Wild, Wild West: DeGeneres Dances Off With $4 Million Profit On California Home

Who says you can't make a profit on real estate in the current market?

Emmy Award-winning TV-talk show host Ellen DeGeneres likely performed her famous sneaker dance after selling her Southern California estate with a $4 million profit.

She purchased the home little more than a year ago.

The comedian and actress had to settle on a $20 million offer rather than her original $24 million asking price. But DeGeneres boogied off with a 27 percent profit on the Santa Barbara County property, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Fifteen months ago, she purchased the Montecito, CA, property for nearly $16 million. The home is near Oprah Winfrey's 40-acre estate.

DeGeneres sold the home with the help of a comedic video home tour she hosted and aired on her daytime TV show and website. She also upgraded the interior and grounds during her ownership.

The property was listed by Suzanne Perkins with Sotheby's International Realty in Santa Barbara.

The four-acre compound built in 1926 includes a four-bedroom, two-story Spanish Colonial main home with a three-car garage and 5,000-bottle wine cellar. There's also a guest home, fruit trees, swimming pool, tennis court and 5,000 bottle wine cellar on the grounds.

The town of Montecito, where DeGeneres house is located, is in Santa Barbara County's posh South Coast region where single-family home sales were down 33 percent in October from a year earlier. But prices in the region rose 22 percent during the same period, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Brisk sales in California's high-end housing markets like Santa Barbara as well as Silicon Valley, San Francisco and other Southern California hot spots is what has kept the statewide median price from falling until recently.

California's single-family median price plunged 9.9 percent over the past year ending in October.

That's the largest year-to-year price decline since the California Association of Realtors has been keeping records. Sales are down more than 40 percent.

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source: realtytimes.com

Washington Report: Senate Banking Committee Unveils

Maybe all the criticism and jokes about Senator Chris Dodd being AWOL from his housing and mortgage legislative duties on Capitol Hill -- while he runs for President at the back of the pack -- are financially getting his attention.

After months of delay, the chairman of the Senate banking committee last week unveiled his major reform plans for the home mortgage industry -- and they've got some real teeth.

Among other provisions, Dodd's bill would ban all prepayment penalties imposed by lenders in connection with subprime and nontraditional loans, require escrows for taxes and insurance for all subprime borrowers, and prohibit loan officers from steering home buyers to higher-rate, higher-fee mortgages than they deserve or can afford.

Violators would get hit with mandatory cancellations of the loan -- full paybacks of downpayments, principal, interest and closing costs fees -- and $5,000 cash penalties on top of that.

Inflated appraisals would also be targeted: Borrowers could sue their bank or loan broker any time the appraisal on a house came in 10 percent or more below the actual market value, as established by independent valuations.

And all those "liar loans" -- you know, the ones requiring no asset verification, no income verification, no verification of employment that were so popular at the height of the housing boom -- well, you can probably kiss them good bye if Dodd's legislation is enacted.

The bill would impose much stricter requirements for documentation … and would give the Federal Reserve Board the authority to write regulations enforcing the tougher standards.

Dodd is expected to push his reform bill for Senate floor action as quickly as possible, and then go to conference with the House, which has already passed a comprehensive mortgage market reform bill with roughly similar objectives.

With the chairman back in the legislative saddle, there's also a better chance for Senate floor action on the bill the housing market has been waiting for months to see: Reform of the Federal Housing Administration's loan programs -- higher mortgage limits, lower downpayments and risk based pricing to pull in a wider span of home buyers and refinancers.

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source: realtytimes.com

Market Conditions: Blue Bell, PennsWashington Report: Senate Banking Committee Unveilsylvania

Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, is reporting an unchanging market. The average sold price may be just under $420,000, but homes are still selling in under 60 days time. The median family income is over six figures.

This tiny charming town has a population under 7,000, but has ranked as one of the best places to live in the country only a few years ago.

Realtor Tom McFarland, reports that "the Blue Bell area and most of Montgomery County has been a very desirable area for homebuyers. Pricing has increased substantially over the past few years." It is expected to slow a bit through early winter.

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source: realtytimes.com

Long- and Short-Term Rates Reverse Trend and Rise This Week

McLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.11 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending December 13, 2007, up from last week when it averaged 5.96 percent as well. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.12 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 5.78 percent with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.65 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.86 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 5.89 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.75 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.92 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.50 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it was 5.46 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.45 percent.

"November's employment report showed stronger job growth, no change in the unemployment rate and a jump in wages, suggesting to some market participants that the probability of an upcoming recession might be lower than originally thought," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "This led to a rise in interest rates for U.S. Treasury securities this week and mortgage rates followed."

"However, against that backdrop, serious delinquencies (90 days or more delinquent or in foreclosure) on prime conventional mortgages rose to 1.31 percent in the third quarter of 2007 from 0.79 percent in the same quarter in 2006. And serious delinquencies for subprime loans rose to 11.38 percent from 6.78 percent over the same period, so the housing segment of the economy still has a way to go before bottoming out."

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ource: realtytimes.com

Going Green: Easier Than You May Think

Green may not be your favorite decorating color, but the concept of making your home environmentally green is growing in popularity as more homeowners realize that they can also save a little more green in their wallets.

The first thing to understand is that you don't have to buy a new, already green home or build a custom home to go green. There are everyday things that can be done that will not only save you some money in the operating costs of running your home but also may make your home more attractive when you want to sell it.

"Going green doesn't have to be painful. It doesn't have to cost you more money. It's more than just changing one fluorescent light bulb. It's an important consideration," says interior designer, Abbey Koplovitz.

"If you build from scratch, you're doing a residential renovation, and you build using green materials, it is going to cost you 20 to 30 percent more but again, you're already spending say $400,000, what's a little more," says Koplovitz.

But when it comes to making an existing home green, it's a lot cheaper since you often build that cost into the routine maintenance. Then the only thing is to routinely make your choice for materials be green.

"Buy a low-flow toilet. Buy a washer and dryer or a dishwasher that uses less water. A lot of my clients think about these things because they decrease the cost to run the home," says Koplovitz.

"So if you're going to buy stainless steel appliances to help sell your house because the kitchen might be a little tired, buy something that's Energy Star rated," says Koplovitz.

When you start your green-home project, first think about and identify what your priorities are. Is cost the main concern? Are you trying to eliminate a problem such as allergies by going green? Are you concerned about the environment and want to make sure the products you buy come from environmentally-friendly manufacturers?

"Typically you have to give something up. So I always tell my clients, 'What really is the most important thing to you?' If price-point is the most important thing to you, then that limits your choice of products. If color range of choices of flooring is really important to you, and you want to be environmentally green, you kind of go down different paths. So I think it's really important to identify what your goals are and how you want to be green," says Koplovitz.

She says that homeowners who have children with allergies will typically be concerned with air quality. So they'll go green by changing flooring or paint.

"You can get paints that are low or no Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)," says Koplovitz.

But simple knowledgeable choices can keep you allergy-free and help the environment at the same time.

Koplovitz says avoid vinyl at all costs because it gives off toxic gasses. "If allergies are a concern, a really great product is linoleum; true linoleum doesn't increase your price-point very much and it's hypo-allergenic," says Koplovitz.

"If you have wood floors and you need to get them refinished or if you're putting in wood floors, you can go with latex finishes on them. Or, if you're doing carpeting, and you're not allergic to wool, there are many wool projects on the market that are made without a harsh chemical adhesive and harsh chemical processing," explains Koplovitz.

Most people paint their homes every five to 10 years. So one way that people can really contribute to the environment without spending a lot of extra money is by buying paints that have low or no VOC.

"Those are now readily available at all the major manufacturers of paint. So you don't even have to travel very far to get them," says Koplovitz.

To go green, you don't have to do it all at once. But as routine maintenance needs arise, think environmentally green when it comes to choosing materials and products and you'll likely save some money and take pride in doing your part to help protect the environment.

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source: realtytimes.com