Neal's Blog

It sure must be difficult to be a homeowner in Santa Clarita these days and understand what is happening with prices. In the last 2 weeks I have seen feature stories in the LA Times with topics about Real Estate that are all over the map. Sales are way up over last year but median prices down. Unemployment and economic uncertainty are going to lead to further foreclosures and price declines, yet hundreds of thousands of loan modifications are now happening and foreclosure inventory is a fraction of last year.  Interest rates remain low, there is virtually no new construction to buy and new listings are all seeing multiple offers. Any buyer will tell you that virtually any home--and especially the few foreclosures we have seen this year--have so many offers they don't want to even try. Yet, there are new appraisal rules that make appraising property and getting financing more difficult than ever. Oops, now there is a movement in Congress to overturn that appraisal rule.