Automated Property Searches

The Southern California MLS system -- Tempo -- has just completed a merger with the MLS system covering the San Fernando Valley, making the Southern California MLS one of the largest multiple listing services in the nation. That means an easier search for you when it comes to finding properties in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and beyond, including Riverside and San Bernardino.

You may either go to the property search function on my website at www.juliahuntsman.com, or have automated property updates sent to your e-mail tailored to your specific search criteria, i.e., square footage, bedrooms, baths, zip code, city, Thomas Guide number, year built, and other factors. This includes condos and townhomes, houses, units, and commercial property. If you do your own search through my website, you will be receiving information that is current within a few hours as it is updated throughout the day. Do you want to know more? Just call me or e-mail me so I can help you as soon as possible.
Property Search,

Tax Time Concerns - Capital Gains

If you are not already aware, there are some exemptions available to your capital gains period if you come up against unforeseeable circumstances that require you to move. The Federal Tax Code provides ways a property owner can dispose of, exchange or sell an appreciated property and receive tax benefits. Some alternatives are described below.

IRC Section 121 enables a homeowner to exclude capital gain taxes (up to $250,000 if filing as a single, and $500,000 if married and filing jointly) if living in your principal residence as a primary residence for two of the last five years. Partial exemption is also available in certain unforeseen circumstances such as a move of more than 50 miles in employment, health or medical reasons, divorce or death. This can even include having multiple births which require a larger home! So if you were thinking of selling, and you may have one of these situations, contact your tax attorney or accountant to review your capital gains issues. If your home has appreciated little in the time that you have had it, your tax consequences may be very small, and your ultimate benefit may be very big by moving now. If you own units and live in one of them, you are still entitled to any applicalbe exemptions on your owner occupied portion.

Revenue Procedure 2004-51 also allows a property owner to convert a primary residence to a rental property, and later take advantage of both capital gain tax exclusion under §121 and tax deferral under §1031 by exchanging into a replacement property held for investment or for use in trade or business.


Long Beach, taxes

courtesy of Apiex.com

Tracking Recent Home Prices in Long Beach

So is it really this easy to see where home prices are going? This nice graph is courtesy of Altos Research, if you look at their page they have other graphs, such as time on market and amount of inventory, to look at too. The graph is showing you their sales price about single family home sales in Long Beach since September, 2006. They are not including condos.

If you look at Dataquick's January sales zip code chart, you can see some actual break downs. You might see prices have gone up or down in your area from one year ago.

If you're really serious about more input on decisions to buy or sell, try reading real estate broker and economist Gary Watts' 8 pages or so of A Little Bit of Heaven in 2007. Trying thinking about the long term view if you're in the market to purchase a home. So what if the price went down 5% from last year or it went up 5%. If you're going to be in your house for at least several years, the rise and fall of your tax deductions, interest rates and other future market conditions would probably make it all a wash. Your house is not a cash flow cow, it's a place of comfort and security. This report is intended for Realtors and was presented last Friday to our Board of Realtors, but I'm sharing it with you because it has a lot of good stuff in it! Just read it and think.


Long Beach, CA

First Time Homebuyers in Los Angeles and Orange Counties

There is a NEW First Time Buyer Program Available, through funds raised by Realtors and their Pacific West Association of Realtors who have contributed over $300,000 to this program--the “Opening Doors” program applications are available as of Monday, 2/25/2007. If you, or a member of your family or one of your friends, is a first time buyer, they may be able to take advantage of a new program that will give $5,000 up to $15,000 towards down payment costs.

Yes, there are guidelines and here are some basic guidelines:

Current upper sales price limits are $568,601 (non-targeted) for Orange County and $564,264 (non-targeted) for Los Angeles. Targeted areas have higher sales prices (geographic areas and income qualifications defined by California Housing Finance Agency).

Property areas must be within Anaheim, Anaheim Hills, Brea, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, La Palma, Lakewood, Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Norwalk, Orange, Pico Rivera, Placentia, Rossmoor, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Signal Hill, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, Whittier, and Yorba Linda and nearby county areas.

Income limits generally are: Current limits for Orange County are $97,320 (1-2 persons) and $113,540 (3+ persons), and for Los Angeles County are $83,160 (1-2 persons) and $97,020 (3+ persons).

Minimum FICO score of 620 for all applicants.

This program is designed to help people who want to buy. For more detailed information, a lender referral, active listings, or an application form, please contact me immediately!
Long Beach, Homebuyer

Rear View Mirror is Always Clearer Than the Windshield

Among the ten biggest homebuying mistakes: Waiting for a better market and interest rates.

You only have the market you're living in right now, and that market is also tied to whatever the economy around you is doing. Think about how long you plan to live in that property, and find the best loan for it. In the past, 30-year mortgages were just about the only choice. But the national average shows that most people move again in about 7 years, whether it's due to job choices or a growing family. Getting a good interest rate is tied to your debt and to your FICO score, and as long as you have lower debt and a good credit score, you will probably be able to pick out a 5 or 7-year fixed rate which could save you money on your payment. Even if you have to pick a more costly loan to buy a property in the naer term, you always have the choice of refinancing when the market becomes more advantageous. Remember, real estate happens in cycles, and you can't predict the future. The opportunities you see before you right now may actually work out the best for you in the long run. That is why waiting for a better market is only waiting. People typically look backward later on and see what it was they missed, and then find it all too easy to live in the past. Take a careful look now and do the work that is necessary to make the best choice possible.

Southern California, Homebuying

Happy President's Day

I think George Washington hasn't gotten a fair shake in the more commonly known portraits of him. One of his problems was supposedly the various sets of false teeth he had to use, and of course the oil portrait styles of the time. This life mask is a much more likely representation of his normal facial appearance.

He inherited his brother's estate at Mount Vernon in 1752 at the age of 20. Today's version of that estate is not what George Washington would have been managing in the 1700's--a very different world which grew from the original 500 acres to 8,000 acres divided into 5 farms, designed to be a self-contained, self-producing community with a workforce of slaves who later were emancipated in his will. While other people did the heavy lifting, George did all and more that management of his estate required:

He worked constantly to improve and expand the mansion house and its surrounding plantation. He established himself as an innovative farmer, who switched from tobacco to wheat as his main cash crop in the 1760's. In an effort to improve his farming operation, he diligently experimented with new crops, fertilizers, crop rotation, tools, and livestock breeding. He also expanded the work of the plantation to include flour milling and commercial fishing in an effort to make Mount Vernon a more profitable estate. By the time of his death in 1799, he had expanded the plantation from 2,000 to 8,000 acres consisting of five farms, with more than 3,000 acres under cultivation. Biography

Washington, and others of his time, was not given the type of academic education we think of as necessary today, but his education came more in the form of private tutoring. People of his time were trained in social behavior as well, including standards of behavior which George copied when he was very young, The Rules of Civility, standards which are just as applicable to people today and which should be required reading in my opinion.



George Washington, Presidents

Lenders Tightening Up--Take Care of Your Credit Ranking

It just can't be emphasized enough to keep track of your FICO score, because the name of the game is the higher your score, the more choices you will have and the better rate at a lower cost you will get. As more subprime lenders change their lending guidelines and cut back, as today's announcement concerning Washington Mutual's subprime division Long Beach Mortgage indicates, buyers who want to buy need to learn about what goes into the FICO score. For instance, length of credit history accounts for 15% of your score, and your payment history accounts for 35% of your score, as the graph shows. Keeping your balance owing on a credit card, for instance, to less than 50% of your total credit allowed is also a scoring factor.

No point in going out and buying that new car just when you want to shop for a mortgage loan, because you could be loading yourself up with too much debt. The mortgage industry started using this scoring system in the 1990's, developed by the Fair Isaac Company, and they have specific score breakdowns showing the likelihood of a 90-day late in the near future according to your credit score. If your score is 700 or over, it's 288 to 1; if your score is 600 the likelihood is 4.5 to 1. There are more features, plus the fact that your score comes from 3 agencies and each may be a little different, so lenders develop loan qualifying criteria based on your high and mid-scores. If you want more information, please contact me.

Long Beach, subprime

Live Close to Work

Under construction now from a major homebuilder in downtown Los Angeles. Live close to where you work in housing that starts from the mid $300,000's. Contact me for more information, on "Property Search" or call phone as given.
Los Angeles, condos

California Property Tax Rates

I just found that someone was doing a search term for rates in Southern California. Actually, California has the same basic tax rate throughout the state. What varies are local taxes due to bonded indebtedness and other county or district taxes.

The basic property tax rate is estimated by multiplying the sales price by 1.25%. This is a the base rate of a tiered formula which does increase incrementally with time. When buyers are in escrow in California, the seller is required to provide a tax report to the buyer before the close so that the buyer can see all taxes due, whether or not certain ones are levied that year. That way, there are no unexpected surprises and the buyer is supposed to have full information. These reports are ordered through an outside source company paid to search all public records for the appropriate information in order to provide full disclosure on all taxes to the buyer.
See more California tax benefit information.

property taxes, CA

California's Median Selling Price in December

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during December 2006 was $567,690, a 3.7 percent increase over the revised $547,400 median for December 2005, C.A.R. reported. The December 2006 median price increased 2.2 percent compared with November’s revised $555,280 median price.

While this is a statewide figure published as of January 25th, and the Los Angeles area's median house price of $584,600 is somewhat less when you look at Dataquick's figures (which combine house and condo prices), nevertheless, California home prices continue to reflect an economic fact despite a much lower sales volume than the last several years.

Long Beach, Bubble