San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 30, 2012

Climb Real Estate Group volunteered with Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco to help revitalize local neighborhoods. A team from San Francisco’s residential brokerage spent the day helping construct 36 affordable homes in Habitat for Humanity’s latest housing development in Daly City. Built on a raised podium garage structure, the new construction development will be Habitat Greater San Francisco’s largest affordable housing development in the Bay Area to date. The new, affordable housing development in Daly City is also a part of the Grand Boulevard Initiative — which is a regional plan to create housing and job growth on the El Camino Real corridor along the Peninsula.

“Our time is the greatest donation in making an important difference toward addressing housing challenges in our community,” said Alisa Albrecht, a Sales Associate with Climb Real Estate Group. “Having spent the day with my colleagues in moving Habitat’s initiative forward was extremely rewarding.”

In building the three-story condominium development, 7555 Mission Street is expected to draw the sweat equity of some 200,000 volunteers by the time construction finishes this year. Vi Pavlicevich, who helped organize Climb’s participation in the day-long event says, “As a life-long Bay Area resident, I was thrilled to oversee having my company be involved in such an important development that provides so many things to the hard-working families that will live here.”

Habitat for Humanity says the project will benefit the region by spending millions on building supplies and services, as well as the opportunity for more local, working families to purchase affordable homes. “My wife and I have supported Habitat for over ten years because we believe in Habitat’s ownership model. They teach potential homeowners not only about home ownership but community participation and development. In an industry where we tend to have a silo mentality, it was rewarding working side-by-side with team mates for a great cause,” said Eugene Pak who is a long time member and sponsor was instrumental in coordinating Climb’s volunteer day with the Habitat team. Aside from a mortgage, each family must also contribute 500 sweat equity hours to help build their homes.

Climb Real Estate Group, a San Francisco-based real estate brokerage, is very committed to the neighborhood it serves. Throughout the year, the boutique brokerage spends countless of volunteer hours from team members in support of creating affordable housing and community revitalization programs. In the past year, Climb Real Estate Group agents and management delivered a record amount of time and money to benefit local non-profits serving the immediate area including the San Francisco Food Bank, DIFFA, Rebuilding Together, and the annual Toy Drive for both Glide Memorial and St. Dominic’s Church.

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Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/Climb-Real-Estate-Group-Gives-Back-3676334.php

Oct. 16 (Source: By Eve Mitchell, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.) - More parents are helping their adult children buy their first home by taking care of the down payment at a time when home prices are low and financing is tough.Christian Fernandez has a place to call his own, thanks to his parents providing most of the 20 percent down payment and closing costs on the $345,000 two-bedroom condominium in Daly City he moved into four months ago. Without the financial help from his parents, Fernandez could not have bought his condo.

“Getting hold of that down payment just doesn’t come easy. … I had set aside some money myself but they supplemented it greatly,” said the 27-year-old, who works in engineering after graduating last year from San Francisco State with a degree in mechanical engineering.

“We are Filipinos and have taken it upon ourselves the responsibility of putting our kids through college (and helping them buy a home),” said Fernandez’s mother, Cynthia Andaya, 57, of Hercules. “Primarily, this is our inheritance to them.”

Fernandez is not alone. Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but from April to June 2011, 21.5 percent of first-time buyers received a down payment as a gift or borrowed it from a relative, up from 14.3 percent in 2006 in the same time frame, according to the California Association of Realtors. Realtors say most of the help is probably in the form of a gift.

Realtor Orhan Tolu has handled about six transactions, including the one for Fernandez, in the past

five months in which parents covered the down payment.

“The kids have the job and can afford the mortgage payment” but need help with the down payment, said Tolu, a broker with Century 21 Realty Alliance, which has offices in San Mateo and San Francisco. “It’s like an investment in the kid’s future because prices in the Bay Area are eventually going to go up again.”

Parents helping out their children with the down payment is not new, but tougher lending standards and low home prices have resulted in it happening more in the past few years, real estate industry experts say.

“Five years ago, prices were higher but financing was easier. A lot of people could qualify for 100 percent financing,” Tolu said.

“I’d say there is more motivation now. Parents who have been through previous real estate cycles see this as an opportunity. The parents are encouraging the kids to get into the market,” said Kevin Kieffer, a Realtor with the Danville office of Keller Williams Realty.

“Prices are at a range now that makes homeownership much more affordable,” Jon Wood, a Realtor with the Walnut Creek office of J. Rockcliff Realtors. “You can buy a single-family house in Concord for under $200,000.”

Some parents are helping out with the down payment because they can’t find an appropriate investment in today’s volatile economy. “They’re willing to help out their kids. They are looking for a safer investment,” he said.

But before providing the down payment, parents need to take into account that they could get hit with gift taxes if it goes over a certain amount.

They also need to be sure that giving the money away won’t hurt their own retirement plans.

“One of the things you should think about is whether this gift will be subject to gift tax calculations,” said Megan Rouse, a financial planner in Dublin. “It’s great to be generous, but it’s also important to look at your overall financial situation and (know) that it’s extra cash you can afford to give away.”

For tax year 2011, a taxpayer can give up to $13,000 per-year per-person (a married couple can give up to $26,000 a year) and not worry about gift taxes. Anything above the annual cap is subtracted from the lifetime $5 million limit for making tax-free gifts.

If taxpayers think they are going to go over the annual cap, they should first consult a financial planner or certified public accountant to discuss the tax implications, said Rouse.

Parents also need to make it clear that the money is indeed a gift and not a loan when they are helping out a child with a down payment. That can be done by writing a letter to the lender stating that the money is a gift, said Kieffer, the Danville Realtor. Otherwise, the lender will look at the down payment as a loan that has to repaid, which could make it harder for the child to get financing.

Even though home prices are at a low point, “the down payment can be pretty daunting in the Bay Area,” especially if the buyer is seeking a conventional loan that typically requires at least a 20 percent down payment, Kieffer said.

But not all down payment gifts from parents come with such a big price tag. Many parents are providing the 3.5 percent down payment required for Federal Housing Administration loans, said Kieffer.

An FHA down payment lessens the likelihood of running into gift-tax issues, he said.

No matter which route a parent provides a down payment to a child, it’s a “way to help kick start them into homeownership,” Kieffer said.

Contact Eve Mitchell at 925-952-2690.

___

(c)2011 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

Visit the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) at www.contracostatimes.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

A service of YellowBrix, Inc. Publication date: 2011-10-16

Source: By Eve Mitchell, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Article source: http://www.loansafe.org/with-a-little-help-from-the-parents

San Mateo County homes suffering from what is known as negative equity rose to 17.5 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared to 11 percent last year, Zillow.com reported. The change, driven by falling property values, reflected trends seen at the local, state and even national level.

For data on homes in negative equity by county and foreclosures by city, click on the photo to the right.

The numbers could signal another wave of foreclosures in the making. For residents with homes in negative equity, the options can often come down to either seeking a short sale, meaning a sale for less than the mortgage value of the house — or walking away and letting it fall into foreclosure, said Arton Chau, General Manager of Burlingame-based Home Buyers Alliance.

Chau, who specializes in negotiating short sales, says his clients are either encountering severe economic stress that renders them unable to make payments, or they can make payments but have found it makes more financial sense to let the underwater home go.

“For me, it’s really about getting them out of this difficult situation,” Chau said.

For communities like Daly City, already hit hard by the foreclosure crisis of recent years, the numbers could mean more bad news to come. The city had 791 foreclosed homes this January, down from 884 the previous year but still the highest number in the county.

“The foreclosures are absolute disasters,” said Daly City Councilman David Canepa. “These are the people who have been the fabric of our society. I saw the data, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better.”

Canepa said that foreclosures and negative equity impact the city’s source revenue of property tax, as well as the community as a whole. Though a renter himself, Canepa can’t escape the anguish of people losing their homes as he receives about two calls a month from people asking for help.

“It’s heartbreaking, these people are pouring their hearts out. We all got steamrolled by this economy.”

County Supervisor and Daly City native Adrienne Tissier said she began hosting foreclosure workshops three years ago when the first foreclosure wave hit.

“Everyone is talking about the economy coming back a little bit, but the foreclosure issue is still very, very real,” she said.

Tissier’s workshops aim to both help those who are battling foreclosures and those preparing for life after losing their home.

“My hope is if I help at least one person, that’s one more person that isn’t on the street,” she said.

The trend toward increased negative equity was not limited to San Mateo County. In San Francisco, the percentage of underwater homes rose from 8.4 percent this time last year to 21.8 percent, while Bay Area-wide it increased to 25.7 percent from last year’s 22.4 percent mark.

National and state negative equities were also up with the national numbers climbing to 28.4 percent from 22.2 percent last year, and California recording 32.2 percent, up from 28.7 percent.

aterrazas@sfexaminer.com

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/bay-area/2011/05/spread-underwater-foreclosures-feared-san-mateo-county

But others will be closing their doors next month, despite the movie-rental chain’s last-minute reprieve from liquidation.

A $229 million deal to turn Blockbuster over to a group of hedge funds and Blockbuster bondholders was agreed to by a New York bankruptcy judge, after disgruntled creditors, including movie studios and Yahoo, signed on to a revised deal.

That means 17 Blockbuster stores out of 24 listed in the inner Bay Area will stay open, at least for a while longer. “We’re fine, we’re fine,” said a sales clerk in the Alameda store.

Of those scheduled to shut their doors in April, three are in San Francisco – on Church Street, Geary Street and 16th Street in Potrero Hill – and one each in Albany, San Leandro and Alamo.

But there could be more. The company, once the world’s largest movie-rental outlet, with 9,100 stores, reported a loss of $64.8 million in the last quarter. Under the purchase agreement signed with the hedge fund group last month, Blockbuster said 609 of its remaining 3,300 U.S. stores were to be shut as part of an “initial liquidation.”

A sales clerk at the Daly City Blockbuster, not currently on the list, said she’d been told hers might close in November. On the other hand, the Pinole store, which is on the list, might be re-evaluated, a sales clerk there had heard.

To what extent the new owners are re-evaluating remains to be seen. Having made what is called a “stalking horse” bid for the Dallas company, they might be looking to flip the property for a higher price.

Asked what she’s going to do in April, a sales clerk at the Church Street store replied, “Stand on a street corner, hope people feel sorry for me and give me money.”

Coincidence?: Turns out the scheduled auction of the Westin San Francisco, which we noted in Thursday’s column, is off. The creditor seeking the foreclosure suddenly got the $22 million loan owed by the hotel’s owners, a Goldman Sachs real estate entity and a Dallas private-equity firm.

“The borrower paid off the loan in full (Wednesday) night,” said an attorney for the Carlton Group, a foreclosure and debt restructuring firm, after it had posted the auction notice that morning on behalf of its client, Deutsche Bank.

All this occurred after we made inquiries – which got the silent treatment – and a small item appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

News of the payment was e-mailed to interested parties Thursday morning, and showed up in bold capital letters on the Carlton Group’s website, over the original notice of the auction.

Dare we say The Chronicle gets results?

Cold decaf: Remember how hard Peet’s Coffee Tea tried to buy Diedrich Coffee, the Castroville (Monterey County) roastery and chief supplier to the fast-growing single-cup coffee market?

The Emeryville chain thought it had the $226 million deal closed in November 2009, when along came Green Mountain Coffee, known for its Keurig single-cup coffee dispensers and K-cup portion packs, and snatched it out of Peet’s hands with a better offer.

Adding insult to injury, the Vermont company on Thursday signed a partnership deal with Starbucks, under which the latter’s coffee (and its Tazo tea) will be sold in Green Mountain’s K-cups portion packs at Starbucks’ 11,000 outlets, plus supermarkets, drugstores and other retail establishments throughout North America.

Instant reaction: Green Mountain shares up 41 percent at the close of trading Thursday; Starbucks up 10 percent.

Peet’s, down 11.5 percent.

Good trade: Nice numbers for California’s exporters. They had the best January ever, according to trade figures released Thursday by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The state’s $11.75 billion worth of exports marked a 14.5 percent increase over January 2010, driven by both manufactured goods, and especially raw materials and agricultural products. This was in line with U.S. exports which rose to record levels. But other states did even better, with California’s share of the nation’s export pie falling, according to an analysis of the Commerce Department data by San Rafael’s Beacon Economics. (sfg.ly/iiE5jW)

Future prospects may depend on the price of oil, said Jock O’Connell, Beacon’s international trade expert.

“Economies tend to go wobbly and global supply chains start experiencing serious palpitations whenever oil futures float much over the $100 a barrel mark,” he said.

Job grievance: It’s not exactly hi-ho, hi-ho, and off to work we go these days in the Golden State.

According to a just-released survey of “work environment well-being” in the nation’s 50 states, California dropped from sixth to 21st place. No. 1: South Dakota, followed by Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. Unsurprisingly, “work environment well-being” was down nationally.

“Healthy behavior” and “emotional health” improved, however, while “physical health” stayed about the same in the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which measures good feelings in a number of categories.

The most well-being state overall, according to its rolling survey of 1,000 Americans: Hawaii. Other states feeling pretty good include Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota and Utah. California comes in at No. 18. (sfg.ly/hPBymj).

Blogging: www.sfgate.com/ columns/bottomline. Facebook page: sfg.ly/doACKM. Tweeting: @andrewsross. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/10/BU5C1I7HHK.DTL