Coming Double Dip For Real Estate
Real-estate attorney Stephen Meister on why he feels a double-dip recession is coming in the housing market.
Be sure to view my recent prior posts on the double dip for San Diego housing market:
San Diego real estate 2010 2nd. half outlook
San Diego home value forecast
Home Builders To Sue EPA
lead based paint
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a coalition of housing industry groups recently announced plans to file a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for removing the “opt-out” provision from its Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting rule (LRRP). The rule applies to homes constructed before 1978 when lead paint was banned. Its opt-out provision, which expired July 6, let consumers allow contractors to bypass extra preparation, clean-up, and recordkeeping requirements in homes where there were no children under age 6 or pregnant women, thus avoiding additional costs. Read more 
California Homeowners – Mechanic’s Liens
California homeowners lien
The California Constitution gives workers the right to record a mechanic’s lien for the value of labor and materials provided for the improvement of real property prior to filing an action against the owner of the property.
AB 457 (effective Jan. 1, 2011) requires that a mechanic’s lien and Notice of Mechanic’s Lien must now be served on the owner of the property (or on the construction lender of the original contractor if those parties cannot be served). If it is not properly served, as described in the statute, the lien is unenforceable. Read more
San Diego California Housing Double Dip
real estate double dip
In my 7-7-10 my post: San Diego real estate 2010 2nd. Half Outlook … double-dips I said that my local San Diego real estate market observations indicated that we are heading into a double dip for the real estate market.
Here is what Forbes just said: “The final figures for the U.S. housing market’s performance thus far in 2010 won’t be officially released for several weeks. But a review of the best preliminary data available indicates that the recovery in home values that began in early 2009 has stalled. A second dip is clearly under way in some places, if not across the entire U.S.” Read more
Commercial Real Estate … Shopping Center Vacancies Increase
commercial real estate
According to research firm Reis Inc, the vacancy rate in U.S. strip centers during the second quarter rose 0.10 percentage point from the first quarter to 10.9%, slightly below the 11% in 1991 during the prior real estate bust, according to the Reis quarterly report, released last week. Retailers gave up 1.85 million square feet of occupied space in the second quarter at neighborhood shopping centers, while developers opened less than 400,000 square feet of new strip mall space. That compares with an average of about 7 million to 8 million square feet of shopping centers built each year from about 2001, according to Reis. Read more
Million Dollar Homeowners Stop Paying Their Mortgages
home mortgage defaults
CoreLogic, a real estate analytics firm, reported that more than 1 in 7 homeowners with mortgage loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent. Whether it’s their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying mortgages at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population. By contrast, homeowners with cheaper housing are much more likely to keep on top of their mortgage. Only about 1 in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent. CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment. Read more