<p><a href=“http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...03544906&EDATE=[/url]”>http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...03544906&EDATE=</a></p>
<p>Total number of home foreclosures (bankruptcies) as of April 2005:</p>
<p>Texas : 9266
New York : 1783
Pennsylvania: 3459
California : 122 </p>
<p>In my humble opinion, location is a very very important consideration when thinking about colleges and universities. The statistics include Central California, as well as the inland empire.</p>
<p>The link did not seem to work for me…</p>
<p>^ Here you go… hope this one works…</p>
<p><a href=“All News Releases and Press Releases from PR Newswire”>All News Releases and Press Releases from PR Newswire;
<p>The reason for the low rate of foreclosures in California is almost certainly the skyrocketing home values. After buying out my ex, I owe more on my mortgage than we did 17 years ago when we bought the home, but I have twice the amount I owe in equity. If I became disabled and lost all my income tomorrow, I wouldn’t face foreclosure because I could put the house on the market and and come out well ahead. Anyone with serious debt problems, facing foreclosure, would probably opt to sell their homes on the lucrative open market, and have no problem paying off their note. The 122 properties in foreclosure probably all were distressed properties. </p>
<p>Also, California has a statutory right-to-redeem after foreclosure, and a strong anti-deficiency law, which makes foreclosure a last-resort option for lenders as well. So it is an a lender’s interest to work with the borrower to find a buyer who can pay market price for the property, rather than putting it in a situation where the property must be auctioned.</p>
<p>However, things could change – if the real estate market crashes, or if prices decline somewhat and at the same time interest rates increase dramatically - people who have recently purchased or used creative financing to purchase (such as buying properties with large balloon payments, or negatively amortized loans) – may find themselves unable to keep up payments, and unable to sell their properties for what they owe. In that case you would see plenty of foreclosures in California. </p>
<p>So I wouldn’t advise moving to California and buying into the market at today’s prices. The last ones in will be the first ones to falter…</p>
<p>calmom, I don’t think house will crash anytime soon, not with these interest rates, but it probably plateau for a long time.</p>
<p>Well I personally think California real estate values are going to continue to go up for awhile, and then level out. I’m not selling my home, and I am fairly confident that my home=good retirement plan, though that is partly because I have planned things so that it will be paid off when I will retire, thereby providing me with extremely low cost housing. </p>
<p>But I’m not an expert, and the experts are all over the map on this one. I do think though that it would be risky to buy in at today’s prices, especially using any sort of financing that leaves one exposed if interest rates go up and the market declines. But that’s just simple economics – you don’t want to buy anything at the top of the market. It’s too damn expensive to buy into the market at this point in California, any way – who in their right mind would want to take on $600,000K mortgage for a 1,000 sq. foot fixer-upper??? </p>
<p>I’d note that the low rate of foreclosures is probably one more factor keeping the market prices high – there are no cut-rate deals to buy into this market. One reason that the market in California is high is scarcity – not too many homes available, so it still is definitely a seller’s market.</p>
<p>As a home owner, whose house is overvalued on paper, it can only make getting financial aid tougher…ah but I love SF</p>
<p>I think the Bay Area definitely will go up because it has not a lot land to build on but in Southern California there are a lot of houses, still I don’t know why things seem to jump 50% from last year to this year. I’m sure my income did not go up that much.
However, I’m planning to buy a second home down here but will limit it to lower value, certainly not in the million dollar because of the bubble effect. If the market drops 20%, I’ll loose less money on a small house than on a big one.
I did notice one transaction recently, the house was purchased for $895K(5/2004) and sold recently for $827K(2/2005), so it’s about 8-10% loss because the owner lost his job and he brought in at the peak. This is one exception where the owner owns the house for a short time (less than a year).</p>
<p>yeap, I read somewhere that home equity was not counted on FAFSA so I put d’s college money on the house, now it’s become an asset. oh well. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining because my house went up 4 fold. I do have this philosophy, if someone needs something more than I do then they should get it, it means that I’m fortunate enough not to need it.</p>