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Median listing prices in Los Angeles County dropped by another $990 over the past week, according to Housing Tracker's weekly analysis of MLS listings, and have now fallen $150,000, or 26%, from their April 2006 peak.
Numbers: Housing tracker reports median listing prices fell to $429,000 from $429,990, marking a decline of 20.4% over the past year. That 20.4% rate of annual decline marks the highest rate of decline in this housing cycle. Inventory of homes and condos for sale dropped by more than 300 units, to 45,164, and is pacing 7.4% ahead of year-ago levels.
Analysis: A decline in the median sales, or listing, price doesn't necessarily mean the value of a typical home has declined by the same amount. It suggests some decline in overall values, but also that the market of listings and sales is increasingly dominated by cheaper homes. This is the foreclosure factor: More and more homes on the market are cheaper, foreclosed homes.
Date Median listing price Inventory
4/06 $579,666 27,251
4/07 $545,000 35,489
5/07 $545,000 38,297
6/07 $540,000 40,766 (up 20.4% y/y)
7/07 $535,000 42,685 (up 14.5% y/y)
8/07 $529,000 44,483 (up 13.6% y/y)
9/07 $520,000 46,414 (up 16.9% y/y)
10/07 $510,000 46,603 (up 15.6% y/y)
11/07 $499,900 46,503 (up 19.0% y/y)
12/07 $495,000 (down 10.0% y/y) 43,174 (up 28.2% y/y)
1/08 $479,900 (down 12.6%) 40,850 (up 33.3% y/y)
2/08 $475,000 (down 13.5%) 43,625 (Up 38.3%)
3/08 $464,900 (down 15.5%) 42,098 (Up 31.4%)
4/08 $450,000 (down 17.4%) 42,430 (up 16.7%)
5/08 $449,900 (down 17.4%) 42,532 (up 11.1%)
6/02/08 $446,500 (down 17.3%) 42,458 (up 4.9%)
6/09/08 $440,000 (down 18.5%) 42,398 (up 4.0%)
6/23/08 $429,990 (down 20.2%) 45,493 (up 8.2%)
6/30/08 $429,000 (down 20.4%) 45,164 (up 7.4%)
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
 Shares of Pasadena-based IndyMac slipped by 19 cents today, which would be no big deal for most stocks. But IndyMac is a penny stock these days, so a loss of less than two dimes a share wiped out roughly a quarter of its value. It closed at 62 cents a share.
Over at Money & Co., Tom Petruno details the near-run on the bank Friday and Saturday, as investors lined up to pull their money out of the bank, which has been battered to the brink of survival by bad loans. As Petruno explains, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) didn't do IndyMac any favors when he wrote to federal regulators saying he was "concerned that IndyMac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers."
Over at LA Biz Observed, Mark Lacter notes that IndyMac is about to become America's largest independent mortgage company, -- if it survives the next few days. "A new report by the Center for Responsible Lending finds that IndyMac engaged in the now-familiar pattern of loosey-goosey lending practices that fueled the mortgage boom. The nonprofit organization says it interviewed former employees who spoke of the pressure to cut deals with little regard for their customers' ability to repay the loans."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Bloomberg News
 In general, the bar at L.A. Land is set very high for news coverage. In this particular case, though, the item just limboed right underneath the bar.
From a media alert forwarded to me by a colleague:
What: Hollywood actresses in bathing suits will be protesting to save
foreclosure victims in front of the Bank of America building in Hollywood. The
Hollywood actresses will be supporting homeowners who are metaphorically losing
their shirts because of bad loans. The protest will take place before the 4th
of July to emphasize the idea of the American Dream that was lost because of bad
home loans.
Who: Hollywood actresses from film and television and
Forbes contributor and financial expert Robert Maltbie.
When:
Thursday, July 3rd at 10 a.m.
Where: Bank of
America
6300 West Sunset
Los Angeles, CA
90028
The media advisory further states that the Internet show "Hollywood by the Numbers" (surely you've heard of it) will be launching its newest video
called "Subprime Slime," in hopes of raising money "to benefit foreclosure victims."
I spoke briefly with the PR person for this event, Lorena Meza, who assured me, "This is a real event." She was giggling a bit, though. I asked if I'd be correct in assuming the various actresses are, for lack of a better way of saying it, unknown. "I think one of them was in Terminator 2," she replied. "But they're not 'A' or 'B' list. They might be, like, 'D' list."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo Credit: "Hollywood by the Numbers"
 I'm fully aware that, in general, home prices are falling sharply. But the recent run-up in mortgage rates is driving up the cost of homeownership (Work with me; one sign of intelligence is the ability to hold in your head two opposing ideas). From Zillow.com this morning: "... the average Los Angeles area homeowner will pay $2,280 more on their
mortgage per year with today’s interest rates vs. if they had bought just
two months ago."
Here's how Zillow breaks that down: "Los Angeles area mortgage APR’s on a 30-year fixed loan, to a
borrower with good or better credit (credit score of 680+), have risen from
5.75% in April to 6.51% in June. In real dollars, this means a buyer in Los Angeles who purchased a
$482,500 home (area median home value), with 20% down, would have paid $2,253/
month on a loan secured at this rate in April, vs. paying $2,442/month on a
loan secured in June."
More, from Zillow: That’s a difference of $190 more per month -– which translates
into $2,280/ year, or $68,400 over 30 years..."
Th Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo credit: Bloomberg News
 Off topic but irresistible to those following the saga of U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson (pictured), the triple-default and single-foreclosure Democrat of Long Beach: the car she leases for official use is the most expensive lease of any member of the House of Representatives, according to Gene Maddaus of the Daily Breeze.
Maddaus: "When she arrived in Congress last fall, Rep. Laura Richardson sought out a vehicle that would match her newfound status. She settled on a 2007 Lincoln Town Car - the choice of many representatives who lease their vehicles at taxpayers' expense. But hers was distinct: at $1,300 a month, it was the most expensive car in the House of Representatives."
Please note the phrase "at taxpayers' expense."
Better known for defaulting on three mortgages and losing one house to foreclosure, Richardson is fast gaining a reputation for inventive auto financing. The backstory from Maddaus: " When she was a councilwoman in Long Beach, she crashed her BMW, abandoned it at a body shop, failed to pay a prior repair bill, and then racked up 30,000 miles on a city-owned hybrid in one year - apparently violating a policy against personal use of city cars."
I know, I know, it's not a housing story. But I also know some of you are following the saga of Rep. Richardson's personal and public finances. For my money it's one of the better political stories to come out of the foreclosure crisis.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tips: Uncle Billy via e-mail, with a reminder from LAObserved.
Photo Credit: Rep. Laura Richardson, center, arrives at a fundraiser in Washington, Wednesday, June 25, 2008, via A.P.
Business Week still sees many reasons to be bearish about housing, reporting, "The housing crisis is entering a new and frightening stage." Two take-aways from this lengthy and worthwhile report ominously titled "The Housing Abyss":
"Overshooting" -- Because prices are falling so rapidly, housing analysts believe it is likely prices will "overshoot" -- that is, continue falling below levels that might otherwise make economic sense. "The risk for the financial system and the economy is that the price drop, already horrifying, will start feeding on itself.... That process has already started in parts of Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada.... Fiserv's James L. Smith worries that instead of settling at a reasonable price level, 'we're going to blow past [it] without even looking back.'"
"Buying and Bailing" -- Business Week spots another of those anecdotal but not easily quantifiable trends: homeowners who buy a new house at a low price, then bail on the upside-down mortgage of their older home: "Steve Hawks, owner of RE/MAX Platinum real estate agency in Henderson, Nev., says he has been flooded with calls from people interested in 'buying and bailing' — that is, buying an additional house while their credit is still good, then walking away from the old one unless they can cut a favorable deal with the lender. So far the number of people who have done so appears to be small."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Hat Tip: Patrick.net
A quick note: I'm taking a short vacation, no blogging until Monday. No, I will not be staying at the house pictured above. That's Lenny "Nails" Dykstra's Lake Sherwood home, which the former baseball star has listed for $24.9 million.
Photo Credit: Sheila Cooper
 California's housing market continued its historic decline in May, as a flood of foreclosed homes for sale drove down the median price paid for a single-family home by a stunning 35% from year-earlier levels, the California Assn. of Realtors reported today.
The median price paid for a single-family home in the state dropped by almost $210,000, from $594,530 in May 2007 to $384,840 in May 2008, the association reported. That drop represents a decline of $3,800 per week, or $549 per day, and is the highest ever measured by the association. The price decline appeared to be accelerating from April to May, as median prices dropped by 4.7% in that period.
“The statewide median price declined 35.3% to $384,840 in May, a record for year-to-year percentage decreases in the median, reflecting the effect of large numbers of short sales and foreclosures in the market,” said association Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “With the statewide median in the $585,000- to $595,000-range through August of last year, we expect the market to continue to experience large year-to-year adjustments through the summer, even if the median price holds steady over the next few months.”
There was a glimmer of hope in the report: the number of homes sold in the state rose 18% from year-ago levels, marking the second straight month of year-over-year gains after 30 straight months of decline. The Realtors' group attributed the pickup in sales to a flood of cheaper houses -- many previously foreclosed on -- that has dramatically changed the state's real estate market. Additionaly, inventory of for-sale homes has decreased when expressed in terms of how long it would take to sell off all the inventory: "C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in May 2008 was 8.4 months, compared with 10.7 months (revised) for the same period a year ago," the association reported.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo credit: Getty Images
 Here's video I'd like to see: Countrywide Financial employees and shareholders gave chairman Angelo Mozilo (pictured) a standing ovation today, and Mozilo "fought back tears" at a shareholders meeting to approve the sale of the company, according to Reuters.
Here's more: "Scott Adams, coordinator for a pension program of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the Countrywide shareholders meeting lasted fewer than 20 minutes and had about 300 attendees, including many employees.
"He said Mozilo, 69, entered to a standing ovation, and then fought back tears in recalling how he had received a loan from Bank of America to help co-found Countrywide.
"Mozilo, the son of a Bronx, New York, butcher, said he felt emotional because of his Italian heritage, Adams said."
I doubt that shareholders or Mozilo discussed the new lawsuits against the company, filed by attorneys general in California and Illinios.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo credit: Getty Images
 News item this morning from the L.A. Times: "Countrywide Financial Corp. and its chief executive, Angelo Mozilo,
were sued today by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who accused them
of forcing thousands of Californians into foreclosure by deceptively
marketing risky adjustable-rate mortgages to borrowers who didn't
understand that their monthly payments would one day 'explode.'
"In a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Brown
alleges that Countrywide and its top executives, beginning in 2004,
plotted to loosen or ignore lending standards so they could make more
sub-prime mortgages and other adjustable-rate loans that were promoted
by emphasizing low initial rates.... Countrywide spokesman Rick Simon said the company would have no
immediate comment on the lawsuit. The mortgage lender, the nation's
largest, is expected to face a similar suit today in Illinois."
The New York Times first reported the Illinois lawsuit last night.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times
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