Mogul's advice to Realtors: Don't keep your day job

The Southern California market will get worse before it gets better, he warns a gathering. One survival strategy: Slash prices, now.

By Peter Y. Hong, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 3, 2007

Even Realtors can lose faith in the housing market.
Speaking to a gathering of industry professionals Friday, longtime California real estate titan Fred C. Sands called the housing market "pathetic" and said some agents needed to start looking for other work.

"If you've been in it for five or six years and are barely making a living, you might want to think about what you were doing before and get back into it -- you can come back in a couple of years," Sands told members of the California Assn. of Realtors meeting in Universal City.

In the short term, the local real estate market "is not going to get better," Sands said.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homes3nov03,0,7824038.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel

Arizona Housing Links

October 21, 2007
Homebuilders offer incentives, discounts
Misty Williams, Tribune

http://www.tribunehomefinder.com/story/100085

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New-home market flooded on outskirts as builders, owners compete
By Christie Smythe and Lourdes Medrano
Arizona DAily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 10.21.2007

When the market was at its peak, some of the hottest areas were northwest, southeast and southwest of the city. But now, buyers no longer line up to buy homes in outlying subdivisions. Instead, builders slash prices, pack on incentives and still are left with unsold spec homes and empty lots.

In many cases, homeowners trying to sell properties in newer developments are finding they can't compete with builders' rock-bottom prices.

Tucson housing market consultant John Strobeck, of Bright Future Business Consultants, declined to comment for this story. But previously, in describing his monthly sales report, the Southern Arizona Housing Market Letter, Strobeck said the market is suffering from an oversupply of both new and resale homes, and conditions might not improve until 2010.

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/207396

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Many Valley homeowners pressured or tricked into bad loans, experts say
Catherine Reagor
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 21, 2007 12:00 AM

Arizona is second only to Nevada for subprime loans, and the mortgage industry is bleeding billions of dollars from losses on those types of loans. Interest rates on the biggest block of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are set to climb by the end of the year, prompting market watchers to predict the largest jump in foreclosures to happen in early 2008.

Loose lending guidelines and speculators fueled the housing boom in 2004 and 2005.

Home prices across metropolitan Phoenix shot up 50 percent because of speculator-driven bidding wars. With little regulation in Arizona's mortgage industry, loan officers flocked to the state offering more creative, and often riskier, financing to any buyer who couldn't otherwise afford the rising home prices.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1021bad-loans1021.html

The Latte Era Grinds Down

http://www.newsweek.com/id/43345


Average Americans were living like the Riches, thanks to easy credit and the real-estate bubble. Now they're trading down instead of trading up.

By Daniel Gross NEWSWEEK
Oct 22, 2007 Issue

Phoenix Housing Articles

Here are some recent housing articles on Phoenix:

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1016biz-AZresale16-ON.html

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http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1015biz-economy1016.html

Housing worries generally optimistic Valley experts

Betty BeardThe Arizona Republic Oct. 15, 2007 05:48 PM

"Brutal" and "perfect storm" are some of the descriptions local economists now use to describe economic conditions in Maricopa County.

While things could get worse before they get better, the economists said the area also has a diversified economy and continued job growth that will keep the climate from getting overly gloomy.

Governments are already noticing that spending is slowing down because of sales tax revenues at the state and county levels, said speakers addressing the Maricopa County Economic Forum Monday.

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http://www.builderonline.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=26&articleID=591487

Ashton Woods Hit Hard By $10.6 Million Quarterly Loss
Atlanta-based builder is focusing on cutting costs and generating new orders through sales incentives.

During the quarter, the average sales price of this builder's homes fell 7.9 percent, to $270,000, with the biggest dip - 33.3 percent - in the Phoenix market, to $305,000. "Phoenix is one of the more depressed [housing] markets, with a tremendous price problem," Krobat told BUILDER during an interview earlier this month.

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http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/99713

Gilbert Esplanade sold

David Woodfill, Tribune

Developers of the planned Gilbert Esplanade have sold the property, becoming the second builder of a major retail center to announce an ownership change in less than a month.

Officials with Phoenix-based De Rito Partners said they decided to sell the site at Gilbert Road and the Loop 202 Santan Freeway to an Ohio-based firm when it was unable to fill an anchor space.........

Dawn McLaren, a research economist with the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in Tempe, said retail developers are feeling the new realities in the housing market. “Things have changed in Arizona, she said”

U.S. housing woes go south -- to Baja

'Flippers' from California who invested in the construction boom on the northern Mexican coast are now finding it difficult to unload their condos.

By Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 8, 2007

PLAYAS DE ROSARITO, MEXICO -- -- The ripples of the U.S. real estate boom began washing up on the shores of this beach town a few years ago. Californians, feeling flush from the steep run-up in housing values stateside, pulled equity from their primary homes and snapped up vacation properties in northern Baja California as if they were buying $10 lobster dinners................................

..............."The ones who bought multiple units are going to be in real deep doo-doo," said real estate agent Roberta Giesea, owner of Baja4U Properties. "The market has slowed way down."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bajabust8sep08,0,420904.story?coll=la-home-center