers for the Lake Oroville real estate market for the week ending 8/25/2011.
We had a significant drop in the numbers across the board this week when compared to the unusually strong numbers of the previous week. The home that sold for over $600,000 in the previous week helped set up the negative numbers this week. To me, the biggest disappointment in this week’s numbers is the number of Oroville area homes sales that closed escrow. Only 5 this week coming off a count of 16 the previous week is somewhat disheartening. But, as I say: “One week does not make a market.”

MLS Stats for Oroville Area
Week Ending
Week Ending
Weekly %

8/18/2011
8/25/2011
Change

# of Total Sales
16
5
-68.75%

# REO/Short Sales Sold (SS)
10
1
-90.00%

% Sales that are REO/SS
62.50%
20.00%
-68.00%

Avg. List Price
$175,786
$136,780
-22.19%

Avg. Sold Price
$167,683
$127,600
-23.90%

Sold Price % of Listing Price
95.39%
93.29%
1.63%

Avg. Days On The Market
102
52
-49.02%

Total Sales Volume
$2,682,930
$638,000
-76.22%

Latest Foreclosure Stats Just Released

Mark Wisterman — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:30:00 +0000

For all of you interested in the foreclosure trends in the areas that I service, which includes the real estate markets of Lake Oroville, Paradise, Chico, Yuba City, Marysville, and Tehama and Glenn counties, here are the latest stats as compiled by ForeclosureRadar.com
These one year charts show that an interesting long term trend has begun to develop that we have not heard too much about in the media. These charts are beginning to show significant reductions in the number of foreclosures filings taking  place. Although the charts are a little roller-coaster-like when looking at the monthly numbers, the overall trend is slowly working its way down.
To be sure, we are certainly not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination when it comse to the impact foreclosures are having on the overall value of the home across the state.  It is encouraging to see that the long term trend is beginning to head south ever so slightly. Will it stay down? That is hard to say given the recent events with the foolishness surrounding the debt ceiling, stock market gyrations, and the fact that consumers have a general feeling of despair when it comes to the current economic climate in which we find ourselves. What I do know is that with the media so focused on the incompetence in Washington, D.C. there is a good chance that this news will not be considered important enough to share, simply because it is not “dramatic” enough.
On this blog site we take the drama out of the market and replace it with just the facts so you can decide for yourself what is happening.
I have placed links at the bottom of this posting for each area of the real estate market I service. Click on whichever area in which you are interested in seeing.
Oroville Foreclosure Report      Chico Foreclosure Report
Paradise Forclosure Report      Marysville Foreclosure Report
Yuba City Foreclosure Report     Glenn County & Tehama County Foreclosure Report

LOCK…LOCK…LOCK

Mark Wisterman — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:16:00 +0000

For those of you in the Lake Oroville housing market and the real estate markets of Chico, Paradise, Yuba City, Marysville, Gridley, Biggs and Durham, who did not see the Facebook posting I made on my business page yesterday at Facebook/RealtyWorld.CA, and, since I have not seen this recommendation from any other area real estate agent anywhere on the ‘net, I will repeat what I advised my Facebook readers to do:
If you are working on a loan for the purchase or refinance of a home, you need to have a SERIOUS discussion with your lender about locking your interest rate ASAP.

California Mortgage Rates
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30 Year Fixed

15 Year Fixed

5/1 Adjustable

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Home Mortgage rates

As a former financial advisor with a major Wall Street firm, I have seen this type of market volatility before and I will tell you that when you get the gigantic drop that the stock market took today and the huge drop in interest rates that came with it, there is a better possibility that that stocks and interest rates will “bounce” off these lows very quickly, then there is of rates continuing to fall in a fashion that makes it worth the risk to “wait and see” what happens.
There are two events coming up that make it a good idea to consider locking your rate as soon as your loan officer is available to do this for you.
1. The monthly employment numbers will be released tomorrow. If the numbers are at all better than analysts are expecting, or even in line with expectations, I anticipate that interest rates will tick up slightly. If, as some suspect, the number is worse than the overall consensus expectation you may see rates tick down on the news. But not by much (unless the number is some off the wall number like 10% unemployment).
2. The weekend is here. In a volatile market like this, and with rates as low as they are now, waiting through the weekend may cost you. If there is any positive economic developments from the international markets over the weekend it most likely will cause some upward movement in rates before your feet even hit the floor Monday morning.
Obviously, there is no way to know exactly what rates are going to do in the coming days, and , as I am no longer a professional financial advisor, the above comments should not be considered financial advice. I want you to be sure and make your own decision about this based on your current financial situation in consultation with your personal finance management team.
Related articles

How the Bond Market Relates to Your Mortgage Interest Rate (marketconsultingmortgage.wordpress.com)
Living in a low interest rate world (financialpost.com)
Market dive could rattle homebuyers (lansner.ocregister.com)