These are closed sales for the week ending Nov.13.

I’ve highlighted the lowest and highest sale prices, as well as houses that sold for the most above and below their original asking prices.

Do you see anything that surprises you, or have any insights you’d like to share with house hunters, sellers, or others? Let us know in the comments!

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  *Sold price compared to most recent list price
**Sold price compared to original list price

P.S. The one that sold for the lowest price — on Racquet Lane — is a townhome with a common wall.
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Related:

• Vintage Surf City home sells for $1.16M

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Latest on sales:

Post from: Huntington Homes

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Active listings: 426 properties

In escrow: 339 properties *

*Bank owned: 26; short sale/in foreclosure: 161

Sold: Nov. ‘09: 47 properties **

**Bank-owned: 5; short sale/in foreclosure: 9

Source: Info from SoCalMLS as of 11/15/09

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Latest on homes on the market:

Latest on sales:

Post from: Huntington Homes

CLICK on maps to enlarge.

Address: 16439 Lazare Lane, #132

Amount: $731,623.49

Sales date: Dec. 9

Time: 10 a.m.

Auction location: Flagpoles at main entrance to Placentia Civic Center, 401-411 E. Chapman Ave., Placentia

Information: 714-573-1965

TS#: 733491CA

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Address: 6600 Warner Ave. Unit 129

Amount: $273,655.42

Sales date: Dec. 9

Time: 10 a.m.

Auction location: Flagpoles at main entrance to Placentia Civic Center, 401-411 E. Chapman Ave., Placentia

Information: 714-573-1965

TS#: 729793CA

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Address: 512 Indianapolis Ave.

Amount: $857,504.09

Sales date: Dec. 9

Time: 10 a.m.

Auction location: Flagpoles at main entrance to Placentia Civic Center, 401-411 E. Chapman Ave., Placentia

Information: 714-573-7777

TS#: 11120CA

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Address: 5942 Hacienda Drive

Amount: $417,672.63

Sales date: Dec. 10

Time: 12 p.m.

Auction location: North front entrance to the Orange County Courthouse, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana

Information: 714-730-2727

TS#: CA-09-307724-BL

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Source:  Legal notices 11/19

Latest on foreclosures:

Post from: Huntington Homes

“They just wanted something really special and unique, that had character,” Betty Elkins-Rice, who listed and sold the house, said of the buyers, who have 3 children. 

“It’’s truly one-of-a kind,” she said of the home’s blending of past and present. “I don’t know of anything that would compare to it in Huntington Beach.”

The house was expanded in the 1940s, tripling the space. As I wrote in April, the home is 3,200-square feet but most of the rooms are small, the way houses were more than half a century ago.

Those cove ceilings, arched doorways, cornices and hardwood floors with narrow planks all help to evoke the past.

“As the house has been added on to, everyone has stayed true to the house, true to the era it was built in,” Elkins-Rice said. 

I know the house, at 931 10th St., was supposed to be on the Huntington Beach home tour last year, but the timing wasn’t right.

I wonder if the tour organizers will try again?

CLICK to enlarge:

Related:

$1.49M vintage home: ‘True to the era’

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Latest on sales:

Latest on homes on the market:

Post from: Huntington Homes

• City sales totaled 175 — that’s +17% vs. a year ago. Countywide, sales were -1% vs. a year ago in same period.

• Of the city’s 4 ZIP codes, 4 had sales gains vs. a year ago while 2 had a gain in their median selling price vs. a year ago.

• 2 of Huntington Beach’s 4 ZIP codes beat the 3.9% overall performance of the countywide median for the past year.

Here’s how the latest DataQuick report breaks down Surf City ZIPs; change is vs. a year ago:

• For more on overall Orange County homebuying trends, CLICK HERE!

Latest on sales:

Post from: Huntington Homes

Irvine-based California Coastal Communities shows homebuilding revenues of $9.6 million for the past quarter compared to $13.9 million in the 3rd quarter of 2008. 

California Coastal reported:

“While the company delivered three more homes in the third quarter of 2009, the average sales price of homes delivered decreased from $817,600 in the third quarter of 2008 to $480,000 in the third quarter of 2009, primarily reflecting more inland home deliveries (13 vs. 10) and the absence of deliveries of the larger Cliffs and Breakers homes at Brightwater during the quarter, compared with five Cliffs and Breakers deliveries in the third quarter of 2008.”

But, the company says in its 10-Q report, orders recently have gone up:

“Brightwater continues to have significant weekly traffic, generating 15 net new sales orders during the third quarter of 2009 compared with six in the comparable quarter of 2008 and 11 in the second quarter of 2009.”

California Coastal Communities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October to gain more time to repay $182 million in debt due by next spring.

 CEO Raymond J. Pacini said:  

“We are continuing to pursue a consensual restructuring of our debt obligations with the loan syndicates and are hopeful that we will be able to expeditiously develop a plan of reorganization that is acceptable to a substantial majority of our lenders. We experienced a significant increase in sales orders during the last five weeks of the third quarter and hope to be able to maintain that momentum going forward.”

As of Sept. 30, the company says, it has delivered a total of 53 homes at Brightwater, excluding 17 models. Plans call for 356 homes, including 63 will unobstructed views of the ocean and/or the wetlands.

Construction, “subject to market conditions,”  is expected to be completed in 2014, the company says.

See the full SEC report HERE.

Related:

• O.C. builder may be delisted from stock exchange
• Bolsa Chica developer files for bankruptcy
• Brightwater builder skips more loan payments
• Cash-strapped builder: Green homes project still a go
• Brightwater developer misses $1.7 million payment
• O.C. builder can’t make $57 million in debt payments
• Homes on the Bolsa Chica horizon
• Housing project breaks ground at Bolsa Chica

Post from: Huntington Homes

Q.:  ”How about a Mortgage 2010 with a look into what may be ahead in the coming year?
 
A.: ”I have been predicting higher rates in 2010 for much of the year.  The Federal Reserve just went over the $1 trillion mark in purchasing mortgage backed securities and will purchase another $250 billion by the end of March.  Once they leave the market the artificial demand created by the Fed goes away, less demand means lower prices, lower prices mean higher rates.  

Tighter lending criteria:  FHA is losing money and its reserves are well below the level established by Congress. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are losing money and looking for additional funds to prop them up from Washington. Mortgage Insurance companies are losing money and some will leave the business. 
 
FHA:  The losses from FHA are on newer loans, an inordinate amount of refinances that were used by homeowners to get out of Interim or Option ARM programs. From 2000 to 2007 FHA mortgages as a percentage of overall mortgages funded dropped.  In 2008 and 2009 the percentage of FHA mortgages funded leapt due to declining equity across the country, higher loan limits for FHA mortgages and lack of low down payment/equity financing. With unemployment breaking through 10% FHA defaults are being impacted.  FHA is raising the bar on qualifying. 

“The biggest changes in FHA are going to be on the industry side.  A major change is anticipated to be issued with a “Mortgagee Letter” in December that will reduce the number of companies able to originate FHA mortgages and shifting liability from FHA to lenders for originator oversight. What this means is that lenders will reduce the number of brokers who they will allow to originate FHA mortgages. 

The tighter criteria for FHA in 2010 may include higher down payment requirements, higher mortgage insurance premiums, higher FICO score requirements and lower debt-to-income requirements.  

Conventional:  Fannie Mae has already announced lower debt-to-income requirements and as the saying goes, as Fannie goes Freddie follows. The new limit is 45% for the back or bottom ratio for total debt to income.  Fannie is also releasing a new version of its Desktop Underwriter software program that is used to approve mortgages (and in my opinion one of the most under-reported causes of the mortgage market meltdown). The new version of the program will have other “enhancements” that will further tighten down the underwriting criteria for consideration of non-employment income, reserve requirements for borrowers and credit.
 
Lenders:  Many of the lenders still standing have already introduced ‘over-lays’ on underwriting guidelines from FHA and Fannie/Freddie. These over-lays are stricter requirements than the agencies require and/or pricing add-ons to discourage the use of certain criteria.  Lenders are insuring their portfolios will be purchases on the secondary market, are anticipating upcoming guideline changes from agencies and most importantly want to make sure they will not have foreclosures and defaults in the future.  Using analytical programs they have been able to analyze all the criteria of defaults and foreclosures, spot patterns such as gifts for closing, co-signers, etc and target those underwriting standards. While defaults mount in 2010 more and more will be as a result of the current economic situation and less and less from the mortgages made in 2004/5-2007 heyday of no down, stated income programs.
 
While there have been almost no new regulations imposed on Wall Street traders at this point relative to derivatives, hedge funds and margins … everyone wants to make new policies, increase disclosure, add forms, and evidently further confuse the consumer [about mortgages]. Currently our application package in California runs over 25 pages for a conventional transaction (we crest 30 on FHA).  With the new changes we look to add at least five more pages to do what our current forms already do.”

Latest on mortgages:

Post from: Huntington Homes

• City sales totaled 181 — that’s +27% vs. a year ago. Countywide, sales were +9% vs. a year ago in same period.

• Of the city’s 4 ZIP codes, 3 had sales gains vs. a year ago while 2 had a gain in their median selling price vs. a year ago.

• 1 of Huntington Beach’s 4 ZIP codes beat the 4.8% overall performance of the countywide median for the past year.

Here’s how the latest DataQuick report breaks down Surf City ZIPs; change is vs. a year ago:

• For more on overall Orange County homebuying trends, CLICK HERE!

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Latest on sales:

Post from: Huntington Homes

The winning bid was $575,000 with a new loan.

But then someone changed their mind, and the place next went to the top cash bidder, for $500,000, says Tom Moon, the Realtor who listed the house.

The 900-square foot cottage is 2 blocks from the beach. The 2-bedroom, 1-bath property at 1414 Olive Ave. is on a 2,838-square foot lot and has a remodeled kitchen and bathroom, new flooring and paint, an attached 1-car garage and a fenced patio area.

As Moon said a few weeks ago, before the sale closed, “The buyers had been trying to purchase it for a year, when it was a short sale before. The … second (lender) would not negotiate their loan, so they lost all of it .”

Ten of the offers were $100,000 to $200,000 over list price.

Moon said initially his client was given a much lower estimate of the home’s value, using sales of condominiums that were three miles inland as opposed to single-family homes near the beach.

As Moon put it: “Our appraisal was in line with the eventual selling price, but the [client] was concerned about listing it too high and having it sit during the holidays.”

Moon’s advice: List it for a low price and it’ll bid up.  

And the holidays aren’t even here yet!

The cottage sold for $750,000 in November, 2006.

You can see more photos HERE.

Correction: The headline on this post was fixed to say 33% above list; the original headline had an incorrect percentage.

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Here’s what houses in Huntington Beach are going for nowadays.

These are closed sales for the week ending  Nov. 8.

I’ve highlighted the lowest and highest sale prices, as well as houses that sold for the most above and below their original asking prices.

Do you see anything that surprises you, or have any insights you’d like to share with house hunters, sellers, or others? Let us know in the comments.

  *SP/LP = Sold price to most recent list price
**SP/OLP = Sold price to original list price

To locate any of these properties on a map, CLICK HERE.

Related:

Mortgage fraud con’s home sells for $2.8 million

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From the weekend. Did you miss?

• What $425K buys: Surf City vs. Surf City
• Surf City’s smallest house

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Latest on sales:

Post from: Huntington Homes