Walking Trails at RiverbedThe Santa Maria Sun reports that local officials have secured an additional $6.7 million to repair the Santa Maria levee. Without repair, Santa Maria homeowners are faced with having to buy flood insurance. In its current state, the levee would not hold fast against a “once in a hundred years” severe flood and homes are at risk. This is great news as it brings santa Maria a step closer to repairing the levee and removing the threat of mandatory flood insurance on homeonwers. Flood insurance would greatly increase the cost of homeownership — edging monthly costs up as much as $160 at a time when budgets are already tight. Prior to securing these funds, I watched an interview with Mayor Lavagnino in which he speculated that the imposition of flood insurance might push even more homeowners in Santa Maria into foreclosure. Santa Maria has already been hard hit in by the housing boom and bust. If the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act is approved, the Army Core of Engineers will conduct the repair.
If you would like information or a list of available home foreclosures, condos, or short sales in the Santa Maria – Orcutt CA area, send an email to me at tni@mintprop.com. You can also search for properties on my websites: www.iLoveSantaMaria.com, www.SantaMariaRealEstateSearch.com, & www.BuySantaMariaForeclosures.com (map based search). If you have questions about a specific property, or would like to set up an appointment to consult about a possible short sale of your property, I can be reached at (805) 878-9879.
*Based on the information from the Central Coast Regional MLS. Neither the Association, the Multiple Listing Service, or Mint Properties guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.
For those looking to buy your first rental property, or pick up an extra one now that prices make sense again, be aware that lenders have rolled back the down payment requirements for investment property. Most lenders I polled recently say that a 20% down payment is required for an investment property. Many of us remember when lenders required a 30% down payment for investment property, and I wonder how long it will be until we are back to those days. Lenders slowly but surely increased the down payment requirement for investors during the housing boom and have slowly but surely increased that obstacle again.
The average price for a home in Santa Maria and Orcutt edged up only slightly from $250,000 in December 2008 to $252,000 in December 2009, reflecting the fact that the market appears to be stabilizing. Also, the average price for condos has gone up from $120,000 to $168,500.
