SoCal Mortgage Blog

SoCal home sales edge up in June

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Home sales in Southern California climbed to an 11-month high in June as gains in pricey, coastal areas offset declines in less expensive regions that had been fueling the recovery.

According to MDA DataQuick, there were 23,871 new and existing homes sold last month, up 2.6 percent from 23,262 homes in the same period last year and up 7.2 percent from 22,270 in May. It marked the highest June sales total since 2006 and the most for any month since July 2009.

• In L.A. County the median price is $335,000 up nearly 5 percent
• In Ventura County the median price is $384,000 up by 5 percent
• In Orange County the median price is $445,000 up 6.5 percent
• In Riverside the median price is $210,000 up 14 percent
• In San Bernardino the median price is $170,000 up just over 14 percent

That's closer to normal, but what's not normal is trying to get a mortgage loan today versus three years ago -- especially if a buyer needs a jumbo loan over $417,000.

John A Soricelli Jr at CFAM, Inc. specialize in Jumbo Lending, offering diverse and unique loan programs up to $5,000,000.00

Another problem with the housing market toda.y is that one-third of SoCal home sales involve foreclosure resales. That wasn't the case three years ago.

Meantime, the California Housing Finance Agency on Wednesday protested the amount of federal funds coming to California to stop foreclosures in the first place.

"California has received $700 million to address foreclosure prevention in the state," said Yvonne Maria Jimenez of One LA-Industrial Areas Foundation. "And $700 million sounds like a lot of money, but when we are facing over 600,000 foreclosures in the state of California it's not enough."

But what is getting back to normal are the requirements you need to make the mortgage loan process go smoothly.

Here is a list of the things you will need:

• Confirmation of all of the assets you own
• A mortgage statement on your present home
• Homeowner's insurance policy
• W2's from 2008 and 2009
• Pay stubs from at least the past 30 days

And what might be driving this new normal in the housing market are investors. They are jumping into the market with flipping or renting their properties and nearly 25 percent of them are paying cash.

By: Ric Romero