California Building Industry Association

Land Use/ Planning

Dyer Mountain resort opponents speak up

Chico News & Review
A decade ago, residents of Lassen County approved the resort development of Dyer Mountain, near the small town of Westwood east of Lake Almanor. That development has yet to happen, and if opponents get their way it will be stalled forever. Last week environmental groups offered their opening brief in a lawsuit filed in 2007 to block development of the forested region. A large-scale housing development, along with a ski resort and three golf courses, has been approved for the area. “This massive development proposal has no place on Dyer Mountain, which is in a remote, rural area,” Steve Robinson of Mountain Meadows Conservancy said in a statement. The nearest town, Westwood, has 2,000 residents. The development calls for 4,000 homes.

Developer's ambitions annoy some Moreno Valley leaders

Riverside Press-Enterprise
Iddo Benzeevi won't say where he lives in Moreno Valley and doesn't provide many specifics on his Highland Fairview Properties company and its past projects. Despite that reluctance, the developer in recent years has become one of Moreno Valley's most prominent, influential and controversial business and political leaders. Highland Fairview is developing the 1.8 million-square-foot Skechers distribution center in the city's east end that could bring more than 1,000 jobs to Moreno Valley. Benzeevi advocated renaming the eastern section of the city Rancho Belago -- and the City Council agreed -- in the hopes of attracting residents and businesses. When the economy rebounds, he plans a massive housing development there.

Del Rey Oaks sues developer for defunct resort project

Monterey County Herald
The city of Del Rey Oaks says a developer who promised to bring a golf course resort with hotels, hundreds of homes, a conference center and spa to 360 acres of Fort Ord land owes the city $1.1million. The city filed suit for damages in mid-August against two entities associated with Federal Development LLC, a Washington, D.C., real estate developer that began working with Del Rey Oaks in 2003 on the proposed resort project. The suit alleges Federal/JER Associates and Federal Del Rey Associates, two Delaware-chartered limited liability companies, have refused to pay the city about $425,000 in reimbursement costs and $723,000 for insurance on the Fort Ord land.

Marina council hears Fort Ord proposals

Monterey County Herald
The battle lines are drawn over Marina's looming choice of a developer for the Cypress Knolls senior community. The City Council held an almost four-hour hearing Tuesday to hear presentations by two rival groups — Coastal Rim Properties and Peninsula Housing Partners — and extensive comments from divided audience members. The council took no action other than to set a Sept. 14 closed-door session to discuss the real estate financial issues in the Cypress Knolls decision. The city has about 190 acres of Fort Ord land, now home to 230 crumbling old military duplexes, that it wants to see developed as a "continuum of care" community for residents 55years and older. Housing would range from single-family homes and rentals to a skilled-nursing facility.

Santa Clarita eyes largest annexation yet

Santa Clarita Signal
The city will soon consider annexing Jakes Way, a high-density, relatively high-crime community east of the city limits, as part of the largest annexation effort Santa Clarita has so far undertaken. Vista Canyon, a mixed-use, residential and commercial project planned for an extension of Lost Canyon Road near Sand Canyon, is making its way through the city’s planning division. Developer Jim Backer hopes it will eventually becoming part of the city. The proposed Vista Canyon project would cover 185 acres west of Sulphur Springs Community Elementary School south of Highway 14. JSB Developers expects to propose 1,350 homes and 950,000 square feet of commercial space, much of it in a mixed-use, town center area, JSB President Backer said.

Azusa's troubled Rosedale project gets new developers

San Gabriel Valley Tribune
After years of stalled construction, a new company has acquired the Rosedale housing community, officials said Wednesday. Brookfield Homes Southland Group has partnered with Christopher Development Group to form Rosedale Land Partners, which closed escrow on the development Tuesday. The new company will oversee development of the entire project, which includes partnerships with other home builders. After opening in 2006, the 517-acre planned housing community on Sierra Madre Avenue never really got going. Of the 1,250 homes planned for the site, only 125 are built and occupied and many of the amenities planned are either unopened or haven't been started.

Marina plans rile Mulford homeowners

San Leandro Times
A new draft of plans for the marina has been submitted by Cal Coast, the developer hired by the city, but not everyone is happy with them. The Mulford Gardens Homeowners’ Association wants more recreation facilities and a member of the Shoreline Citizens’ Advisory Committee believes the developers aren’t listening to the public’s concerns. The latest plans from Cal Coast call for a wide promenade, a 250,000-square-foot office campus, a 200 room hotel with 15,000 square-foot conference center, a two-story retail center, three-story parking garage, new restaurants, and over 100 units of housing.

Market

Forecast: O.C. home prices to rise 1.8%

Orange County Register
Veros, a Santa Ana-based real estate tracker, said its economic model forecasts Orange County homes appreciating 1.8% in the year to end June 2011 – part of an overall firming of much of the California housing market. In the report, Veros’ Eric Fox says: “More coastal California markets are showing signs of improvement … California’s Inland Empire area is showing signs of modest appreciation, joining the state’s strongest metro region, San Diego.” Both the IE and San Diego cracked Veros’ Top 5 for projected gains in the year to end next June.

FHFA updates housing goals for Fannie, Freddie

Housing Wire
The mortgage finance space may remain divided on the future of government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but that isn't stopping its overseer the Federal Housing Finance Agency from regularly updating housing goals for the securitizers. In May, the FHFA set new housing purchase goals for Federal Home Loan Banks. The last time the FHFA updated the housing goals for Fannie and Freddie was in February. In the latest update, the FHFA is reducing the low-income family refinance goal to 21% from 25%.The FHFA requirements that remain unchanged stands that 27% of the total number of mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie be of low-income family housing. The FHFA defined low-income as not exceeding 80% of the area median income.

San Diego housing inventory static in August

San Diego Union-Tribune
Rick Ungar, a local real estate agent, crunched the August sales activity in San Diego County and found inventory levels virtually unchanged from the previous month. According to his calculations, there is about 4.9 months of inventory for detached homes. When it comes to the attached market, which mostly consists of condos, there is 4.6 months of inventory. In the detached market, there were 8,378 active listings as of Aug. 31, compared to 8,132 at the end of July. There were 4,080 active listings for attached properties compared to last month when there were 3,916. Short sales continue to be a significant portion of the housing market, Ungar said.

Pending home sales rise 5.2 percent in July

Associated Press
The number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase previously occupied homes increased in July but remained well below last year's levels, a sign that demand for housing remains weak. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday its seasonally adjusted index rose 5.2 percent from a month earlier to a reading of 79.4. A reading of 100 indicates the average level of sales activity in 2001, when the index started. The reading was above that threshold from March 2003 through May 2007. It sank during the recession, only to surge above 100 a year ago when the government first offered tax incentives to spur sales. When the credits expired in April, the index sank. June's reading of 75.5 was the lowest on record.

Little support for new homebuyer tax credit

San Francisco Chronicle
Is another federal home-buyer tax credit coming? Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development, dodged that question over the weekend, leading to speculation that the Obama administration might pursue another one. But it's hard to see where support would come from, considering that not even the real estate lobby - which pushed for past credits - is seeking a new one. "We are not advocating another one. We think it's important for the market to have time to recover on its own," says Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. Bernard Markstein, senior economist with the National Association of Home Builders, says a new credit is neither likely nor desirable.

Report: California homebuilding to triple by 2012

Orange County Register
California homebuilding could rise 246% from last year’s record-low levels by 2012, a real estate research group reported. According to the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California, based at Cal Poly Pomona, this year’s homebuilding could rise as much as 86% from last year’s levels, then increase another 86% in 2011. “Forecasts for 2010 remain optimistic,” the research council report said. But non-residential construction could be down as much as 7%. The research council’s 2010 forecast states: Building permits for new housing units in the state are expected to increase between 17% to 86% this year.

Fed’s Pianalto: Multiple solutions needed for housing crisis

Wall Street Journal
The housing crisis needs multiple, coordinated policy solutions, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto said Thursday. Speaking at a housing conference in Washington at which Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren was also due to speak, Pianalto said the size and complexity of the housing crisis meant that “no one-size-fits-all short-term remedies would work.” “Our research has led us to understand that the housing market collapse is the result of a destructive cycle that feeds on itself,” Pianalto said. “In our region, mortgage delinquencies led to a high number of foreclosures, which led to an oversupply of housing, which led to home prices depreciating and borrowers and financial institutions taking on big losses.

Mortgage rates hit decades-low: 4.32 percent for 30-year fixed loans

Associated Press
Mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in decades for the 10th time in 11 weeks, as investors worried about the economy. The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan was 4.32 percent this week, down from 4.36 percent last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. The average rate on 15-year fixed loan dropped to 3.83 percent from 3.86 percent the previous week. That's the lowest on records starting in 1991. Rates have been falling since spring as investors have shifted money into safer Treasury bonds. That has lowered their yields, which mortgage rates tend to track.

Galt among state's top-performing housing markets

Sacramento Business Journal
Ready for a housing market quiz? What city in the four-county region boasted the biggest one-year increase in housing prices last month? It’s a four-letter word, and starts with a three-point letter in Words with Friends (my latest non-work obsession). Yep, Galt. The fast-growing city in south Sacramento County, which benefited from the housing boom and endured the bust in recent years, enjoyed a 23.7 percent price increase in July compared to a year ago. The city’s median home price — meaning half the homes sold for more, the other half for less — improved $35,500 to $185,500. In fact, Galt’s one of the 20 best-performing markets in the state.

Water/ Energy/ Environmental

Southern California panel to consider greenhouse gas targets

Riverside Press-Enterprise
Officials with the planning agency that covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties projected earlier this year that the region could cut heat-trapping emissions from passenger vehicle travel by up to 6 percent by 2035. But at its meeting today in Los Angeles, members of the Southern California Association of Governments will consider endorsing state-proposed reduction targets more than twice as high, 13 percent, amid business complaints that the goal is unrealistic and will hurt the economy. "All of these projections are based on modeling. And the modeling is based on assumptions," said Richard Lambros, chief executive officer of the Southern California Building Industry Association.

Green infrastructure could cut stormwater pollution in Ventura County

Southern California Public Radio
A welcome rainstorm cleans the skies and the streets but sends a chemical soup flowing into the ocean. State regulators are putting in new rules to capture much of that runoff before it fouls the coastal waters. In Ventura County, those rules calls for changes in the way gutters and culverts direct rainfall runoff. The approach has developers and cities worried. Before concrete, only 10 percent of rainwater made it to the ocean. The rest evaporated or sank into the ground. But paved surfaces from Ojai and Simi Valley to Point Hueneme and Point Mugu give rain a perfect path to the sea, "picking up with it animal waste and bacteria and pathogens and whatever happens to be lying in the street," says Noah Garrison, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council.