Real Estate

After lots of wrangling, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally ready to do right by strapped California homeowners. Currently, state law requires the payment of income tax on a homeowner’s canceled or forgiven debt on a short sale or foreclosure. What it means in practice is that a struggling homeowner who has either lost his or...
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An amount of office space equivalent to 13 Bank of America buildings sits vacant in San Francisco today as companies continue to shed more square footage than they rent – a trend that won’t change until employers start putting more people behind desks. The 13 million square feet of available space in the first quarter...
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Worst performing cities: Despite news that the pending home sales index jumped at the highest rate since 2001, some real estate markets are struggling along. We’ve recently discussed the best small towns to buy a home and outlined most rapidly growing counties but today we’d like to reveal the areas that are struggling. The 10 worst performing...
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Short sales are occurring with increasing frequency as a result of the poor economy and shrinking home values.  What many people don’t realize is that if your lender allows you to sell your home at a loss, you may be liable for taxes on the losses incurred by the lender.  The IRS considers a...
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LOS ANGELES- A 7.2 magnitude earthquake centered in Baja California, Mexico was felt all over Southern California, rocking high rise buildings from San Diego to Los Angeles, but there were no immediate reports of major damage. One man died when his home collapsed on him, Baja California state Civil Protection Director Alfredo Escobedo. The man’s...
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Out of work for more than a year, Dale Ottley was relieved when she was able to sell her Woodland Hills condominium for $230,000 – even though it was a “short sale” on which she lost $200,000. Now she faces the possibility of having to pay state income tax on the $200,000 debt that her...
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Homebuyer tax credits are almost certainly returning. Sacramento-area buyers can begin claiming $10,000 tax credits starting May 1 under a bill expected to be signed soon by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The legislation allocates $200 million for more state tax credits – twice what was offered last year to 10,659 buyers of new, unoccupied homes. The state’s...
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PHOENIX (AP) — The five states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis have been given only weeks to plan how to spend $1.5 billion in federal funding announced by the Obama administration last month. Guidelines issued under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Fund for Hardest Hit Housing Markets on March 5 gave housing finance agencies in...
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Los Angeles Times Yves Didier has been a strong believer in earthquake insurance since the 1994 Northridge quake, when his apartment building was severely damaged and some of his neighbors lost their lives. He didn’t hesitate to pay as much as $2,500 a year for coverage after he purchased a three-bedroom house in Reseda in...
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With more than 8 million Toyota cars and trucks (including some Lexus vehicles) under recall for a variety of issues that include brake and accelerator problems, insurance claims are all but certain. But how will those claims, and the volume of them, affect your insurance rates? Dating back to mid-January, Toyota recalled a variety of...
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