The Sacramento Community Services Planning Council founded the 2-1-1 Sacramento service. This service is free of cost and is available to the residents all days of the week, round the clock! Special services are provided to the disabled. A special feature of this service is that assistance is rendered in many languages. This program is the combined initiative of the Sacramento Commissions for housing, human help, aging agency, courts, security of homeland, employment and emergency services.

The 2-1-1 service database includes over 2,400 registered non profit organizations. The traine... Read more

Recession’s over, but it doesn’t feel that way in capital area

It looks like the longest U.S. recession since the 1930s is over.

So why doesn’t it feel that way?

After four quarters of shrinking, the nation’s economy – as measured by its gross domestic product – grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

But the news did little to erase the gloom that has settled over Sacramento’s economic landscape like a thick tule fog.

Local businesses are keeping the umbrellas within arm&rsquo... Read more

Home Front: Quarterly home sales worst yet for Sacramento area

Sacramento-area home builders just keep singing the blues.

July, August and September brought their worst quarter yet in this long housing crash: just 616 sales in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, the Folsom-based Gregory Group reports today.

Actually, nearly all the region’s sales were in Placer and Sacramento counties alone. The suburban cities of Placer County accounted for 44 percent of third-quarter sales of new homes in the region. Sacramento County’s outer... Read more

FHA loans soar in Sacramento area

The number of government-backed FHA loans jumped sharply last year, propping up a local real estate market otherwise saturated by loan denials.

During 2008, lenders issued 8,998 FHA loans in the Sacramento region, up from 649 during 2007, according to statistics released this week by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

"There’s been such a shift in available financing as the market bottoms out," said Larry Bush, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

FHA loa... Read more

A major credit reporting company predicts mortgage delinquency rates will continue rising in the Sacramento area – with 12 percent of homeowners falling at least two months behind on their payments by year’s end.

That’s nearly twice the national projection and a dramatic jump from just two years ago, when less than 2 percent percent of area homeowners’ notes were delinquent.

"California faces some challenges, and that’s reflected in the statistics," said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy at TransUnion, one of the nation’s three lar... Read more

Home Front: Small home makes big splash in Sacramento development

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2108425.html?storylink=pd

The K. Hovnanian-built house in Natomas has a standard-size bedroom and a surprisingly large great room that combines a kitchen and living room. But that’s about it for 817 square feet – likely the smallest new house for sale in Sacramento. Price: $126,000.

Home Front discovered this seventh wonder of the real estate world via colleagues who got builder postcards aiming to pry boom... Read more

2008 Cost vs. Value Report: Still Many Happy Returns for Home Rehabs

Remodeling magazine’s annual report shows that maintenance-related projects and moderately priced upgrades are providing stable paybacks, even in a slower market.
By G.M. Filisko | December 2008
Despite home price drops in many cities, remodeling projects are holding their own as a way for owners to add value.

Many people are wondering where their money will be safest during these uncertain economic times. When home owners turn to you for your expert advice, counsel them that some things neve... Read more

DUELING REAL ESTATE TRENDS

Great West GMAC Real Estate professionals are sometimes asked by clients to answer questions regarding what is trendy in housing. Or they will ask, “Are we going big, or moving smaller?”

In a recent quest to track information on real estate statistics and trends, Sami Siddiqui, broker for Great West GMAC Real Estate noticed contradiction among the pundits of “what’s hot – what’s not” in the real estate marketplace.

One pundit seems to imply the Mc Mansion is very much alive and doing well. And predicts homes built in the future will taut ... Read more