Category Archives: Real Estate

San Diego – 2017 Housing forecast

Posted on December 6, 2016 | Leave a comment

Expect increased rent prices in San Diego County next year and many of the same hurdles to get new homes built.

That’s at least some of the consensus coming out of two real estate forecast conferences in San Diego this week attended by builders, landlords and investors.

There was cautious optimism about President-elect Donald Trump, anticipation of changes for office space demand and a general displeasure about the failed effort to get Lilac Hills built at the annual economic forecast gatherings of the local Institute of Real Estate Management in La Jolla on Friday and the University of San Diego’s business school on Thursday.

Donald Trump

The real estate industry has had a mixed reaction to Donald Trump’s election victory, despite his history as a real estate developer.

Jason Wood, project principal at San Diego real estate development company Cisterra Development, said Trump’s plan to lower taxes and cut regulation could be a boon for the industry, at least in the first few years.

“Does everyone know the new president is going to try and lessen some of the regulation that has held us back?” he said to the roughly 250 attendees at the La Jolla event.

He said there was no question the industry would change, it was just a question of how much.

“2017, in my opinion, is going to be a good year in our business,” he said.

However, other aspects of the president-elect give other analysts pause.

“This idea of traumatizing world economies through Twitter is very unsettling,” said real estate consultant Gary London at the same event. “ I think if we start creating trade wars with China, that could have an impact.”

disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Congress could play Grinch this Christmas for homeowners

Posted on December 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

Could it be a grim and Grinchy December for thousands of homeowners facing ongoing challenges with their mortgage payments and property values? Could popular deductions for mortgage insurance premiums and energy-efficient home improvements abruptly vanish?

That’s the way things are shaping up in the closing weeks of the post-election lame duck congressional session. Republicans controlling the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate say they have no plans to extend expiring tax code provisions such as mortgage debt forgiveness for financially troubled owners; mortgage insurance write-offs used by moderate-income first-time buyers; and deductions for purchases of energy-saving windows, insulation and other improvements.

All three benefits terminate Dec. 31. Unlike previous years, when Congress extended them, this year is different. There is strong sentiment, especially in the House, that a comprehensive overhaul and simplification of the tax code should be the priority, rather than piecemeal, end-of-the-year extensions of special-interest provisions that complicate that objective.

The failure to pass so-called extenders would be especially painful for large numbers of underwater owners who are unable to complete short sales, loan modifications or foreclosures before year-end. Many of them could face crushing tax demands from the IRS — or be forced to declare insolvency or file for bankruptcy.

Under the federal tax code, when a creditor cancels a taxpayer’s debt, the IRS treats the amount forgiven as income, taxable at ordinary rates. But in 2007, as foreclosures and short sales began to explode across the country, Congress enacted a temporary exemption for homeowners who received cancellations of mortgage debt as part of their loan modification deals with lenders. That exception has been extended periodically by Congress ever since.

Website helps house hunters find the best schools

Posted on December 2, 2016 | Leave a comment

House hunters with children now have another option when seeking a neighborhood with a good school.

air housing laws prohibit agents from providing advice or opinions on schools because it could be considered steering people to particular neighborhoods. However, agents for several years have been recommending to buyers information on GreatSchools.org, which ranks schools on a one-to-10 scale and on other third-party sites.

Now another site called Cruvita.com launched its own school-rating system, offering buyers the ability to see house listings by school district. Buyers can search by city, Zip code or county to get a list of schools with a letter grade. Cruvita has real estate listings in many areas, including the District and numerous jurisdictions in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

The Cruvita School Score uses a patent-pending algorithm to rank and grade most public schools in the United States based on test scores and other educational data. The lower the score, the better the school. The letter grades are assigned to schools nationwide to make it easier for buyers to compare schools quickly; a B+ in Maryland is equal to a B+ in Arizona.