Sweet Orange

On February 11th, the Orange County Home Ownership Preservation Collaborative (OC HOPC) is offering a free workshop for anyone who needs help with preventing a foreclosure on their home. This is part of the on-going free foreclosure prevention workshops that OC HOPC is providing in partnership with various organizations. The February 11th workshop is in partnership with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), City of Santa Ana, National Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, Orange County Association of Realtors, and Calvary Church.

HUD-approved housing counselors, legal counselors and lenders will be on-site to help at the workshop. However, only homeowners whose names are on the mortgage can be assisted, so OC HOPC asks that you do not send someone in your place. If you need assistance but can’t make this workshop, you might contact OC HOPE and ask what other help is available or when and where the next workshop will be held.

Here are the details for the upcoming OC HOPC workshop:

When: Thursday, February 11, 2010
Session 1–2:30 to 4:30 pm (English, registration begins at 2:00 pm)
Session 2–5:30 to 7:30 pm (Spanish, registration begins at 5:00 pm)

Where: Calvary Church, 1010 N. Tustin Avenue, Santa Ana

Who: Open to public
RSVP Recommended (www.oc.myhousingforall.org or e-mail myhousingforall@aol.com)

What to Bring:

• Your loan documents and recent mortgage statement
• Your two most current pay stubs
• Your most recent W2s–two-years worth
• Your most recent tax returns–two-years worth
• A list of your monthly expenses

Cost: Free

Again, if you need help with preventing a foreclosure but can’t attend this workshop, contact OC HOPC to see what other help is available.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has come out with the August housing numbers. They show a mixed-bag for the U.S. housing market:

U.S. Sales Numbers
U.S. housing sales in August were 5.1 million. This is a drop of 2.7% from the July number of 5.24 million and a drop of 30% from the peak, which was about four years ago. However, this is up 3.4% from this time last year and up 14% from the bottom which was in January.

According to NAR economist Lawrence Yun, a stable housing market cannot be claimed until U.S. home sales increase to about 5.5 to 6 million.

U.S. Median Sales Price
In August 2009, the median price for housing in the U.S. was $177,700. In July 2009, it was $178,400. The August 2009 number is down 12.5% from the August 2008 number.

U.S. Inventory
In August, 3.6 million homes were on the market. This is a decrease from the July number, which was 4 million. According to the NAR, if homes sell at the current pace, it will take 8.5 months to sell these homes. This is the shortest time in two year that analysts have predicted it will take to sell existing housing inventory.

Conclusion
The good news for anyone who wants to sell a house is that inventory is down when compared to last month and sales are up when compared to a year ago.

The bad news for anyone who wants to sell a house is that home sales need to increase substantially if we are to return to a stable market. In addition, housing analysts expected August housing sales to be larger than they were in July; instead, July home sales went down 2.7%.

This month-to-month sale decline has some wondering if we are in for a reverse in that has been an improving market for national housing sales. However, Paul Dales of Capital Economics thinks that this is not the case:

We suspect it is just a temporary blip in the improving trend rather than a sign of renewed weakness.

We’ll see…

Note: See the LA Land blog for additional information and a link to relevant housing charts and graphs.