The Yuba Sutter Area is perfect for a seasoned or first time investor. With many homes available, the variety is vast, from single family homes, to multi-family dwellings as duplexes and apartments, and investor has a large range to choose from. Close to major metropolitan areas as Sacramento, and Chico, and the "road less taken" up to the Sierras, residents enjoy a small town feel, with modern accomodations of larger chain stores.
How to get started:
1. Get educated in the area, the market, and availability
2. Understand terminology REO and Shortsale
3. Decide on your crite... 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

Sacramento-area home sales remain sluggish

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2130021.html


Sales of existing homes in the Sacramento area climbed 2.6 percent from June to July – far short of the surprising 7.2 percent rise nationally that sent stocks soaring Friday.

A July report showed sales of 3,495 existing homes in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to San Diego-based researcher MDA DataQuick.

Buyers also closed escrow on 320 new homes to pu... 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

Suburban Sacramento land rush? Big homebuilders buy up ’finished’ lots


By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2108559.html


Sacramento’s new-home sales are still down and out, but some capital-area builders are betting money that the region’s suburbs will soon resume their growth boom.

They’ve begun snapping up ready-to-build home lots at prices ranging from $25,000 to $67,000, setting the stage for a new suburban land rush.

The phenomenon suggests that a real estate... Read more

August 10, 2009
Bad June swoon for Sacramento-area homebuilders

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/real_estate/

Ouch! Homebuilders in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties reported their second worst sales month of 2009 in June, selling just 197 homes, condominiums and townhouses, the California Building Industry Association reported about an hour ago.

These things happen. But the regional sales tally was the lowest since January, when builders sold 163 homes, reported the CBIA, a trade group for state homebuilders.

It rather flies in the fac... Read more

Capital-area foreclosures keep climbing in second quarter

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2047112.html

The capital-area foreclosure crisis raged on in April, May and June, with lenders repossessing another 4,448 homes and filing notices of default against 10,682 more households late on their payments.

The newest statistics from La Jolla-based researcher MDA DataQuick brought the foreclosure total to 41,903 households since the start of 2007 in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yu... Read more

Sacramento-area home sales fall for 1st time since April 2008

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2033127.html

The 14-month streak is over.

Sacramento-area home sales reached their highest monthly count yet this year in June. But with fewer bank repos on the market, they failed to beat the numbers from June 2008, according to new statistics released Thursday from researcher MDA DataQuick.

It was the first time since April 2008 – when year-over-year figures turned positive after three years of declines – ... Read more

Small banks start feeling financial stress

By Charles Piller
cpiller@sacbee.com


http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2000836.html

At first, the Sacramento region’s small, business-oriented community banks appeared to have sidestepped the plight of banking titans that staggered under the burden of home mortgage defaults. Now some are showing signs of stress.

Gold Country Bank in Marysville has become the weakest bank of its size in California – below 98 percent of similar banks nationwide, according to Bankrate.com, a leading independent ev... Read more

Home Front: Lenders’ phones silent as rates rise

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1940229.html


Mortgage rates, rising quickly from near-historic lows earlier this year, are already having negative consequences in the capital region.

"All of a sudden the phones just stopped ringing," said Michael McGee, president of Rancho Cordova’s Winchester McGee Real Estate & Loans.

"At least right now, the refinance window has somewhat shut," added Brent Wilson, senior loan consultant at Sacrament... Read more

Use of short sales on rise in Sacramento housing market

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1933643.html


For years real estate agents have steered buyers away from "short sales," labeling them a mind-numbing, difficult experience that could exhaust the patience of the biblical Job.

Now buyers can hardly avoid them.

"When it’s 50 percent of the inventory you don’t have a choice," said Scott Williams, a Roseville-based ReMax broker. Williams specializes in a complex transaction that may be... Read more

Zillow: Many in area owe more than home is worth

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1837044.html

Home values in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties dropped by $7.3 billion in the first three months of 2009 and have lost $40 billion in the past year, according to online real estate evaluator Zillow.com.

The Seattle firm estimates that 35.4 percent of homeowners in the four-county area now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

That’s up from 33.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Zillow.

It&rsqu... Read more

Area’s foreclosed homes sell briskly, for less, at auction

ShareThisBy Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1795749.html

Published: Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 6B
A pair of out-of-town auction giants sold 190 more foreclosed homes in Sacramento on Sunday, earning $21 million for lenders that repossessed them for lack of payments, the firms said Monday.

Irvine-based Real Estate Disposition Corp. said it sold 162 Sacramento-area homes for $17.1 million. It was the latest event in a series of nine company a... Read more

Sacramento region’s repossessed home sales boom hits lull

ShareThisBy Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1789794.html

Published: Saturday, Apr. 18, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Months of foreclosure moratoriums, stepped-up loan modifications and bank decisions to keep repossessed homes off the market are biting hard into a slice of the economy that has come to depend on sales of distressed homes.

Sacramento-area real estate agents who sell bank-owned homes and the contractors who fix them before and after sales ... Read more