Lompoc California's Residential Loan Activity

Lompoc is an incredibly diverse community. The real estate lending game is all over the map. There is the pain of foreclosures that affect the market. The short sales are also part of the pain being experienced.

Getting a real estate loan has been hampered by properties that don't have equity as well as the overall economy in that area being poor. If you have a well paying job you are one of the lucky ones.

Besides residences the area is full of agricultural and ranch land. These properties are part of what makes the community diverse enough to hang in there during these difficult times in this real estate cycle.

Having said all this what is going on with residential lending in the Lompoc area? The refinance market would appear to be on the way up since January of this year. That is certainly good news. Individuals that can refinance out of an existing loan are getting some help. I have to believe the conforming loan programs are helping here.

The residential purchase loan segment of the market isn't quite showing the same increase yet as the refinance market. It dipped a bit from March but overall the trend is still up from fall of last year. Having the conforming loan programs available is bound to be a good thing on purchasing property in this area. Progress is slow and will probably continue to be.

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Santa Maria Residential Loan Activity

Santa Maria would appear to be in a steady climb since the end of last year when it comes to residential lending activity.

The purchase loan market which has been hit by a number of foreclosures is continuing to see improvement in the number of transactions. April showed 108 residential purchase loans for the Santa Maria area. This is the highest number since August of 2007.

As I reported in a previous post, Santa Maria had a 54% increase in the number of sales in April. I am anxious to see the numbers for May. The improvement should continue and this will help the area's economy in general.

Refinancing has been a difficult thing for borrowers to do in recent months. It has been affected by lower home values and increased borrower scrutiny.

The conforming loan products have been getting some help from government backed programs. This would appear to be helping the Santa Maria market as April's non purchase numbers continue to improve. There were 234 non purchase transactions which was about a 7% increase over March.

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Residential Loan Activity In Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara area has been doing nothing but showing signs of the market improving. The residential lending activity for April continues that trend.

As you can see from the chart the number of non purchase transactions made a significant improvement from March. It was a 33% improvement, with the number hitting 533 transactions.

Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Goleta, & Montecito I'm sure are all benefiting from good loan rates and our market not being impacted by a number of foreclosures being sold.

I know prices have come down some, but rates are good and our economy locally seems to be pretty stable with tourism doing well.

The residential purchase loan numbers have also increased. April showed a 37% increase over the previous month. How's that for good news?

Many industries rely on the real estate economy here in the Santa Barbara area and if it gets it's feet back under it this community will be humming again.

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Lompoc Residential Loan Activity

Lompoc has been one of the communities in Santa Barbara County that has been hardest hit by the economic slowdown that we have all been witnesses of.

They have experienced, foreclosures, declining prices, and a generally poor economy.

In reviewing the residential lending numbers for March, I am seeing a really good sign. The residential purchase numbers have been on a slow and steady climb since October of last year except for a small downturn in February. That doesn't surprise me since February is a short month.

March's number (40) picked up the pace again and ended up being the highest number since August of 2007 which hit 53. Depending on how you look at the long term trend you could say that we have had 6 months of growth.

The residential refinance number is a little harder to figure out. Since a pretty severe drop in August of last year it has bounced around and been between about 70 and 100 except for a real slow down in January.

What is probably the best news the residential refinance business could ask for is a steady improvement in the purchase market. If this is happening I would picture prices beginning to bottom out, this would make appraising a property on a refinance a more predictable job.

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Residential Lending In Santa Maria

Santa Maria has recently been experiencing a pick up in residential real estate transactions. I am not surprised.

I believe the price of properties in that area is certainly affordable when you compare them to Santa Barbara or the Santa Ynez Valley.

When looking at the residential lending numbers for Santa Maria it is pretty easy to see a pick up as well.

The non purchase market had 219 loans close in March. This is the highest number since October of 2007 and the second straight month there has been an increase. I would hope that some of the Economic Stimulus Package is beginning to give this area some help. The additional money that is available for refinancing certainly can't hurt.

The residential purchase market in Santa Maria is also showing a little bit of growth. There were 95 transactions for March which is the highest number going all the way back to August of 2007 if you exclude February's number. Another situation where for the last 2 months the purchase market is showing increased activity. Probably what is giving this area the most help is that properties are priced well enough to be desirable again.

I think there is a bit of a rebound going on in this market. I can hardly wait to see what happens when the April numbers come in.

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Santa Barbara's Loan Activity Showing Signs Of Life

So what does showing signs of life mean?

The patient has a heartbeat and despite what has been quite a few months of mixed messages in the home loan business there has been a pick up in the number of loans happening in the Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Montecito, and Goleta areas.

The number of purchase loans increased by 66% over February's number. There were 93 loans recorded which is the highest number since August of last year when there were 123 purchase loans reported.

How about the heartbeat of the non purchase market in these areas?

March of 2008 showed an increase over February and reported 400 loans as compared to 377 for February. March's number of non purchase loans was also the highest since August of 2007.

I would say the patient is recovering. It is weathering the sub prime drama that saw Bear Stearns, Countrywide, WAMU and many others real from the pain.

With interest rates remaining very low and if Bill Watkins is right they will remain low in to 2009 and maybe beyond. I see very little reason for someone considering purchasing or refinancing to not take advantage of this terrific climate.

Sure, you may actually have to prove you have an income and are able to pay back what you would like to borrow. Heck you may even have to come up with a down payment, but isn't this how things should have been done to begin with?

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Is The Real Estate Market Improving?

Call me busy or just someone who has his priorities wrong, but I finally made time to update the loan activity charts for February 2008.

I was not in any way thinking that I would see any signs of an improved real estate market especially after seeing how few home sales occurred in February.

You probably don't need to be reminded that lenders have tightened their lending requirements and there have been a number of foreclosures in Santa Barbara County. These foreclosures have had an effect on all the communities but have caused Santa Maria and Lompoc's real estate market to struggle for a number of reason.



The biggest issue is lower home values caused in great part to the lenders doing everything they can to get foreclosed properties off their books. These lower home prices are the reason many people can't refinance out of their existing loans. The properties are under water or don't have any equity.

So, you might ask, when is the good news coming? After looking at the lending activity charts for February we may be seeing a change in our real estate market.




Both the Santa Barbara and Lompoc communities saw the largest number of residential refinances occur since October of last year.



Santa Maria had an upward number as well and was just a couple of refinances away from having its best month since October of 2007. Combine that news with the increase in home sales in that area from January to February and you might surmise things are moving in the right direction.



It's hard to imagine a better situation for all of us than to see the refinance business get moving again. I think with the increased underwriting and the new laws about predatory lending the new loans should be pretty rock solid loans that hopefully are helping homeowners get out of the pinch they found themselves in because of the loans they originally took.

Just the fact that these areas are seeing increased lending activity makes me think that appraisals and property values may be stabilizing to some degree. I think the next sign we should see is an increase in the number of home sales.

I wouldn't expect that to be to far off, but I don't expect it to happen until after the tax man cometh.

I welcome your thoughts.


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Santa Maria and Lompoc Loan Activity

Residential Loan Activity in the North County for January 2008 was what you would have expected.

Santa Maria continued to see declining numbers, while Lompoc's numbers were mixed. The number of refinances in Lompoc was less, while the number of purchase loans increased by a few.

If you compare these numbers to the numbers from about a year ago, the refinance market is off significantly. The purchase market is off, but it isn't quite as drastic.

The refinance market in the north county continues to be affected by a decline in home prices, and a large number of bank owned properties on the market. This coupled with a good interest rate environment makes it an interesting dynamic.

There will continue to be a market for refinancing, but it will be hampered by appraisals coming in lower than expected and borrowers being scrutinized more closely than in the past. I expect the numbers to start to improve, but not by that much.

With respects to home sales and the purchase market, we are in a seasonally slow time of year and those numbers should rise in the coming months, but how much is really going to be interesting, especially when the economic stimulus package the government is putting in place kicks in.

The change in the conforming loan limits will also be something to factor in to what might happen in Santa Maria and Lompoc.

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Santa Barbara Residential Lending Activity

Every month I do a little number crunching and come up with the numbers that reflect the residential lending activity for Santa Barbara's South Coast, as well as Lompoc and Santa Maria.

As you can see from the chart the number of non purchase transactions has dropped over 50% from March of 2007. January is not typically a busy month in general, but that is huge.

Our escrow officers have seen a big increase in the number of refinance escrows they are opening. I expect this number to begin to increase in future months.

It is the same story on the residential purchase loan side. January was down, and from what I know of February, it won't be much better.

On a positive note the open sale escrows in February have certainly shown signs of life. We have opened many more than in January. See You In Escrow!

Santa Barbara County Loan Activity for December 2007

Lending Institutions have certainly been seeing more than their fare share of the front page of many newspapers these days. If you read all the headlines you wouldn't think there were any left to do loans. Well there are and the loan programs I'm hearing about are pretty darn good. The County saw over 900 new residential loans and over 320 million in loan dollars in December of 2007. If you ask me that sounds like the lenders are lending. The Santa Barbara area had a slight increase in the number of non purchase loans done with a small decrease in the number of purchase loans. These numbers haven't changed much in the last 4 months. In the Santa Maria area for December there was a slight increase in the number of purchase loans and a slight decrease in non purchase loans. These numbers appear to be pretty similar to the numbers that have occurred the last 4 months as well. The numbers certainly aren't what they were earlier in the year, but they seem to be stabilizing and probably prepared to go up in the not too distant future. Lompoc in December was the only area where both the non purchase loans and the purchase loans went up slightly. Again, I don't think this is anything to revealing other than the numbers seem to be stabilizing and to me that might mean we are close or at the bottom of the market when it comes to the number of transactions that are being done. See You In Escrow!