This is the remix video he made. Thanks Nate!

While being here we have had some time to discuss a lot of things…… like what is the Holiday Season really about? I remember when I was a kid, (which was not that long ago) the only thing I cared about was the number of presents I received and how big they were.  And, oh how I hoped it wasn’t clothes inside the box. There was nothing worse than opening up a big present to find clothes inside.

Some may think the Holiday Season is about getting the perfect present for the perfect person.  Others may think you need to spend a lot of money to show how important that person is to them.  It always amazes me what people are willing to do to buy those gifts. They sit in traffic jams, wait in long lines, and then may wait in line again to return gifts.   

It all adds up to a lot of time spent, not to mention the increased credit card balances.  I don’t believe this was the original intention of this season.

My idea of the perfect gift to receive from my family and friends would be spending time with them.  The older I get, the more I appreciate the importance of spending quality time with my friends and family.  And, if miles separate us, why not send a hand-written card, a letter, or even a phone call?

During this holiday season, I wish you all the best and especially time with your friends and family.

It’s a Good Life!

I’m taking a needed break with my workers this week but I just wanted to take a second to pose a question:

Are you operating at your full potential?

If not, then what you are waiting for? Challenges only serve to make us stronger and help us groove some new gears – like so many of us have done through these difficult months. And even if they get a little rusty, we must continue to engage them and keep our skills sharp. If you have some uptapped potential then it’s time to get after it. Now would be a good time to be running on all cylinders, don’t you think?

Get ready for the Holidays and make every effort count!!!

Why I work by referral, Tyler Smith Sacramento

For once California’s economy looks good compared to that of some other states.

A foreclosure crisis that has dimmed the state’s golden glow with images of financial ruin and broken government is beginning to wane, says a leading trade group for the U.S. mortgage industry.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday that California foreclosure starts have fallen from a year ago – even as problems grow in Midwestern Rust Belt states such as Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.

“California is showing signs of improvement. We are seeing it on a quarter-to-quarter basis and year-over-year basis,” MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann said.

Consider:

• In the past year California moved from fourth place among U.S. states for foreclosure starts to seventh.

• Mortgage delinquencies, while up from early 2009, fell slightly in early 2010.

• The percentage of California mortgages in the foreclosure process fell, too, during the past year.

California’s fragile improvements come as the national picture is less clear. Collectively, the longtime mortgage disaster areas – Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada – are becoming less of a problem nationally, MBA data showed.

“A year ago they had 45.3 percent of the problem loans,” said Brinkmann. “That’s down to 37.9 percent.

“We’re looking now at Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. They’re climbing back into the list of problems,” he said. Those states have longer-term structural problems as their manufacturing economies continue to decline.

The new data confirmed improvements in California and the Sacramento area recently cited by researcher MDA DataQuick. Last month the firm said mortgage defaults have fallen for a year straight in the state and region, with foreclosures dropping now as well.

In hard-hit Sacramento suburbs such as Natomas, Lincoln and Elk Grove, residents see dwindling evidence of the crisis.

“All those houses that were vacant before were sold in the last year or two,” said Tyler Smith, a Keller Williams agent in Sacramento “A year ago it seemed every other house on some of those streets were vacant.”

Homeowners in distress are increasingly using short sales to unload their properties rather than losing them to foreclosure.

That’s helping preserve neighborhoods, because these owners stay in the homes until they’re sold rather being evicted and leaving an empty house behind.

Make no mistake: California’s long journey into a financial meltdown is nowhere near its conclusion, economists say.

They foresee prolonged trouble for the state economy and government revenues. At best, said Los Angeles economist Chris Thornberg, “The worst is behind us.” He added, “We have years yet of dealing with this.”

Like everything about the foreclosure crisis, even explaining a sense of improvement is open to interpretation. Thornberg said a fall in California foreclosure starts shows only that banks are taking longer to deal with late mortgage payments.

Jeff Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific, said simply, “This suggests we’ve reached the point where the number moving into delinquency equals the number moving out.”

Even that might be declared victory. More people are moving out of delinquency through short sales – selling their homes for less than they owe. And despite criticism of government loan modification efforts, the U.S. Treasury Department reported this week that 5,400 homeowners in the eight-county Sacramento region received permanent loan modifications since December 2009. Regionally, banks foreclosed on 4,300 more in the first quarter of 2010.

Any slowdown of last year’s frightful rise in delinquencies, said Michael, “indicates we’re close to a peak.”

The state still has a long way to go before it regains a healthy economy, 6 percent unemployment and a budget in the black, Thornberg and Michael agreed Wednesday. But for once, California is falling off lists of the worst performers.

Eventually, the supply of distressed properties will simply be exhausted, Michael said, adding, “The fire will burn itself out for lack of fuel.”

More people bought pricier houses in April, signaling the end of Sacramento’s bargain basement-only sales scene.

Buyers picked up the pace from last year in Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills and older neighborhoods near downtown Sacramento, researcher MDA DataQuick reported Thursday. Simultaneously, buyers dwindled in Oak Park, North Highlands and other repo zones of the past two years.

What gives?

There are fewer available repos after a long blowout sale, market trackers say. There’s also a sense at the higher end that this market is as good as it’s going to get for a while.

He said he sold three houses this week valued between $350,000 and $800,000.

The shifting sales mix tugged Sacramento County’s median sales price for resale houses nearly 10 percent higher than the same time last year, DataQuick reported. The median, where half cost more and half less, was $175,000.

Resale home prices also beat April 2009 levels in Placer, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Less than half of Sacramento County’s April sales were cheap bank repos – compared with two-thirds a year earlier. With fewer repos this year, sales in the $200,000 to $400,000 range grabbed a larger market share.

“We’ve had 70 people coming through open houses in the $300,000 to $400,000 range,” said Bob Bronswick, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

“That’s the trend across the state,” said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. He said sellers are cutting prices and buyers are still getting low interest rates to make deals work.

Sellers are not thinking about 2005. They’re thinking: ‘We might have to take it back to 2003 or 2002 prices and sell it at that.’

This doesn’t mean expensive is back. LePage said homes priced above $400,000 are only a tiny percentage of Sacramento-area sales.

But the shift is part of restoring balance to a market where repos accounted for a majority of sales for much of 2008 and 2009. Banks have cut repossessed homes on the market.

“The way banks are managing it now will probably keep prices from falling much further,” said Rick Sharga of Orange County foreclosure analyst RealtyTrac.

Overall, 3,255 homes changed hands during April in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, DataQuick reported. That was down slightly from March – and fewer than April 2009.

Analysts attributed the slight drop to fewer repo listings for first-time buyers and people delaying escrow closings until May. The state began offering homebuyer tax credits of up to $10,000 May 1.

New homes accounted for 5 percent of sales in the region.

But wait. That’s the lower end, houses priced at roughly $300,000 and under, the zone of repos and bidding wars between investors and first-time buyers.

The higher end of the Sacramento-area market – say anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million or more – still has ample room to fall unless this economy surprisingly rebounds. So owners are whacking harder now on initial asking prices.

You can see that in new statistics from home search firm Trulia.com. The company says homeowners with listings in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo County have collectively reduced asking prices by $156 million since putting out for-sale signs.

About 40 percent of that markdown is from homes priced at $1 million or more. On average, these richest owners have cut their prices by $271,000 in El Dorado County, and $334,000 in Placer County.

Up in the real estate heights, it remains more expensive for buyers to get financing. The move-up buyer pool is smaller than ever as thousands at the lower- and mid-market have seen their equity shredded.

Those who can buy at higher prices are savvy and watching for capitulation, meaning “price reductions and opportunity,” said Bob Bronswick, head of Coldwell Banker’s residential brokerage for the Sacramento and Lake Tahoe region. For owners, it’s all about what Bronswick and others in the trade call “getting a little more realistic.”

Bronswick said the higher end is a little stronger than a year ago. Yet numbers from the Sacramento Association of Realtors show just 2.9 percent of October’s buyers paid $500,000 or more in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. At today’s pace, it would take two years to sell the houses in SAR’s territory priced at $650,000 or more, said association President Charlene Singley. The market as a whole has a much smaller inventory of unsold homes – just 3.2 months worth.

This story is repeated all over California. There’s a market for it still,” Bronswick said of higher-end homes. “But it’s a little bit softer.” In a business where no one likes to be negative, and inside an economy that hasn’t got its act together yet, that’s probably putting it – well, softly.

Rents headed down again

While we’re speaking of deflationary real estate, area apartment rents have returned to late 2006 levels. That’s after a yearlong slide that continued in July, August and September, Novato-based industry tracker RealFacts reported this week.

No wonder capital apartment complexes are offering “two-bedroom blowouts” or a four-bedroom lease for the price of two bedrooms.

RealFacts pegged average third-quarter rent at $946 for 76,000 apartment units in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties. That’s down from $974 a year ago. The average two-bedroom, two-bath unit goes for $1,062, said the firm.

Rents at large apartment communities are falling in tandem with higher vacancies as more people who have lost their jobs double up, live at home or rent houses from people unable to sell them.

Average monthly apartment rents and occupancy rates in capital-area cities:

• Davis: $1,354; 96.4 percent.

• Elk Grove: $1,098; 88.9 percent.

• Folsom: $1,138; 90.4 percent.

• Rancho Cordova: $814; 93.5 percent.

• Rocklin: $1,047; 93 percent.

• Roseville: $1,066; 92.9 percent.

• Sacramento: $929; 92.4 percent.

Jim Bayless bought the 1983 ranch-style home on the brink of foreclosure last May and spent about $42,000 for energy efficiency improvements. “This house is more efficient than most new homes being built today,” he said.

Bayless works with a company called GreenBuilt, which specializes in energy improvements in older homes. SMUD offered Bayless incentives to create a demonstration home to show other homeowners how to do the same thing.

SMUD Project Manager Mike Keesee said the wave of foreclosures in the Sacramento area offers an opportunity to upgrade thousands of older homes that would be remodeled anyway.

“If you built (energy improvements) into a 30-year mortgage, we estimate you could be cash positive from day one,” Keesee said.

Energy improvements on Bayless’ home include new insulation in the attic and one outer wall, solar hot water, solar electric panels, a heat pump for the electric water heater, retractable window shades, and a rooftop solar tube to provide natural lighting indoors.

Bayless expects the annual $3,000 SMUD bill to drop to $1,000.

The demonstration house is located at 8901 Quail Hill Way in Fair Oaks and will be open to the public Saturday Oct. 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.