Pasadena CA Real Estate

In the wake of Pasadena California IndyMac bank being seized by Federal Regulators today, the question most of us are asking is how safe are our deposits whether we were banking with IndyMac, WAMU, Wachovia, Wells Fargo or any other bank?

A quick background for those of you that are not aware of the situation.  IndyMac specialized in what many in the real estate industry called "Liar Loans".  If you could breathe and sign your name, IndyMac was glad to lend you money to buy a home whether or not you were financially qualified. 

Now... I'm being a bit harsh here, but really risky lending practices did get IndyMac in major trouble and put them in a precarious financial situation.

To help IndyMac along, Senator Schumer (NY) caused an old-fashioned bank run when he wrote a letter to the San Francisco Fed President concerned about IndyMac Bank's ability to weather the storm....then, he made that letter public. IndyMac Bank ceased new loan operations, in an effort to manage the loans they have on their books, on Monday. On Friday, the Feds closed IndyMac Bank down.

Read More: Brian Brady's Mortgage Rates Report - July 14, 2008

IndyMac becomes the largest OTS-regulated savings and loan to fail and second-biggest financial institution to close behind Continental Illinois in 1984, according to the FDIC.

Read More: IndyMac Bancorp is Seized

If you have money in IndyMac, what does it mean to you?

If you visit www.IndyMac.com, you will see that there is a link to the FDIC Website which provides some general information.  Here's an excerpt:

Principal and interest on insured accounts, through July 11, 2008, are fully insured by the FDIC, up to the insurance limit of $100,000.  You will receive full payment for your insured account.  Certain entitlements and different types of accounts can be insured for more than the $100,000 limit.  IRA funds are insured separately from other types of accounts, up to a $250,000 limit.

All accounts that exceed the $100,000 insurance limit, and/or all accounts that appear to be related and exceed this limit, are reviewed by the FDIC to determine their ownership and insurance coverage.  If you think you might have uninsured deposits you should call the FDIC Call Center to arrange for a telephone interview with  a Claims Agent at         866-806-5919        .

If it is determined that you have uninsured funds, the FDIC will generate and mail to you a Receiver Certificate.  This certificate entitles you to share proportionately in any funds recovered through the disposal of the assets of IndyMac Bank, F.S.B.  This means that you will eventually recover some of your uninsured funds.  The FDIC declared a 50% advance dividend for uninsured deposits.

If you have a home equity line of credit with IndyMac, the word on the street is that it has been frozen and will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Credit lines to commercial construction contractors also will be frozen pending a review, but construction loans made to individual consumers will not be affected.

Customers of IndyMac's reverse-mortgage subsidiary will continue to have access to their funds. Reverse mortgages provide older homeowners with periodic payments or a credit line secured by their homes.

Read More:  IndyMac reopens after seizure

How diversified are your bank accounts?  Do you have all your accounts in the same bank?  Are you over FDIC insured limits?

I was over at Washington Mutual in San Marino earlier today making a deposit.  As I was waiting in line, I heard several conversations about FDIC limits.  Everyone is nervous, myself included.

There were long lines today on Lake and Walnut in Pasadena as IndyMac customers were trying to withdraw funds.  Some stood in line as long as 4 hours per my conversation with a bank representative of Wells Fargo who has been busily opening accounts all day today for IndyMac customers and others who want to diversify their accounts with various banks.  By the way, if you were fortunate to get through the long line and have a cashier's check from IndyMac, Wells Fargo is putting a hold on the money to ensure that it clears. 

What can you do to protect your money?

Read more »

Well... it's the top 5 list of cities that San Gabriel and Pasadena really do NOT want to be on. 

Los Angeles Times just posted an article listing the Top 5 Cities being hit with the largest increase of property tax assessments by Los Angeles County Assessor's Office over the last year.

The explanation provided by LA Assessor is following:

Read more »

Every Thursday is a Broker's Open House day in San Marino.  This is an opportunity for San Marino real estate agents to preview all the homes that were listed in San Marino for the week.  This also gives an opportunity for San Marino sellers to showcase their homes and make sure that they are well presented to potential buyers and real estate agents.

Today, San Marino had a record 7 homes for sale open for broker's preview (2 homes were price reductions):

A San Marino Real Estate Market Snapshot:

San Marino Homes for Sale                47   at $649/sq. ft. on average

San Marino Homes Under Contract      26   at $572/sq. ft. on average

San Marino Homes Already Purchased by San Marino Home Buyers:

Sellers, if these numbers

 do not speak to you, let

me.  You are OVERPRICING

 YOUR HOMES!!! 

• The data is clear, San Marino Homes have been selling in the high $500s per sq.ft.
• Current homes on the market are averaging almost $650 per square foot.
• 4 out of 5 new listings this week are over $660 per square foot.
• Inventory is INCREASING
• San Marino's Real Estate market absorbs approximately 7 homes per month.
• There are 47 homes on the market for sale.
• This means that we have more than 6.5 months of inventory!

San Marino sellers, please understand San Marino buyers are looking at hard data.  This information is being provided to them by their San Marino Realtors.

For those of you that love charts, here're a couple from Altos Research, an independent real estate market statistics company.

Read more »

Late yesterday afternoon, Coldwell Banker announced that they will be closing two local real estate offices.  One of the offices was a Coldwell Banker office in Old Town Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard.  The other one was in La Canada.

The explanation given to the shocked real estate agents working at CB was that both offices were unprofittable.

San Marino Coldwell Banker survived the recent cuts, but the real estate agents working for Coldwell are feeling a bit uncertain about their future.

The real estate agents in both offices were given three weeks to find a new home or get a new career.

If you are an agent affected by these closures give me a call at 626-204-3340 to see if Keller Williams is the right home for you.

One of my readers emailed me and posed this question about FHA loans today:

       Is there a set rate for FHA home loans that's standard around the country?

For complete information about FHA loans and programs, I'd suggest visiting FHA's website at www.fha.com

I also asked Ernest Tepman of OCD Group who specialize in FHA loans and programs to give us an answer to this question and here's what he says:

The answer is that there is no standard rate for FHA loans, each lender and at times even individual Loan Officers from same lender can offer different rates. The guidelines for the FHA programs are almost identical from lender to lender (but there are lenders who sometimes add individual overlays on FHA guidelines above what FHA actually dictates), which results in strange things occasionally, where a specific file will be eligible for FHA financing with one lender and not the other, not often, but it does happen. Keep in mind FHA only insures the loans, the actual loans are made by banks, so even though your loan is FHA, it is still from Chase, Wells Fargo or Countrywide :-) 

READ MORE:    Advantages and Disadvantages to FHA