The report from San Diego’s DataQuick highlights how the foreclosure crisis appears to be subsiding after running rampant for five years.

“For more than a year, the general trend has been down” for legal filings that indicate mortgage distress, said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage.

There are several reasons that foreclosure activity is trending down. As home values have risen over the past year, fewer homeowners are underwater, which means they can more easily refinance or sell their homes if they have trouble keeping up with their mortgage.

Financial hardship is also diminishing. “The other big factors are the pickup in the economy and the improvements in job growth that keep people from getting in trouble in the first place,” LePage said.

On top of that, various new laws and legal settlements between banks and the government encourage lenders to pursue alternatives to foreclosure, such as loan modifications and short sales (selling for less than is owed on the mortgage).

While LePage noted that the effects of the law and settlements are hard to measure, the net impact is fewer foreclosures.

Most subprimes gone

Moreover, the bulk of risky subprime loans have already gone through foreclosure. Mortgages issued from 2008 “were safer and saner,” LePage said, meaning they are unlikely to have the sharp payment spikes of teaser-rate subprimes.

For the fourth quarter, DataQuick reported that 5,399 households in the Bay Area received default notices, the first step in the foreclosure process. That was down 46.1 percent from the same quarter of 2011. About half of default notices become foreclosures.

Although lenders can file notices of default once borrowers are three months behind, DataQuick said that Californians receiving the notices were a median of eight months in arrears on their primary mortgages.

Statewide, notices of default were down 37.9 percent in the quarter, to 38,212.

Trustee deeds, the final step of foreclosure, were issued for 2,765 Bay Area homes in the fourth quarter. That was down 42.8 percent from the same quarter of 2011.

Statewide, trustee deeds were down 32.4 percent, to 21,127 in the fourth quarter.

Looking at the full year also showed declines. The Bay Area had 30,046 default notices in 2012, down 30.7 percent from 2011. The nine-county region had 1,907 trustee deeds in 2012, a 41.2 percent decline from 2011.

While the numbers are the lowest in six years, many homeowners still struggle to keep their houses.

Oakland’s Peggy Hart, 61, for instance, said income from her day care business took a big hit a few years ago. Three years ago, when she first applied for a loan modification, bank representatives told her to stop paying her mortgage and she complied, she said. Wells Fargo gave her a loan modification early on, but the payments were still too high and she was unable to keep up, she said.

Changes are tough

Now her business and her income have rebounded, but her efforts to get a loan modification have been frustrating and unsuccessful, she said.

“I’m able to pay, I want to pay my mortgage,” she said. “I told (Wells) on the phone, ‘Please let this happen for me.’ “

Hart lives with her two sons, granddaughter and a baby great-grandson in the house, where they also run the day care. She owes about $200,000 on the house, which various real estate sites estimate is worth at least $390,000.

“Wells Fargo continues to work with borrowers on mortgage modifications and other options that may help them remain in their homes and avoid foreclosure when possible,” the bank said in a statement. “We have been working with Ms. Hart for over three years to identify an option that would allow her to retain this home. We were able to provide her with some temporary assistance in September 2009 while we continued to look at home retention options.”

Both foreclosures and notices of default remain more common in lower-cost areas, DataQuick said.

Over the past five years, 1.1 million of California’s 8.7 million houses and condos received a foreclosure notice, it said. Of those, 780,000 were actually lost to foreclosure. The others were either sold or the payments were made current.

At the courthouse auction where the final step of foreclosure takes place, about 42 percent of properties in the fourth quarter were purchased by investors, DataQuick said. That was up from 31.2 percent a year earlier.

Fewer foreclosures

Fewer people in the Bay Area and California lost homes to foreclosure in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier; and fewer received notices that they were behind in payments. For the full year, both notices of default (the first step in the foreclosure process) and trustee deeds (the final step of foreclosure) were down compared with 2011.

Notices of Default

Houses and condos, fourth quarter

Trustee deeds recorded

Houses and condos, fourth quarter

Sources: DataQuick, DQNews.com

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Foreclosures-drop-in-Bay-Area-California-4218858.php

City leaders and cannabis advocates say a federal crackdown on cannabis businesses has sent a chill through the real estate market, particularly after the U.S. attorney last year sought property forfeiture from the landlord of the Harborside Health Center dispensary – a case that is still pending.

“Ever since the U.S. attorney took their hard-line stance on property owners, property owners have been hesitant to lease space,” said Arturo Sanchez, Oakland’s deputy city administrator, who oversees the city’s permitting process for marijuana dispensaries. “That was complicated further after the forfeiture action by the U.S. attorney against Harborside.”

The one dispensary that did open over the past year – Blum Oakland on West Grand Avenue in Uptown – also faced reluctance from a landlord. Sanchez said the landlord of one proposed site for Blum had wanted a $4 million bond even though the property was worth only $2 million.

The difficulty in finding dispensary sites marks a shift in a city that stood only a year ago as the vanguard of California’s cannabis culture. The four approved dispensaries would have doubled the number of outlets selling medical marijuana in Oakland – even as the federal crackdown shut down hundreds of other dispensaries around the state.

But then in April, federal agents raided Oakland properties connected to Richard Lee, a dispensary owner, prominent legalization advocate and co-founder of the famed cannabis school Oaksterdam University. In July, federal agents taped their forfeiture notice on Harborside’s front door. “We really need to set some ground rules here where the federal government is going to respect property rights and Californians’ legal access to medical facilities,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, a marijuana advocacy group.

Gieringer criticized federal authorities for going after dispensaries permitted by local governments while allowing unsanctioned ones to flourish.

Oakland has a variety of restrictions on where dispensaries can be located. They have to be at least 600 feet from various places children frequent, including parks, libraries, schools, and other dispensaries. They are entirely banned from areas zoned residential, Sanchez said.

That in itself can make it hard to find a location, said an operator of one of the four new dispensaries, who asked that his name not be used.

“You have all these other things that prevent dispensaries in certain places,” the operator said. “You couple that with the fact that some people do have a moral issue with it, you really do limit your options.”

Repeated attempts to reach other operators were unsuccessful. Some experts in the cannabis industry said dispensary operators fear speaking out because the two dispensaries targeted by the federal government, Harborside and Lee’s former Coffeeshop Blue Sky, were led by people often in the media limelight. The camera-shy posture of the new dispensaries is most striking with Abatin Wellness, a dispensary planned for Oakland.

Geoff Spellberg, an attorney representing Harborside’s landlord, said property owners have good reason to be worried.

His client never received a warning, he said. The only explanation given by the U.S. attorney’s office for why Harborside was targeted was that it was a marijuana “superstore.”

“In my view, it’s a very arbitrary conclusion that they’re a superstore,” Spellberg said. “When is a medical cannabis dispensary not a superstore?”

Without clear guidelines about what’s legal, Spellberg said he would tell any client that leasing to a dispensary “is a major risk because the consequences are so severe.”

Spellberg’s client’s property is worth $2 million.

“The big concern I would express to a potential landlord is that there’s not enough guidance about what the federal government is going to permit and what they’re not going to permit.”

Matthai Kuruvila is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthai

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Oakland-pot-dispensaries-delay-opening-4168933.php

In the Bay Area, the biggest news stories of the year had all the familiar themes – crime, political scandal, money.

But this year, more so than in the recent past, it was largely about the money. California voters, tired of underfunded schools, approved more taxes. Facebook went to cash in its chips and tripped at the cashier’s cage. The Bay Area’s real estate market tightened up and those rituals of the past – bidding wars – returned with vigor.

In between, there were stories of heartbreak – Oikos University – and outrage – Oakland’s crime problem.

Here is a listing of the most important local news stories as voted on by The Chronicle’s editors and reporters.

Voters approve tax hikes:

The political pollsters, antitax crusaders and talking heads on TV all agreed voters would never approve higher taxes, even if they were sold as a “Millionaires Tax.”

Color them surprised because on Nov. 6 voters approved Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30, which is expected to bring in $6 billion to fund schools, colleges and public safety departments, among other things.

The race appeared close in the polls, and a late cash infusion of $10 million from opponents pumped intrigue into the shadowy depths of campaign financing, but it was too late. Prop. 30 passed 55.3 to 44.7 percent.

In 2013, the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians – individuals who make more than $250,000 and married couples who earn $500,000 – will pay for 79 percent of the tax increase, according to the California Budget Project, a research group that endorsed the proposition. The rest will come from a quarter-cent sales tax increase.

They said it couldn’t be done, but with other states facing their own “fiscal cliffs,” voter-approved taxes may look like a bridge to the future.

Chevron refinery fire:

It looked like a blackened tornado had frozen over Richmond. Then, the huge funnel cloud drifted east, dragging a toxic brew born from a petroleum fire at the Chevron refinery below.

The chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board called the Aug. 6 accident a “close call” that averted catastrophe and avoided fatalities, yet an estimated 15,000 residents visited hospitals with complaints of itchy eyes and wheezy lungs. For all residents, the impact of the fire was felt later at the pump: The refinery’s closure spiked West Coast gas prices.

World Series victory:

As confetti-dusted revelers said along Market Street, “Let’s do this every two years, San Francisco!” But next time let’s cut down on the bonfire-setting, bottle-throwing and Muni-bus smashing. The local team’s miraculous run – including six victories in elimination games – was blemished only by the mayhem that followed. Winning never tasted so sweet or sour.

Ross Mirkarimi scandal:

In a city that relishes scandal, Ross Mirkarimi provided a 10-month drama after he was charged with crimes that shocked the liberal conscience: domestic violence battery, child endangerment, dissuading a witness. The details that emerged after the Dec. 31, 2011, incident with his wife, Eliana Lopez, were sordid – a bruised biceps, a video-recorded confessional that Lopez said was coerced by a nosy neighbor with political motives, and accusations from two other women who said Mirkarimi was less than gentlemanly. It was all capped by an Ethics Commission hearing and a long-awaited vote by the Board of Supervisors.

Mirkarimi toggled between contrite and defiant, and appeared to further inflame his troubles when he dismissed the incident as “a private matter, a family matter.” Yet after he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, Mayor Ed Lee’s attempt to fire him fell two votes short on the Board of Supervisors, which reinstated Mirkarimi in October.

The vote may have shocked some, but in a city that savors its scandals, perhaps the only things it loves more are tales of redemption.

High court takes on Prop. 8:

More than eight years after then-Mayor Gavin Newsom told city clerks to ignore state law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples – an act that made gay marriage one of the city’s defining issues – the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in December to hear arguments on the matter in 2013.

The decision by the justices to settle the constitutional dispute marks the final stop in a long and arduous legal fight.

Since San Francisco first wed gay couples outside City Hall in 2004, nine states have passed laws that allow gay marriage, while California voters banned it through Proposition 8 in 2008. The 1996 federal law known as the Defense of Marriage Act also withholds recognition of same-sex spousal benefits.

But if Prop. 8 and the federal law are overturned after arguments are heard in the spring (an announcement is due by the end of June), gays and lesbians will be allowed to marry in California, and 100,000 couples will be entitled to federal benefits.

Housing prices rebound:

There’s a saying among real estate agents in the city: “It’s never a bad time to buy in San Francisco.”

That idiom was never more true than from 2007 to early 2012, when home prices were “depressed” by city standards.

That window appears to be closing.

Bolstered by the latest wave of tech job growth and a lack of inventory, the city’s housing market enjoyed steady gains, which helped raise the values in neighboring cities throughout the Bay Area, experts said.

In October, a study from the real estate service Zillow showed Bay Area home values rebounded by 8.2 percent in the third quarter compared with the same time in 2011. Listings site Realtor.com analyzed price change and supply/demand dynamics that billed Oakland as the nation’s leading “Turnaround Town,” followed by San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento.

While positive news for homeowners, the surge has renewed concern for the city’s renters, including working families. It’s always a good time to buy in San Francisco unless you’re the one getting priced out.

Oikos shooting:

At about 10:30 a.m. on April 2, One L. Goh entered a private trade school in Oakland and opened fire on his fellow nursing students and teachers.

By the time Goh, 43, had emptied a .45-caliber handgun, he had killed seven people and injured three at Oikos University, a Korean-based Christian school that catered to students new to the United States.

In the days following the tragedy, mourning family members and a shocked community asked one question: Why?

Those lost were Kathleen Ping, 24, of Oakland; Judith Seymour, 53, of San Jose; Lydia Sim, 21, of Hayward; Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito; Grace Eunhea Kim, 23, of Union City; Doris Chibuko, 40, of San Leandro; and Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco.

In October, a judge halted Goh’s criminal proceedings, pending a determination of whether he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Oakland police:

In Oakland, crime and policing continued to dominate the concerns of residents and city officials. Based on 2011 data reported to the FBI, the city ranked as the United States’ third most dangerous city. In 2012 violent crimes – robberies, rapes, and murder – were listed as up 20 percent.

Amid this backdrop, department officials failed to implement reforms required in a federal court settlement that stemmed from the 2003 Riders case, when four officers were accused of imposing vigilante justice on West Oakland residents. After plaintiffs’ attorneys called for a federal takeover of the department, city officials compromised by agreeing to hire a “compliance director” to bring the agency up to par and stave off the nation’s first federally run city police department.

In the last week of December, the discussion took a new twist when city leaders announced they planned to hire William Bratton, the crime-fighting guru who oversaw crime drops in New York and Los Angeles, to work with the Police Department in 2013.

Warriors eye waterfront:

Usually, sports teams move to a new city after the fans stop buying tickets, politicians offer too-good-to-refuse tax incentives, or the stadium decays to rival Candlestick.

That’s not the case with the Golden State Warriors, who play in Oakland’s Oracle Arena.

So in May, the plan announced by team owners Peter Guber and Joe Lacob to build a sparkling new venue on Piers 30-32 in San Francisco was as surprising as a behind-the-back dribble no one saw coming. And as dazzling, too.

The proposed arena, a glass oval on the waterfront with plenty of public spaces, is still years away from reality – the team wants to move in 2017.

Facebook’s flop:

In the days leading up to Facebook’s public stock offering in May – the most anticipated IPO since Google went public in 2004 – local economists predicted a run on real estate from newly minted millionaires, record Lamborghini sales and Champagne flooding the gutters of Silicon Valley.

Instead: Thumbs down.

Set at $38, the price opened flat, then bottomed out at $17 in September, and has clawed itself into the $25 range. Aside from the scent of schadenfreude that permeated reports of Mark Zuckerberg’s fumble, the flopping stock has broader implications. If traders can’t trust in Facebook – the blue chip of social media – then what sites are good enough for Wall Street?

Justin Berton is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jberton@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @justinberton

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Chronicle-s-top-local-stories-of-2012-4156379.php

California’s up-and-down economic recovery took another turn for the worse in May as employers shed a net 29,200 jobs from payrolls, a surprisingly large loss following the healthy gains seen earlier this year.

Some of the losses are probably tied to a slowdown in trade with Japan, which is still recovering from a devastating tsunami, and from rising gas prices and other costs that have led employers to put the brakes on hiring, economists said.

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“I see Japan written all over this report,” said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University.

Cargo passing through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach rose just 1% in May, the same month in which employers eliminated 3,600 positions in trade, transportation and utilities.

Construction was another weak spot, shedding 5,000 jobs, as the sour real estate market continued to be a drag on the recovery. Home sales statewide fell 13.3% last month from a year earlier, and home values dropped by 10.4%.

The unemployment rate inched down to 11.7%, according to the state Employment Development Department report released Friday. But analysts saw little to cheer, saying that the decline in the rate probably reflects growing numbers of Californians who have given up the job hunt or who have left to seek work elsewhere. Only Nevada has higher unemployment than California.

The trend mirrors a gloomier outlook nationally, with both employment and economic growth slowing amid higher prices for gasoline and other consumer goods and services.

“This is one more indication of how slow the recovery is proceeding and is likely to proceed,” said Michael Bernick, an attorney who formerly headed the state Employment Development Department. “It also raises a counter-narrative, that there are structural changes and the economy, in certain sectors, needs fewer workers.”

That’s not what Donna Smith, 23, of Salton City wants to hear. She recently completed a certificate program in business management from Everest College, a multi-campus vocational school, but hasn’t had luck finding any work.

“I’m looking for any basic entry-level position, but it’s kind of hard,” she said. “There’s not really much.”

The job losses in May came after the state added an adjusted 14,900 jobs in April, when the unemployment rate was 11.8%, according to the latest EDD figures. The state experienced five straight months of job growth from October through February.

Adibi sounded an optimistic note, saying that the Japanese rebuilding effort will eventually translate into more work in California. He also predicts the state will gain jobs as consumers start spending discretionary income on vacations and on items they’d been holding off on purchasing.

Japan, he added, “is just a hiccup — job creation is going to gain momentum as we go through the year.”

Technology is one bright spot. Tech companies in the Bay Area are on a hiring binge, helping keep the unemployment rate in the San Francisco area to 8.1%.

The San Francisco area added a net 2,600 jobs in May, while the San Jose-Santa Clara statistical area added 2,100. Employment in the information sector has grown 7.1% in just a year.

“It is shocking to me — reading the paper, watching the news, hearing the unemployment reports, hearing house prices continuing to slump — you just don’t see that in the Bay Area,” said Kevin Hartz, chief executive of Eventbrite, an online ticketing company that has hired 32 people so far this quarter. The firm has been forced to recruit engineers from out of state to fill some open positions.

The Bay Area is one of the few regions to consistently gain jobs this year, thanks to the information sector, but most of the state’s unemployed lack the education to work in the newly created jobs.

Prospects aren’t so bright elsewhere. Many of the state’s unemployed workers are trained in industries — such as construction — that have virtually disappeared. Job prospects in retail and trade, meanwhile, have been dimmed by corporate efforts to make do with fewer people, often by having computer programs and machines do jobs that used to require workers.

“Becoming sophisticated, more advanced and computerized may not pay out in additional jobs,” said Johannes Moenius, an economist at the University of Redlands who studies the logistics industry. “It could even mean negative job growth.”

Article source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-jobs-20110618,0,4509354.story

The San Francisco bay region is emerging as one of California’s fastest growing markets when it comes to the green building industry. Since the creation of Green-Real-Estate.com, the mission of the website has been to explore and bring to the forefront local green building projects, products and services. The site is excited to showcase the newest innovations, trends, and products coming out of the bay area today. Green-Real-Estate.com is shifting the spotlight to the San Francisco Bay area by utilizing social media, online video, and content curation to provide users with easy-to-use tools for learning more about the concepts, benefits, and how-to’s of green building and remodeling in California. The site is expanding to provide Californians with the green resources they need. Whether a user is looking for an energy auditor for a San Francisco home, an energy efficient home in Palo Alto, or are looking for an architect and contractor for a green retrofit project, Green-Real-Estate.com is now providing the information to help.

Currently, Green-Real-Estate.com curates over 1,300 green building videos representing most major U.S. markets, and that number is growing quickly. The website has made itself into a handy destination for learning about various local green building and development issues by collecting and filtering literally thousands of green building videos from all over the web, and publishing only the best videos for viewing, commenting and sharing by site visitors. “In fact,” jokes Craig Immel, Founder and Editor of Green-Real-Estate.com, “I’ve been thinking of creating a new tagline – “We screen thousands of crappy green building videos so you don’t have to.” Immel and a small team of local editors contribute their green building expertise and experience to serve as a “human filter,” ensuring that only relevant, reliable and high quality videos are published on the site. It has been estimated that on YouTube alone, over 35 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and with that deluge of video content streaming onto the web, it has become increasingly important that expert human filters collect, screen, organize and provide context to all of this new information.

Local green builders, material suppliers and service providers are invited to upload their videos to their local channels. “We’ve designed the site to provide a fast and easy way for property sellers and others in green building to easily upload high-quality videos to promote their green real estate, products or services to visitors on the website’s local channels,” explains Immel, a LEED Accredited Professional. “Green-Real-Estate.com is a highly targeted and affordable place to upload their videos and tell their story online.” Green-Real-Estate.com features a growing user base of real estate professionals, and earns revenue through limited local advertising and site sponsorships.

About Green-Real-Estate.com

Founded in 2008, Green-Real-Estate.com leverages the power of online video to showcase your favorite local green building projects, products and services. Connect with Green-Real-Estate.com on Facebook and Twitter. Green-Real-Estate.com is powered by Green Property Funds LLC, a provider of innovative real estate investment and consulting solutions designed to deliver superior financial and environmental returns.

# # #

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebgreen-building/san-francisco-san-jose/prweb8449501.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/02/prweb8449501.DTL

Why do we buy if it doesn’t make economic sense?

It’s the age old question, rent or buy? New York Times writer David Leonhardt tackled this timeless issue again in his latest weekly column. As he points out, all sorts of calculators live on the web for anyone to input a few data points to analyze whether it’s better to buy or rent. However, most of these calculators look at it from a purely financial perspective, whether the costs of buying outweigh the costs of renting. Some calculators are more sophisticated, taking into account often overlooked items such as closing costs, property taxes and the amount of interest or appreciation your down payment would have otherwise earned, if it wasn’t used towards a home purchase.

Miami Real Estate Cafe

The never ending debate

He also advises look at rent ratios, where the selling price of a house is divided by the yearly cost to rent an equivalent property. Fifteen is the magic number with rent ratios. Below 15, he advises buying over renting. Rent ratios in most of the Bay Area are still looking “bubbly,” coming in above 30 down in Silicon valley and the East Bay. In San Francisco, the rent ratio is currently at 27, still above 15 but at least closer to its 1986-2000 average of 24. The average rent ratio for the 1990-2000 East Bay and Silicon Valley was 26 and 23, meaning it has gotten more and more expensive to buy, though it’s less expensive now than in 2005 when the housing market was peaking. The rent ratios in 2005 were 47, 43 and 40 for the East Bay, Silicon Valley and San Francisco. So if it doesn’t make economic sense, why do people still keep buying?

Affluent people tend to want to own their houses, even when the dollars don’t make sense, and the Northeast and West Coast are home to much more wealth than a few decades ago.

Yet the fact remains that a lot of New Yorkers and Californians, among others, are paying a hefty premium for the privilege of owning.

A while back, readers commented on this blog that being a homeowner was a way to deal with non performing landlords. How much is that worth economically? Leonhardt says that our area is still in a state of “real estate exuberance,” but that given our current behavior and trends, it may survive.

How do you evaluate the costs of buying vs. renting? Did you buy even if it didn’t make economic sense?

For a full list of rent ratios, click here.

Posted By: Jenny Pisillo (Email) | May 13 2011 at 01:00 PM

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Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=88931&tsp=1