Wells Fargo CEO: Don’t blame banks for not lending

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf says banks shouldn’t take the blame for not loaning money even though his bank’s total loan values have been tumbling.

He told a Boise audience Aug. 17 that the problem is a lack of demand.

“We can’t find qualified borrowers who want to borrow money,” he said during the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Speaker Series luncheon.  “They don’t see the opportunity to invest in a profitable way.”

Wells Fargo’s profits jumped 20 percent to $3.1 billion during the second quarter compared to the prior period, even while total loans were down 7.5 percent compared to a year ago, $766 billion at the end of June compared to $822 billion at the same point last year.

Stumpf, CEO since 2007, said one strong indication that businesses are reluctant to borrow is that they’re leaving lines of credit unused at record low levels, currently 35 cents on the dollar.

He devoted his talk to a discussion about why record profits on Wall Street have yet to translate into a stronger economy that would lead to better prospects for Main Street.

“One seems to be doing very well,” he said. “One seems to be stuck in a ditch.”

The reasons he cited include:  devalued home prices that make everyone feel poorer; the lingering effects of too much debt taken on by consumers, businesses and governments; better technology that allows companies to get by with less; more outsourcing that prevents a bigger pickup in hiring; regulatory uncertainty that has businesses unwilling to invest; and further declines in American manufacturing that mean companies restocking on inventory are buying from abroad.

Wells Fargo is one of the area’s largest employers, with 2,278 full-time Idaho workers.

source:  IBR

Boise-area home prices decline in second quarter

Now is either the best or worst time to buy or sell a home in the Treasure Valley, depending on whether you’re a buyer looking for a bargain or a seller who’s been forced to list your home well below its value.

“If you’re a homeowner wanting to sell, it’s not a good thing.  But if you want to purchase your first home, this is good news,” said Mark Lebowitz, executive director of the Ada County Association of Realtors.

According to the National Association of Realtors, home prices rose in 100 cities across the country during the second quarter of 2010. In the Boise-area, prices actually declined by 13 percent.

The Intermountain Multiple Listing Service reported the average selling price in July for a single-family home in Ada County was $195,595. In July 2009, the same house was $197,712. For the year-to-date in 2010, average price was $183,306, as opposed to the same timeframe in 2009, with a price of $201,362.

In Ada County specifically, many first-time homebuyers who took advantage of the $8,000 tax credit earlier this year were buying homes in the $120,000-$160,000 range.

“It’s what they could afford to buy,” Lebowitz said.

Other factors which have caused prices to decline locally include the fact that more homes in short sale or foreclosure are on the market, many with greatly reduced listing prices.

Low interest rates combined with an inventory of lower-priced homes on the market is a “win-win” for buyers.  Every price range was flourishing for all types of homes in 2005 and 2006 yet After that money was gone, upper-end price ranges were affected much more than entry-level homes.

Source:  IBR

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

DISTRESSED SALE STATISTICS

2010 Summary – Ada & Canyon County (Jan – July)
	Distress		Typical		Total
	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
South Nampa (86) – 1260	306	66.38%	155	33.62%	461
NW Meridian – 1030	269	47.70%	295	52.30%	564
SW Caldwell – 1280	253	66.58%	127	33.42%	380
NE Nampa (87) – 1250	227	67.36%	110	32.64%	337
SW Boise-Meridian – 0550	188	50.67%	183	49.33%	371
NW Nampa (51) – 1270	179	61.51%	112	38.49%	291
Eagle – 0900	156	50.65%	152	49.35%	308
W Boise-Garden City – 0650	147	35.77%	264	64.23%	411
Kuna – 1100	136	53.97%	116	46.03%	252
NE Meridian – 1020	132	38.15%	214	61.85%	346
Boise Bench – 0400	115	50.22%	114	49.78%	229
Middleton – 1285	102	62.58%	61	37.42%	163
NW Boise – 0800	90	36.89%	154	63.11%	244
NW Caldwell – 1275	86	59.72%	58	40.28%	144
SE Boise – 0300	83	27.85%	215	72.15%	298
West Boise – 0600	81	41.33%	115	58.67%	196
Star – 0950	73	54.07%	62	45.93%	135
North Boise – 0100	59	27.57%	155	72.43%	214
South Boise – 0500	52	46.85%	59	53.15%	111
SE Meridian – 1000	51	35.66%	92	64.34%	143
SW Meridian – 1010	37	74.00%	13	26.00%	50
Canyon County Other – 1290	25	65.79%	13	34.21%	38
Parma – 1292	16	57.14%	12	42.86%	28
NE Boise – 0200	15	17.86%	69	82.14%	84
Wilder – 1293	10	76.92%	3	23.08%	13
Melba – 1265	9	50.00%	9	50.00%	18
Garden City – 0700	9	37.50%	15	62.50%	24
Greenleaf – 1294	1	16.67%	5	83.33%	6
Grand Total	2907	49.62%	2952	50.38%	5859

 

19 Month Summary for Distress Sales

 

ADA COUNTY
	Distress		Typical		Total
	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
2009
Jan	51	19.17%	215	80.83%	266
Feb	116	38.16%	188	61.84%	304
Mar	182	42.62%	245	57.38%	427
Apr	205	42.98%	272	57.02%	477
May	177	36.27%	311	63.73%	488
Jun	208	32.81%	426	67.19%	634
Jul	197	32.72%	405	67.28%	602
Aug	209	35.48%	380	64.52%	589
Sep	220	34.32%	421	65.68%	641
Oct	212	30.95%	473	69.05%	685
Nov	204	32.54%	423	67.46%	627
Dec	197	46.68%	225	53.32%	422
2009 Total	2178	35.35%	3984	64.65%	6162
2010
Jan	162	53.47%	141	46.53%	303
Feb	181	47.26%	202	52.74%	383
Mar	310	48.74%	326	51.26%	636
Apr	256	34.59%	484	65.41%	740
May	281	38.44%	450	61.56%	731
Jun	289	39.59%	441	60.41%	730
Jul	207	46.31%	240	53.69%	447
2010 Total	1686	42.47%	2284	57.53%	3970
19 Month TOTAL	3864	38.14%	6268	61.86%	10132
CANYON COUNTY
	Distress		Typical		Total
	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
2009
Jan	28	24.14%	88	75.86%	116
Feb	58	53.21%	51	46.79%	109
Mar	105	61.05%	67	38.95%	172
Apr	137	68.50%	63	31.50%	200
May	141	62.67%	84	37.33%	225
Jun	168	59.57%	114	40.43%	282
Jul	158	57.04%	119	42.96%	277
Aug	138	58.97%	96	41.03%	234
Sep	159	62.11%	97	37.89%	256
Oct	180	59.02%	125	40.98%	305
Nov	192	59.63%	130	40.37%	322
Dec	132	58.93%	92	41.07%	224
2009 Total	1596	58.63%	1126	41.37%	2722
2010
Jan	120	75.47%	39	24.53%	159
Feb	142	69.61%	62	30.39%	204
Mar	204	70.83%	84	29.17%	288
Apr	180	52.17%	165	47.83%	345
May	187	57.54%	138	42.46%	325
Jun	218	65.47%	115	34.53%	333
Jul	172	71.97%	67	28.03%	239
2010 Total	1223	64.61%	670	35.39%	1893
19 Month TOTAL	2819	61.08%	1796	38.92%	4615

 

 Distress = Agent gave a “YES” reply to REO, Foreclosure, Possible Short-Sale in MLS.

 

The raw data obtained is accredited to Intermountain IMLS. The statistics , data analysis charts, graphs is done by Hennessey Appraisals.

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

The winner for best overall town in the western U.S. is Boise, Idaho.

POPULATION (METRO) 606,376
MEDIAN HOME PRICE $169,900
HOMETOWN HERO Kristin Armstrong,
2008 Olympic time-trial gold medalist,
bicycling advocate, supermom

THE LIVING: Boise, to put it mildly, has been on a roll.  Government, education, and health care remain core industries, but dozens of high-tech startups have moved to town, joining behemoths like Hewlett-Packard and Micron Technology.  And while its population has more than doubled in the past 30 years and jaded locals bemoan the sprawl, Boise has managed its growth impressively well:  The city is home to nearly 2,000 acres of parks and a 25-mile greenbelt.  The outlying areas feel a bit bland, but the older neighborhoods have that Boulder vibe—cruiser bikes, farmers’ markets, and prayer flags—only with reasonably priced homes.

THE PLAYGROUND: With a few play waves already in city limits, a $6.7 million white­water park in the works, and life-list runs on the Payette and Salmon within a two-hour drive, the paddling is exceptional and only getting better.  There’s also a healthy triathlon community and a robust road-biking scene.  In winter, before or after work, you can get a quick ski in—nordic or alpine—at Bogus Basin Ski Area, just 16 miles up the road. (Tip: The climb up is also a classic road ride.)  And those brown hills above town are laced with more than 135 miles of hiking and mountain-biking trails.  Yup, you’re going to need a bigger Rocket Box.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The Northend neighborhood is as good as Idaho gets:  You can walk to the local coffee shop, bike downtown via paths, plant some veggies at the community garden, or hop on singletrack at the end of your block.

source: outsideonline

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

Boise Home Builders Face Tough Times

Builders build homes to make a profit.

There’s no point whatsoever for a builder to take a chance on building a spec home and ending up subsidizing the sale at closing, or even worse, losing their spec home in foreclosure after investing tens of thousands of dollars and months of effort building the home.

Builders in the Boise real estate market face many challenges these days, including:

Competition From Resale Properties

How can a builder compete with a resale home seller with equity to negotiate who has been transferred, lost their job, or is getting a divorce?

Competition From Foreclosures/Short Sales

How can a builder compete with a lender who’s selling foreclosed properties at a substantial discount to the builder’s brand-new home?

Difficulty Obtaining Construction Financing

Construction lenders are skittish about making construction loans these days. The terms for those loans make it difficult, if not impossible, for a builder to qualify for construction financing in many (most?) instances.

Which is why we see very few builders building spec homes in the Boise area at this time.

During better times, we had numerous quality builders (like Flaherty, Tahoe, Marrs, Price, Mayer,  etc.) building dozens of homes each year in the Treasure Valley.

Now, we have just a few builders treading carefully and avoiding risk.

Many of our former respected builders have either gone out of business or moved to the sidelines awaiting better times.

source:  boiseblog

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

Businesses take advantage of still-soft Valley market

It may not be enough to reduce commercial vacancy rates, but some Treasure Valley businesses are moving to new spaces to take advantage of a more affordable market.

A Concordia University School of Law construction project at the southwest corner of Fifth and Front streets in downtown Boise may not have been feasible or even contemplated two years ago.

Concordia has been looking for a building of 40,000 to 50,000 square feet to buy or a building site.  Concordia ultimately looked at about 40 properties, many unlisted.  The university had in mind a budget that wouldn’t have allowed a project that size in downtown Boise.

Last spring, Concordia bought the former Front 5 building on the 0.74-acre downtown site. Immediately south of the 16,800-square-foot building is a parking lot on which Concordia is expanding the structure to about 50,000 square feet.

It took a little imagination to make this site work for the project, but there were two keys:  the excess land immediately south of the existing building presented an opportunity not readily apparent at first.  And the property’s value had dropped.

Two years ago, the multi-tenant Front 5 building was full.  Some tenants left as the economy weakened, which created an opportunity for an owner-occupant, he said.

Another recent owner-occupant is the Idaho Pizza Co. restaurant chain.  Idaho Pizza constructed and recently occupied a 3,000-square-foot building at 310 Sugar Ave. in north Nampa for its commissary – where it makes dough and sauces, and grates cheese, for daily delivery to the restaurants.

For more than two years, Idaho Pizza had been looking to lease a facility, but it wasn’t until this year they decided to buy property and build, CEO John McNicholl said.  The deal enabled the pizza company to own instead of rent, and to expand the operation.

McNicholl credits the dour economy for the buy-and-build scenario.  The Nampa site is central to the five-restaurant Treasure Valley wide chain.  Idaho Pizza took occupancy in late May.

Lorana Quintero, president of the franchise operation, said franchised owner-operators are keeping their eyes and ears open for opportunities in the southwest Idaho commercial real estate market.

Kristi Bowins, senior property manager with Colliers, said shopping center managers must stay creative in what has been a higher-vacancy, lower-rent market.

“It’s how creative you get that makes it work for both the tenant and the owner,” she said.

Vacancy can hurt the landlord but can benefit businesses that are growing, Bowins said.

Leapfox Learning’s recent move from Oakbrook to Shopko Plaza is an example of a business taking advantage to expand, she said.

Leapfox, which offers computer training, last March expanded in Oakbrook.  And again in June, the business took over an additional 5,000-square-foot space at Shopko Plaza in part because an ideal expansion space wasn’t available at Oakbrook.

Leapfox Education Director Debbie Nolan, said, the move was possible in part because Leapfox’s lease at Oakbrook was a month-to-month add-on to the lease of neighboring Quick Computer, a sister business.

“They worked me such a deal at Milwaukee (Shopko Plaza), at a fantastic, discounted rate that a small business owner could afford,” she said.

Leapfox now has two locations including part of the Quick Computer space in Meridian.

Commercial vacancy rates, rents

Office vacancy was 18 percent throughout the Treasure Valley at the end of 2009 and 18.2 percent in mid-2010.  Average full-service asking rent for office space in the Treasure Valley was $17.21 per square foot per year at the end of 2009 and $16.30 as of mid-2010. The average rent paid is $14.73 per foot as of mid-2010.

Retail vacancy in the Treasure Valley increased from 13.1 percent at the end of 2009 to 13.5 percent in mid-2010.  Average triple-net asking rents (tenant also pays taxes, insurance and maintenance costs) were $13.83 per square foot per year at mid-year, down from $14.47 a year earlier.

Treasure Valley industrial building vacancy dropped from 12 percent at the end of 2009 to 10.9 percent in mid-2010.  Monthly, triple-net, average asking rents were 52 cents per square foot at the end of 2009 and 49 cents at mid-2010.

Source: 2010 Colliers Idaho Mid-Year Real Estate Market Review & IBR

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

Housing market remains troubled

 Boise real estate agent says June home sales dropped again, due in part to the expiration of tax credits for first-time homebuyers.  Some call it the “tax credit hangover”. 

As part of the incentive program, buyers initially had to close their purchases by June 30.  Congress later extended the deadline through the end of September.

What’s also compounding the problem locally is an annual seasonal trend whereas a “slow down” occurs after may then a “pick up” again in Auguest. 

Other factors also contributing to lackluster sales include a high unemployment rate and tight lending restrictions for potential homebuyers.

“There’s nothing going to propel sales anytime soon. It’s all about jobs and income growth,” Sam Khater, senior economist at real estate data provider CoreLogic said.

According to a report in the Associated Press, June sales fell 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.37 million, which the National Association of Realtors reported.

“The economy and the housing market are going to remain stagnant for some time,” Sam Khater, senior economist at real estate data provider CoreLogic said.

According to the Realtor’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, sales are likely to keep falling for three to four months. That could likely boost the supply of unsold homes to more than 10 months for the first time since the spring of 2009.

“It’s still a fragile situation in the housing market.”

source:  IBR

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

Boise Real Estate: 101 ~ Terminology

MLS Status Codes

• “Available” obviously means the property remains unsold and is available (I told you it was “:101″!)
• “Pending” means there is a pending sale (the property is “in escrow”, pending closing).
• “Sold Contingent” means that there is an accepted offer that is contingent upon another event, such as selling another property, closing another property, getting the down payment from grandma, etc.)
• “Closed” means that the property has been sold and escrow has closed.

Spec Home

A spec home is one that has been built by a builder who’s speculating that someone will buy it (very risky business these days).

In other words, the home was not pre-sold before starting construction.

Build Job/Build To Suit

A build job is a home sold prior to starting construction that is being built-to-suit for the buyer.

Prequalification Letter

Mortgage lenders issue pre-qualification letters to provide general assurances that a borrower will be able to obtain mortgage financing. It is not a firm loan commitment because the lender has not thoroughly investigated the borrower’s ability to obtain financing.

Loan Commitment

A loan commitment is issued by a mortgage lender after the lender has completed a thorough review of a borrower’s credit, employment, debt to income ratio, etc. Generally speaking, a loan commitment is more reliable and more thorough than a pre-qualification letter.

REO

The term “REO” means “real estate owned” and refers to foreclosed real estate that is owned by a mortgage lender.

Short Sale

The term “short sale” means that the net proceeds from the sale of a property are “short” (less) than the amount owed on the mortgage(s) for the property.  It definitely does NOT mean that the sale will be short or easy!

Title Search

The term “title search” refers to the process of searching the title of a property to determine ownership, legal issues, liens, etc.  In Idaho, this process is completed by the title/escrow company prior to closing and issuance of title insurance.

Source:  Boiseblog.com

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

ADA COUNTY JULY STATISTICS:

Below is a snapshot of June’s real estate activity for Ada County:

BOISE:

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

Meridian selected as “top 10″ family town in Nation

Meridian, Idaho was selected by Family Circle magazine as one of the 10 Best Towns for families.  The announcement was made today based upon the magazine’s annual efforts to identify communities that are the perfect place to call home.

“We are excited to have our community selected by Family Circle as one of the 10 Best Towns for families from cities and towns across the country.  We have a strong public school system, quality parks, a low crime rate, and much more. Meridian is a premier city to live, work and raise a family,” said Mayor Tammy de Weerd.  “This acknowledgment is a reflection of the role that all of our great community partners play in making Meridian a place to call home.”

The results will appear in the August 2010 Family Circle magazine available today, or online at www.familycircle.com. With a circulation of 3.8 million and 20 million readers, it is one of the most widely read monthly magazines in the world.

The City of Meridian is located at the center of the Treasure Valley in southwest Idaho, minutes from the State Capitol. Founded as a farming community in 1893 and incorporated as a city in 1903, Meridian is now one of Idaho’s largest and fastest growing communities. As the home to many young families, Meridian is a vibrant community whose mission is to be a premier city to live, work and raise a family. For more information about Meridian, visit www.meridiancity.org.

Source:  aarealtorsboise.com, Trust Realty

To search the MLS real time Click Here
To obtain a free market evaluation for your home Click Here
To chat with Matthew Le Baron Click Here

Next Page »