Ventura County Real Estate Doing’s for Week Ending August 9, 2008
August 10th, 2008 Categories: Weekly Real Estate Activity In Ventura County
Ho…Hummmmm. It is summer and things are lazy and slow. Lots of time is being spent with the family and friends.
Most news this week continues to be on financial institutions but this will shortly abate and attention will be transferred to something else.
Prices for oil has been downward; food prices continue upward. People are holding off buying anything……they are waiting to see what is going to happen. It’s an eerie feeling; the lull before the storm.
The Olympics has given some reprieve from the negative news within our own Country to be replaced with the war between Russia and Georgia which is gaining greater attention over the last few days.
The national economic news was, well there wasn’t any. There have been a few articles I have read of coupons beings extensively used by shoppers to take advantage of discounts and savings towards food cost. Unemployment has been increasing which is never a healthy issue.
The news that has surprised most is the 2nd home tax action taken by Congress in the recently passed housing bill. The focus is on “principal” residence. One owning a number of properties would strategically sell properties at a time that would yield escape from taxation on monies (profits).
The new law stipulates that if you buy a 2nd home or an investment property after January 1, 2008 convert it later into your principal residence and then sell, you will have to allocate any gain from the sale between periods of qualified and non-qualified usage.
The bottom line being that Uncle Sam snipped off a tax loop hole necessitating a review by people who wish to buy a second home or investment property.
The other real estate news was issued by PMI Group who state that real estate is showing signs of improvement throughout the United States except for California and Florida which they say will deteriorate further. The highest risk areas listed by this group are: Riverside/San Bernardino-Ontario; Fort Lauderdale; West Palm Beach; Orlando; Las Vegas; Tampa-St. Petersburg; Santa Ana-Anaheim; Los Angeles-Long Beach; Miami-Miami Beach and Sacramento.
In an article entitled “What The Rich Think Of Real Estate)http://www.venturacountyretalk.com/2008/08/02/what-the-rich-think-of-real-estate/ it was mentioned that some rich people would move if certain zip codes were available.
From Deans Guide (April 20,2008) and the Chicago Sun Times (April 20,2008) “Realtors Sales Dream #1: Top Zip Codes and Real Estate”, the following is the recent list of those “rich” zip codes.
Going’s On In Ventura County Real Estate:
Within Ventura County it is summer and the fair is on-going so real estate was ho-hum for the week.
Listings continue to fall; days on the market of sold homes is now approximately 80 days (down significantlyfrom January when it was about 120 days; the variance between list price and final sales price is saw-toothing. Much depends on the sales range of the home. Higher price homes are now tending to give more (or accept less) than in previous weeks. And actual sales price averages continue to fall.
County area with the highest sales to list price variance were Santa Rosa Valley and Ojai this past week.
Capsule Summary Of Sales In Ventura County for period Jan. 1 thru July 31, 2008.
For those interested in trends the following chart is a summary of sales for this year through July 31 compared to prior years starting in 1994. From the data it appears that average actual sales price for homes will be settling in the year 2003-2004 price range. Somewhere between $ 463,000 and $ 585,000 will be the base that we are now entering and it is from this base that we will see price increases.
Your comments are welcomed.
