Dawn Rivera’s Fremont & East Bay Real Estate Blog

when the economy gets bad and people get desperate, some people have no scruples and will try to scam any way they can.

If you are trying to get a mortgage, beware of online scams who are trying to just get your information so they can steal your identity and ruin your credit and your life. Also beware of brokers or lenders who tell you one rate and then give you another (higher rate). Be sure you do business with a “Realtor” or someone else you know and trust. Realtor’s have specific ethics they have to abide by.

Some people are already finding ways to scam the tax credit, and it makes it tougher for those of us who are trying to complete honest business transactions. keep heart there are good, honest, people who will help you get the mortgage you need.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has delayed the implementation of rules that could make life more difficult for condo buyers across the country. The delay should be especially helpful for those hoping to qualify for the first-time buyer tax credit that expires after Nov. 30.

The new FHA rules, which were to take effect Oct. 1, 2009 will now be effective on Nov. 2. They are designed to improve the lending process, but they could cause some short-term delays in completing loans and closing purchases. The FHA was wise to delay the implementation of these changes. Now, buyers trying to close a transaction by Nov. 30 should be able to file their FHA loan applications early enough to qualify under the old regulations.

The importance of FHA financing has grown substantially in the last few years because conventional mortgage financing has become harder to obtain due to more stringent underwriting requirements. According to some estimates, 25% of homes purchased this year in the United States will use an FHA insured mortgage, up from 2% just three years ago.

About 1/3 the transactions I’ve closed this year involved FHA backed mortgages, and most of those folks were first-time buyers purchasing a condo. Many first-time buyers are short on cash and turn to FHA financing because it allows them to put down as little as 3.5%, in contrast to the 10% down payment required for most conventional loans.

The new FHA regulations now will apply to all mortgage applications received on Nov. 2 or later. Files that were initiated prior to Nov. 2 will be processed under the old regulations, even if the loan does not close until after Nov. 2.

The major reason the new regulations may slow down the purchasing process when they become effective is that they end what are known as spot approvals of individual condominium units. Instead, the entire condominium property will need to be approved before an FHA-insured loan can be used.

Many condominium properties have never received FHA approval. However, even those condo complexes that now have FHA approval will need to be recertified after Nov. 2 if their approval was recieved more than two years ago. It may be possible to expedite that certification process by seeking a loan from an institution that is also an FHA Direct Endorsement Lender. That status allows a lender to directly carry out the certification process needed to grant FHA approval to a condominium complex.

The new FHA regulations taking effect Nov. 2 also contain other restrictions that could make life more complicated for condo buyers. Here is a partial list:

-At least 50% of units in the project must be owner occupied or under contract to owners who intend to occupy them. For new construction, the 50% owner-occupied rule applies to those units closed or under contract.

-For new construction condominiums, at least 50% of the total number of units planned must be sold or under contract before an FHA insured mortgage can be closed.

-No more than 25% of the total floor area of a condo property can be used for commercial purposes.

-No more than 15% of the units can be more than 30 days past due on their assessment payments to the condominium association.

There is, however, some good news for borrowers in the new FHA regulations. For example, they eliminate the long-time prohibition against the FHA financing units in condominiums where the homeowners association retains a right of first refusal.

Another change allows the FHA to insure loans in new condo conversions for any qualified buyer. Previously, only former rental tenants could get FHA financing for the first 12 months.

The changes in FHA regulations are just one example of the current environment. It has seemed as if lending requirements have been changing on a daily basis this year.Thjose looking for a condo will benifit greatly by working with a Realtor who knows the local condominium market. An agent with in-depth knowledge of the local market offers two important advantages to buyers right now, First, they are going to know which condo buildings offer the best opportunity to secure good financing, whether it’s conventional or FHA. If you have a building where the association has financial problems or one with a high percentage of renters, it can be almost impossible to get a mortgage right now. Second, the agent will help buyers avoid the potential potholes that can come with condominium ownership. For example, before I even show a condo building now, I will study the minutes of the condo board meeting to learn what plans and problems might be on the horizon. An agent who doesn’t normally work in an area just can’t develop that kind of knowledge.

In the state of California you can apply for two different tax credits one from the state Gov. and one from the Federal Gov.

The federal Gov. is giving a tax credit in the amount of 10% of the sale price or 8000.00 which ever is less.

The state of California is giving a tax credit in the amount of 5% of the sale price or 10,000.00 which ever is less.

Neither is a loan nor does it have to be repaid.

What’s the catch, you ask? Well the federal tax credit has a limit on the income amount on the buyer can earn 75,000 for a single taxpayers and 150,000 for married taxpayers. Also, they must be first time buyers and purchase the home between 01/01/2009 and 12/01/2009

The state tax credit does not have a limit on your income, but it does require you to be purchasing a newly built home, between 03/01/2009 and 03/01/2010. the credit is not a loan as long as the home remains your primary residence for two years.

Home buyers can tap both programs and get a possible 18,000 tax credit, but time is running out to cash in on the opportunity. California set aside 100 million for the program and it is depleting faster than expected. Also the end of the federal program (12/01/2009) is fast approaching. Home buyers who don’t act now could end up out of luck…..

Federal Reserve governors, unanimously proposed tough new consumer-friendly disclosure rules for mortgages and home equity loans last month, tackling one of the less-appreciated causes of the nation’s deep financial crisis.

After 18 months of study and consumer testing, the Fed’s division of consumer affairs proposed, and governors accepted, a change to how finance charges and the annual percentage rate would be calculated. They also proposed restricting some bonus compensation from lenders to those who originate loans.

The action by the Fed’s Board of Governors, which requires a four-month comment period before becoming final, came as Congress is weighing an Obama administration proposal to strip the central bank of some of its regulatory authority over consumer credit products such as mortgages and credit cards. The administration favors giving those powers to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would have the sole mandate of protecting consumers from abusive practices such as the weakened lending standards that triggered a collapse of the housing sector. This crisis in mortgage lending quickly morphed into a global financial crisis.

Last month’s Fed vote also came hours after the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes rose 3.6% in June, the third consecutive month of increasing sales. All regions of the country posted growth, and the percentage of distress sales fell to 31% from 33% in May.

This report provides further evidence that activity in the housing market is stabilizing and that price declines are slowing. The increase in home sales over the last three months was the fastest since May 2004 (in percentage terms) and the NAR reports that the share of distressed sales is declining. This report, along with recent data on housing starts, building permits suggests that we may have seen the bottom in home sales and housing construction.

Wall Street cheered the housing news.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 188.03 points to 9069.29, crossing the psychological threshold of 9,000. The S&P 500 finished up 22.22 points to 976.29, and the Nasdaq wrapped up the day with a gain of 47.22 points to 1973.60.

Under the Fed proposal, lenders or other originators of mortgages-such as mortgage brokers-would have to provide borrowers with clear one-page explanations of how adjustable-rate mortgages, like those that triggered the housing crisis, differ from fixed-rate products. They’d have to provide clearer examples of what borrowers’ true costs would be, using the loans themselves rather than generic examples.

Lenders also would have to notify borrowers of payment changes 60 days beforehand, rather than the current 25 days. Similarly, for home-equity lines of credit, the notification period would be 45 days instead of 15.

Those moves are decidedly more consumer-friendly, giving borrowers more notice to adjust to pending changes and perhaps seek refinancing in the case of adjustable-rate loans.

The most controversial proposed change is restricting special compensation from lenders when mortgage brokers get borrowers into higher-priced loans when they qualified for lower rates. This bonus, called a yield-spread premium, was a factor in the explosion of sub-prime lending, which involved high-cost loans given to the weakest borrowers.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers has defended these special commissions but it declined immediate comment on the proposed rule change, which expressly would prohibit steering consumers to higher-priced products in pursuit of personal gain.

During the comment period, the Fed will work to create similar disclosures at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has jurisdiction over the settlement documents involved in home purchases.

“It is a complex and comprehensive proposal, so I think an extended comment period is appropriate,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said.

More information on this will be available approx. November 2009

Hi all, have an older car or SUV now is your chance to get a vehicle that gets better gas mileage and get 4,500.00 from the government to do it!!

The governments Cash for Clunkers program (C.A.R.S.) began stimulating the economy a month before the first rebate check was cut to a consumer for a new vehicle. “Manufacturers and dealers have spent millions to reach consumers who qualify for the $4,500 government funded rebates,” said Sharon O’Connell from www.CashForClunkersInformation.org.

Big budgets have been activated to implement campaigns targeting clunker consumers who are eligible for the program and the early results suggest the returns will be worth the investment. “We predict that the annualized selling rate for July will exceed 10 million vehicles for the first time this year due to the government program bringing dormant consumers back into the market,” adds O’Connell. “We think August could do even better with a million or more sales due to increased demand from the CARS program.”

“The stimulus helps local markets more than national car companies because car dealers stimulate the local economy through their big advertising expenditures, job creation and enormous state tax revenue,” said O’Connell. “A small dealership who sells 100 vehicles a month spends an average of $500 per car in advertising, which is a total of $50,000 that is spent in local advertising.”

Courtesy Chevrolet, one of GM’s largest dealerships in the country, “bought new inventory, hired additional salespeople and increased our ad budget by 88%,” said Scott Gruwell. “We spent $200,000 on a targeted direct mail and Web campaign to every customer in our market and we launched a regional information portal called www.CashForClunkersDC.com,” said Vince Sheehy, owner of www.Sheehy.com in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland and Baltimore. “So far we have sold over 100 vehicles while most dealers in our area are just getting started.”

Early Spenders are the Early Winners
Most of the economic activity generated up to this point has come from early spenders who also appear to be early winners in the race to reach clunker consumers. The winning retailers have been marketing to consumers for weeks while others are just getting started. Hyundai and a small group of dealer groups got a head start when they announced they would help consumers participate in the program starting on July 1st, while others were turning them away until the final rule was published on the 24th. The NHTSA and the National Automobile Dealers Assn. warned dealers against doing transactions before the final rules were announced on July 24th. Despite these warnings, Hyundai and a few dealers took the risk to help consumers get rebates when the law said they could. “Hyundai has attributed 10 percent of July’s sales to the program and some dealers have generated hundreds of incremental sales,” said O’Connell.

More than 70% of the clunkers were Ford or Chevy trade ins, 71% of the clunkers were SUVs, 93% had over 100k miles and 71% qualified for the $4,500 because SUV’s only need a 5 mpg improvement to get the full $4,500 rebate. The average clunker trade in gets 17 mpg and the average new vehicle gets 25 mpg, which is an average of an 8 mpg improvement.

Some dealers had over 100 orders by the time the final rule was announced and our customers appreciated the fact that we could help them when they were turned away by other dealers that weren’t ready,” said Sheehy. It turns out their strategy was not very risky because the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act clearly states that consumers were eligible for rebates starting July 1st.

Following are the top 7 reasons why it’s better to buy than rent in 2009

1. Buying doesn’t always cost much more than renting. According to a recent study by the Associated Press, the gap between monthly mortgage payments on a median-priced home and the median rent has decreased from $777 to just $221 in the last three years.

2. Affordability is at an all-time high. In markets across the nation, including the inland areas of California, prices have declined by nearly 40%.

3. Buyers can take advantage of tax benefits of home ownership. Perhaps the biggest tax break is reflected in the house payment homeowners make each month. For most, the bulk of that payment goes towards interest. All interest is deductible, unless the amount is more than $1 million. Property taxes are also deductible.

4. Buyers can purchase homes with little or no down payment. Qualified first-time buyers may be eligible for loans insured by the Veterans Administration (VA), which does not require a down payment. Another loan product gaining popularity are those insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which require only a down payment of 3.5%.

5. The Tax Credit. First time homebuyers-defined as anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the last three years- are entitled to an $8,000 tax credit. (Ownership of a vacation property or a rental property doesn’t disqualify homebuyers from this program.) No repayment is required for homes sold after 36 months of occupancy and ownership.

6. Mortgage rates are at all-time lows. Take advantage of low 30 year fixed rates. We haven’t seen rates this low in the last 3 decades.

7. It’s yours. It feels good to own your own home. After all, you can paint it any color you want, make improvements, and plant a little garden.

So…..Find a Realtor, Get pre approved and get out there to find your piece of the American Dream!!

Positive News: U.S. Housing Starts up Second Straight Month in June

(Market Watch)-New construction of U.S. houses expanded for the second straight month in June after hitting a record low in April, the Commerce Department estimated Friday.

Starts rose 3.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted 582,000 annualized units stronger than the 531,000 pace expected by economists surveyed by Market Watch. This is the highest level of starts since last November.

Starts of new single-family homes rose by 14.4% to 470,000 in June, while starts of large apartment units fell 29.4% to 101,000. Building permits, a leading indicator of housing construction, rose 8.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000. This is the highest level of permits since December.

Home prices have moderated, interest rates are reasonable, supply is abundant-and then there’s that $8,000 tax credit. Yes, it’s a great time to buy your first house.

If you do, you’ll have to furnish it, and that can be a challenge, especially if you have put much of your disposable income into a down payment. But you’re a grown-up now, and your first real home is no place for that grungy old futon or bookcases constructed with bricks and boards. It deserves better.

So what’s the best way to go about furnishing your new home? We’ve asked a variety of experts for their ideas on what to do after your offer has been accepted. Here are their ideas:

“Before you get carried away, take some time to determine what you have, what you need and what you want,” says Milwaukee-area interior designer Susan Michalek of Desumi Design Inc. “Deal with what you need first. That should be your highest priority.”

Wanda M. Colon, a designer who can be seen as host of TLC’s “Home Made Simple” and HGTV’s “24-Hour Design,” suggests that any assessment should include the amount of money you have to spend.

“It’s easy to overspend or make impulse purchases if you don’t have a budget,” she says. If you watch what you spend and stay within your limits, “as a bonus you might have money left over to purchase some extra goodies.”

Evaluate each room, says interior designer Jane Klein, and figure out how you plan to live in the house, considering: “Where you will spend most of your time, what you will do in each room? Will you want a table in the family room for work space, for example, or a comfortable chair and good lighting in the bedroom for relaxing and reading?

“Also think about the size of each room and the appropriate scale for the furniture,” Klein says. “You might fall in love with a sectional, but the reality is that it might not fit in a small room.”

Go Shopping.

If you’re shopping with your significant other, have some discussions about what you like and don’t like, and what you think works well together and with the style of your home.

“You don’t have to choose strictly contemporary or strictly traditional,” Steinhafel says. “More likely the choice will be made based on whether you are going for a casual or more formal look.”

But remember that while an “eclectic” look works, that doesn’t mean anything goes. There should be some continuity or unifying elements so that the result isn’t a hodgepodge.

“Don’t buy everything in one place,” she says. “This allows you to compare styles and prices.”

As you peruse what’s available, take pictures of what you like, Klein says. “If you think it might work, take a picture, at stores, consignment shops, wherever you go. Then look at the pictures when you get home to remind you of the choices and to see which pieces work together.”

Get to Work

It’s easier to paint a house when it’s empty and to refinish or replace flooring or knock down walls when you’re not living there. So if there’s work to be done, allow time for that after closing but before you move in.

Make Major Purchases

At minimum you will need: a good mattress and box spring and a bed or headboard to give the room a polished look; a quality sofa and chairs; a console unit for the television; and a table and chairs for dining (either for the kitchen or dining room).

Bette Kahn, spokeswoman for Crate & Barrel and CB2 stores, says microfibers are a good fabric choice for sofas because they’re so durable.

She suggests going with neutrals for big pieces, “but if that’s too basic, they can always be made more interesting with pops of color through pillows, which can be changed.”

“Make sure the frame of your sofa or chairs is high quality,” says Kahn, adding that if the piece wears out or looks outdated, it can be slip-covered or reupholstered if necessary.

If you buy high-quality pieces, you can build a room around them for years to come.

Fill in Creatively

After you’ve found the big pieces that serve as the foundation for a room, it’s time to fill in with smaller pieces. This is where you can have some fun, save money and add a touch of personal style.

Consignment stores, estate sales, resale shops and even Grandma’s attic are great places to find furniture, especially if you’re willing to fix it up.

For example, if you’ve purchased a bed but need a dresser or two, you might be able to find used pieces with similar lines. You can refinish or paint the dressers to match (assuming they aren’t valuable antiques, in which case the original finish should be preserved) and change the hardware for a coordinated look.

Area rugs, artwork and accent pieces are fun to shop for and also add personality to a room.

It probably took awhile to find the right house. It stands to reason it won’t be furnished in a week, a month or perhaps even a year.

“Many purchases can be put off, especially the decorative pieces,” Kahn says. “Besides, you’ll have more fun collecting those as you go through life.”

Colon warns first-time homeowners to take their time. “Don’t impulse-buy and end up feeling stuck because you acted too hastily,” she says.

Klein says: “Give yourself a little time. When you make a decision, use your head and your heart. Look at different options, ask lots of questions.

“When you see it, you’ll know if it’s right.”

Been out looking for an entry-level single family home in Hayward, CA? If your answer is yes, then you’ll have experienced first hand the craziness that’s become reality in the current Hayward, CA market. No matter which property you choose to visit, chances are there are folks there already, and, as you leave, odds are very good that others are pulling up behind you.

The entry-level market for detached single family homes in Hayward, CA has gone plain nuts.

Nuts might be good for squirrels but last time I checked, those cute, furry-tailed rodents don’t qualify as first-time home buyers. What’s all the fuss? I’ll explain the issues and implications at the end of this post, however, let me first set the stage.

Single family homes 1,200 square feet and smaller are flying off the market like pancakes off the grill during a lumberjack festival. Inventory is WAY down and sales are WAY up. In fact, in an unprecedented market maneuver, pending sales numbers are actually out pacing the supply of existing homes for sale. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that something is up and to agree that things can’t continue this way for long.

So where are we headed? Does this mean we’re at the bottom of this particular market? You tell me. It would appear that prices have stabilized and have been on a plateau for quite a while. There is a mere difference of $4,000.00 between the average sold price from November, 2008 until April, 2009. However, list prices are headed back up – a sure indicator that at least one group believes the market has turned – sellers.

As I’ve stated in other posts, the bottom of the market cannot be officially called until both Average Sales Prices AND Average Square Foot Prices are either flat or climbing.

While not yet perfectly level, the numbers are looking very, very good. We may not be at the absolute bottom, but we’re so close that if I was in a submarine, I’d be sounding the collision alarm and looking for something secure to hang on to.

Lastly we have Months of Inventory. A quick search on Google reveals many pundits stating that approximately 6 months of inventory indicates a level market. More inventory reveals a Buyer’s Market, less precludes a Seller’s Market. Anyone thinking we are still in Buyer’s Market in this category is simply in denial. True, we’ve not seen prices pounding back upward, but, from personal experience, I can tell you that almost every home in this group is ending up with multiple offers and is selling for over asking price. And here is a part of the rub – most of these homes go on the market with artificially low prices for the specific purpose of securing multiple offers and driving the prices back up again.

Here are 3 Critical Facts you need to know about this market:

1. We are running out of inventory at the bottom of the market.

There are a few reasons for this:

There was a hold on foreclosures from late 2008 until April 01, 2009. Although foreclosures are back on track, new properties have not yet hit the market in any kind of significant volume. That may change any moment.
Unprecedented numbers of buyers are hitting the market because of record low mortgage rates, rock bottom prices and good, old fashioned “spring fever.”
The $8,000.00 tax credit and its impending deadline are pushing buyers to cash in before it is too late. Even the confusion about whether or not the credit can be used for the down payment is fueling frenzies in some quarters.

2. Many homes are going pending that ARE NOT actually closing.

Because of the shrinking inventory, many buyers are starting to write on short sales – buyers that would’ve historically avoided them a brief 3-4 months ago. Once in contract, short sales show up as pendings, but take so long to close they actually mess up the pending numbers (that is the only way more homes can go pending than are actually on the market!). The success rate of short sales is somewhere between 10-20%, and they can take up to 9 months to close. To add to the confusion, many buyers submit an offer on a short sale, it gets marked pending, then those very same buyers go get offers accepted on OTHER short sales as well. While those escrows are slowly stewing in their short-sale crock pots, those same buyers actually go out and manage to get an REO into escrow! One buyer – three escrows? You betcha! You gotta know two of those escrows are NOT going to close, thus adding to the overall confusion in the current market.

3. Current list prices are artificially low.

Banks and their listing agents have figured out the “list low – sell high” strategy and are whipping it into an art form. Low ball offers on REOs are WAY gone unless it’s a dog of a property and has been sitting on the market an awfully long time. If you see something out there priced way too low to be real, guess what …

Lastly, remember that short sale listing agents are also pricing way below market value just to get you through the front door. Problem is, there is absolutely NO guarantee that the bank will actually sign off on the “list price” or your subsequent lower offer.

I believe this situation will be temporary.

We cannot continue to have more homes go pending than are actually coming on the market – this is supply and demand economics 101. Something has to give. I believe it will be supply: in my opinion, we are going to see a resurgence of foreclosed homes into the market in the near future that will level the playing field. Many of these will be existing short sales that have been sitting out there a long time. And in some cases, short sale homes, once foreclosed, will go back on the market at a higher price than their list prices as short sales. This is simply because they were priced far too low to begin so as to attract visitors and offers.

Bottom line: I personally do not believe homes at the bottom will go down much more in value, if at all. I believe homes in the upper end will be the ones taking the hit. And I also am going to predict that by mid-summer, we should be back to at least 3 months of inventory.

So how to respond to all of this?

Be a wise buyer. Cooler heads always prevail and make the money in markets like this while those who respond with panic end up losers every time. Set a limit and stick to it – it may be a while before you land a house, but with careful work and due diligence, you will find one that you can finally call “home.”

Happy thursday! here is some more info on the existing home sales. Some good some bad news.

Sales of existing homes showed another gain in May, benefiting from favorable affordability conditions

and a first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®. May’s increase

was the first back-to-back monthly gain since September 2005.

Existing-home sales-including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops-rose 2.4 percent to a

seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66

million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008.

Historically low mortgage interest rates clearly drew buyers into the market, and housing remains very

affordable even with a recent uptick in rates. First-time buyers also are being drawn off the

sidelines by the $8,000 tax credit, which is helping to absorb inventory. However, the increase in

sales is less than expected because poor appraisals are stalling transactions. Pending home sales

indicated much stronger activity, but some contracts are falling through from faulty valuations that

keep buyers from getting a loan.

Total housing inventory at the end of May fell 3.5% to 3.80 million existing homes available for sale,

which represents a 9.6-month supply2 at the current sales pace, down from a 10.1-month supply in

April.

The appraisal problem is serious. Lenders are using appraisers who may not be familiar with a

neighborhood, or who compare traditional homes with distressed and discounted sales. In the past

month, stories of appraisal problems have been snowballing from across the country with many contracts

falling through at the last moment. There is danger of a delayed housing market recovery and a further

rise in foreclosures if the appraisal problems are not quickly corrected.

A NAR practitioner survey in May showed first-time buyers accounted for 29% of transactions, and that

the number of buyers looking at homes is nearly 10 percentage points higher than a year ago.

The NATIONAL MEDIAN existing-home price for all housing types was $173,000 in May, down 16.8% from a

year earlier. Distressed properties, which declined to 33% of all sales in May from 45% in April,

continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to

traditional homes.

First-time buyers are concentrated in the lower price ranges, which include most of the distressed

sales.

Single-family home sales rose 1.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.25 million in May from a

pace of 4.17 million in April, but are 3.0% below the 4.38 million-unit level in May 2008. The median

existing single-family home price was $172,900 in May, down 16.1% from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales increased 6.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 520,000

units in May from 490,000 in April, but are 8.9% below the 571,000-unit level in May 2008. The median

existing condo price4 was $173,800 in May, down 21.9% from a year earlier.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest jumped 9.0% in May to a pace of 1.09 million but are 4.4% below May

2008. The median price in the Midwest was $145,800, which is 10.4% lower than a year ago.

In the South, existing-home sales were unchanged at an annual pace of 1.74 million in May but are 8.9%

below a year ago. The median price in the South was $157,400, down 9.9% from May 2008.

Existing-home sales in the West slipped 0.9% to an annual rate of 1.14 million in May, but are 11.8%

higher than May 2008. The median price in the West was $197,700, down 30.6% from a year ago.