News

  Fixed mortgage rates have reversed course and ticked upward, with lenders offering 30-year home loans at an average of 3.42% compared with 3.35% last week, according to the latest Freddie Mac survey. The typical rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage rose from 2.56% to 2.61%, Freddie Mac said. To obtain the rates, borrowers would have paid 0.7% of the loan amount in upfront fees and discount points to lenders. Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, said positive economic news tends to send mortgage rates higher. “Fixed mortgage rates edged up following a solid employment...

  One of our most recent sales is featured in this week’s HOT PROPERTY column in the L.A. Times: Producer-composer-musician Tom Rothrock has sold his Hollywood Hills home to DJ-actor-producer Steve Angello for $3.9 million, public records show. Rothrock and his wife, Monique, spent years working on the house, integrating its 1940s classicism with contemporary interiors and an open floor plan. The 6,150-square-foot home features walls of glass, a wrap-around deck, six fireplaces, four bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms. The third-of-an-acre site, which includes a guesthouse and a swimming...

It’s interesting to see the housing crisis we all went through together play itself out. I’m still getting calls from buyers who are seeking to find a foreclosure to buy. Truth be told, that market has returned to normal. There are and always will be foreclosures in and around our neighborhoods, but the levels seen in 2009 and 2010 won’t pass this way again anytime soon. And the banks are having to finally face the fact that they were a big part of the problem. As part of a settlement with federal regulators, 13 lenders this week are to begin paying $3.6 billion to more than 4 million...

  We'd like to think we go above and beyond in writing real estate descriptions for new listings. Although sometimes we fall victim to “description fatigue.” However, this recent article by revered real estate writer, Lauren Beale (for the L.A. Times), has firmed-up my diligence to find new and inventive ways to describe your home: “Beautiful,” “ocean views,” “mountain views” and “gated community” are among the most popular keywords used to advertise homes online to West Coast home buyers, a recent study shows. Nationwide, “beautiful” was the most frequent...

People ask me, “How do you know we’ve hit bottom in real estate?” We never do, until after it actually happens. Right now, I find my clients in the middle of multiple offers, prices going up, foreclosures and short sales going down, cash deals on the rise, and interest rates at historic lows. The national housing market’s official “bottom” was sometime back in early 2012. Here in L.A., it was more like 2011. Southern California’s housing market in January 2013 continued to post strong median home price gains as new foreclosure starts plummeted dramatically across the state. The six-county...

  The number of homes statewide sold for more than $5 million reached an all-time high last year, while those selling at a million dollars or more rose to the highest level since 2007 last year, a real estate information service has reported. Cash buyers, an upturn in home prices and the recovering economy played a role in the increase, as did a year-end rush among the wealthy to take advantage of lower capital gains taxes by closing before year end. Across California, 697 homes sold for more than $5 million compared to the previous high of 491 in 2011. The 26,993 homes sold at $1-million-plus...

  Interest rates on fixed mortgages rose this week, according to Freddie Macc, with lenders offering the 30-year home loan at an average 3.42%, up from 3.38% a week ago. The rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular option for people refinancing home loans, was 2.71%, up from 2.66%. Borrowers would have paid 0.7% of the loan amount to lenders in upfront fees and points to obtain the rates, Freddie Mac said in its weekly report. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey asks lenders for the terms on mortgages they are offering to solid borrowers with 20% down payments, or 20% equity in their...

The patchwork legislation that emerged from the "fiscal cliff" fracas on Capitol Hill came pretty close to a home run for homeowners. In fact, it even reached back and resuscitated two key tax benefits for housing that had expired more than a year ago. Now homeowners will be able to take deductions on their 2012 tax returns that they assumed were no longer available. Here's a quick tally sheet on what the new legislation could mean for you as a buyer, seller, or owner: • Do you, like millions of Americans, pay mortgage insurance premiums or guarantee fees on an FHA, VA, Fannie Mae,...

At the height of the housing crisis, short sales seemed like a misnomer: neither short nor resulting in a sale. Homeowners waited months for a bank response to a short sale offer — often a rejection — even as banks deployed robo-signing factories to rubber-stamp foreclosures by the thousands. Properties with multiple loans proved particularly difficult to short-sell because each lender had to agree to take write-downs. Frustrated buyers moved on. But banks now embrace the transactions, if only as a necessary evil. In recent months, short sales have surpassed sales of foreclosed homes in California...

  Twice as many homes were sold in the $5-million-plus range in Los Angeles County than three years ago, the low mark after the housing crash, according to the real estate information firm DataQuick. Through November, the latest month for which counts are available, 296 home sales had appeared in the public record above $5 million, the most since 2007, as the top of the market reflected the growing strength in overall home sales during 2012. Topping sales locally was Oracle Corp. head Larry Ellison‘s purchase of a three-structure, copper-roofed compound along Malibu’s Carbon...