Are Foreclosures On The Move?

It has been a number of months since there has been a significant increase in the Notices of Defaults filed at the Santa Barbara County Recorder. As a matter of fact, they had appeared to be on the decline since June of 09.

February changed all that!

The county is reporting that there were 240 recorded in February.

That is the largest number of NOD's recorded since October and a 52% increase over January.

Is this the second wave or just an anomoly?

Stay tuned!

RADIUS GROUP SOUTH COAST 4th Quarter 2009 REVIEW

Radius Group Commercial Real Estate is pleased to provide the RADIUS GROUP SOUTH COAST 4th Quarter 2009 REVIEW for the commercial markets of Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria. Included in the report are the largest leased properties and largest vacancies in each city during the 4th Quarter 2009.

The following is a summary of Vacancy Rates from October 2009 through December 2009.

Santa Barbara
Office Vacancy decreased from 7.2% to 5.3%.
Industrial Vacancy increased from 0.9% to 1.6%.
Retail Vacancy decreased from 2.9% to 2.6%.

Goleta
Office Vacancy decreased from 10.8% to 9.2%.
Industrial Vacancy remained constant at 7.4%.

Carpinteria
Office Vacancy increased from 4.4% to 5.7%.
Industrial Vacancy increased from 13.3% to 14.2%.

Please contact Bob Tuler, Paul Gamberdella, or Gene Deering for any commercial real estate related needs.



Radius Commercial Real Estate & Investments
205 E. Carrillo Street, Suite 100 | Santa Barbara, CA 93101
T: 805-965-5500 Ext.121 | F: 805-965-1150
E: TulerGamberdella@radiusgroup.com |W: www.radiusgroup.com

Conforming Loan Limits Extended For 2010

I know that many folks are supportive of this latest move by the government to help the housing market. I suppose it won't hurt anything, but I'm still trying to figure out if it helped anything here in Santa Barbara over the last year.

I don't believe any of the lenders I am familiar with have ever treated a loan between $417,000 and $729,000 as a conforming loan. They treat them as Jumbo Conforming which is an entirely different animal when it comes to the rate.

I believe that some of the increase we have experienced in the lower price points in our market are due to excellent loan rates below $417,000. I also believe that the higher rates over $417,000 have hampered the housing market above $500,000 in Santa Barbara.

Tell me what you think!

For additional reading
New Conforming Loan Limit Has Too Many Strings
Wild, Wild West: California Cold To 'Jumbo Conforming' Loans