Ventura County Real Estate Journal

News and Views on Real Estate Issues in Ventura County

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Ventura County Beaches Earn an A!

May 22nd, 2008 · Local News

Ventura County Beach Report Card

Heal the Bay, an environmental group, issued it’s “Beach Report Card” that assigns grades of A to F to 517 beaches on the California coast based on measured bacteria levels from April 2007 to March 2008. 55 of Ventura County’s 56 beaches rated an A during the spring and summer months. Rincon Beach received the lone B.  In the wet winter months, water quality is not as good due to run off from and test beaches measure much higher bacteria levels.

The Ventura County Star quotes Mike Grimmer, Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card manager in today’s newpaper:

It’s amazing how good the water quality is there (in Ventura County),” said Mike Grimmer, Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card manager.  “If you’re at an open-ocean beach and it’s dry weather, you have almost a 100 percent chance of swimming in clean water,” Grimmer said. “We’re making some strides on wet weather. Unless we live in a society where there’s no trash anywhere, a lower standard is always going to be expected during wet weather conditions.”

For more information on Ventura County “Beach Report Card”, visit:

Heal The Bay Ventura County Report Card Map  
Heal The Bay Ventura County Report Card Text
County of Ventura Water Quality Tests

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Fannie Mae to Eliminate “Declining Market Policy”

May 21st, 2008 · Real Estate, Real Estate Financing

As of June 1st, Fannie Mae is changing it controversial policy of requiring an additional 5% down payment for home in designated as being in a “declining market”.  Back in January, Fannie Mae changed its lending guidelines which had a major impact on Ventura County home sellers and buyers.  Ventura County was on Fannie Mae’s list of declining market areas.  Buyers qualifying for a loan program requiring a 5% down payment now had to come up with 10%.  If the loan required 10% down, an additional 5% was added bringing it to 15%.  Buyers and lenders switched en masse to FHA financing which allows up to 97% financing and does not require an increased down payment for homes in designated “declining market” areas.

What was particularly obnoxious about this policy was it did not take into account the extremely diverse nature of the cities making up Ventura County.  Even worse was the danger of the potentially self-fulfilling prophecy of having been declared a declining market. 

Effective June 1, 2008, any conventional conforming loans will require a 3% down payment if the Desktop Underwriter (Fannie Mae’s proprietary loan underwriting software) is used, and a 5% down payment if the loan is processed manually.  This will be uniform across the country. 

Will this have a significant effect on the Ventura County Real Estate market?  For the near term—probably not.  For loans of more that 80% of the purchase price private mortgage insurance will still be required and they have their own separate underwriting criteria.  Current FHA loan limits are $729,750, same as Fannie Mae’s conforming limits under the Stimulus Package until December 31st, 2008.  At the moment FHA is a more attractive option for many borrowers with less than 20% for a down payment.

You can read more by clicking here:  Fannie Mae’s Single National Down Payment Policy Press Release.

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Buying a Home? For goodness sake, get a CLUE!

May 20th, 2008 · Real Estate

This would show up on a Ventura County C.L.U.E. Report!C.L.U.E. stands for the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange which is a huge database used by the insurance industry to track claims homeowners file against their homeowner’s insurance policies.  This information helps insurers of Ventura County real estate avoid fraud and writing policies for people who make excessive claims, but this information also follows the home the claim is made on.   Just like having a bad credit record affects your ability to get financing for a home, negative information in the C.L.U.E. database can affect whether or not you can get a homeowners insurance policy and at what price.

Ventura County home buyers should find out if the C.L.U.E. report has negative information as soon as possible during a real estate transaction to ensure you don’t receive an unpleasant surprise at the last moment. Imagine the following scenario:  A young couple signs a purchase contract for a nice starter home.  With all the things involved with buying their first home, they put off getting homeowner’s insurance until just before the closing only to be denied coverage because of a water related insurance claim the sellers had filed a couple of years before.  Although the damage had been fixed, the claim had flagged the house as a high risk for mold.  Only after contacting several insurance companies do the buyers finally find one that will insure them-at double the standard premium.  In the end, it could have been worse; some buyers have obtained insurance only to have it cancelled a couple of months after escrow closed because of negative information in the C.L.U.E. database.  If this happens to you, you might be forced to use an insurer obtained by your lender costing many times more than you were paying, and with coverage not nearly as good.

This started to become an issue around 2003.  The insurance industry was facing tough times. In the 1990s, insurers were hit with an extraordinary number of catastrophes, including earthquakes and tornadoes, requiring them to pay out some $700 million a month in claims.  Another issue was the nations housing stock is aging.  With age comes the need for more repairs and costs for home repairs and rebuilding continue to rise each year.  And perhaps most importantly, insurance companies suffered some big investment losses.  The stock market is no longer providing insurers the handsome returns on invested premiums it did in the past.  As a result of all this, insurance companies have tightened up on the types of policies they will write.  The information in the C.L.U.E. database plays a major role in their decision making process.

How to do you order a C.L.U.E. report for a Ventura County home you’re buying?  Some Natural Hazard Report companies now provide this option.  Choice Point is the name of the company that maintains the C.L.U.E. database.  Homeowners can visit their website at www.ChoiceTrust.com and order a C.L.U.E. report online for $19.50.  You may want to ask for one when you make an offer to buy a home.  The current California Association of REALTORS’ Purchase Contract contains a clause that requires sellers to disclose to the buyers the claims history of the property, but a seller can only tell the buyers what they know.  If they’ve only lived in a home for a short time, they may not be aware of the entire claims history and the C.L.U.E. report may contain information that they are unaware of.

As an aside, I was selling a Ventura home for a client that had purchased it only the year before.  The buyer’s agent called to ask me about the two people who had died in the property.  Huh?  She claimed that information was on the C.L.U.E. report and the buyer’s had been turned down for a home owner’s policy.  Fortunately, I knew the family who had owned the home for many years previous to the current owner.  She assured me that her family was all accounted for and no one had died in the home.  To this day, I have no idea why that would even be on a report much less why it mattered!  (The buyers did get insurance from another company and we closed as scheduled.)

You may also want to consider opting for a higher deductible on your homeowner’s policy to avoid smaller claims that could give your insurance company reason to cancel you.  A deductible of $1,000 can decrease your premiums by as much as 25%.  Be aware that even talking to your insurance company about damage to your home or a potential claim could cause an entry to be made in the C.L.U.E. database-even if you never make a claim!  This could cause a major problem for you if you get cancelled and have to obtain new coverage.  It could also complicate the sale of your home if the buyer cannot get an insurance policy.  Remember that it is better not to wait until the last minute to arrange your homeowner’s insurance.

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Aye Matey, Thar Be Pirates in Ojai!

May 17th, 2008 · Events, Local Interest

Last Satterdee I sailed’ t’ check ou’ th’ Ojai Pirate Faire. I canna b’lieve I`ve nerebeen before. What great fun! I felt a bit ou’ o’ place in me 21st century clothes. As ye can be seein’, ‘t had an affect on me!  I thougt I`d share wi’ ye some o’ th’ photographs I took that day.   (Click on any of them to see the full size, uncropped image.)


If you missed it, don’t worry, you’ll have another chance this September when they return for two weekends next September 20th & 21st and the 27th & 28th for the 18th Annual Pirate Faire. I`ll be returnin’ t’ take more photos. Do nay miss it!

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Sales Tax Increase in Oxnard’s Future?

May 16th, 2008 · Politics

oxnard-ca-taxI have trust issues.  My therapist and I have been working on them and I thought I had made progress.  But, as I sat listening to a presentation on the City of Oxnard’s proposed half-percent sales tax increase, I had a relapse.  It happened last Thursday when seven top Oxnard officials came to the Ventura County Association of REALTORS to educate us on the proposed tax increase.  They were: Edward Sotelo, Oxnard City Manager; Daren Burnham, Assistant City Manager; Grace Hoffman, Deputy City Manager; Martin Erickson, Government Affairs; Haywood Milligan, Oxnard Fire Chief; and John Cromback, Police Chief. 

The speakers gave a Powerpoint presentation with each taking turns presenting the slides.  We learned that the city had commissioned a survey last October that showed that 70% of Oxnard residents would support a half-percent sales tax increase if it went to improve and enhance vital city services.  We were told that Oxnard has had a A+ rating from Standard & Poors since 2003 and the city is very sound financial position and the survey indicated that 57% of Oxnard residents feel the city is well managed financially.  It was pointed out that the sales tax in Santa Barbara was 7.75% and in Los Angeles it was 8.25%.

If the tax increase is passed it would fund: 

  • Police-More Officers on Street.  Neighborhood Patrols.  Enhanced anti-gang activity.  School resource officers.
  • Fire-Additional personnel.  Disaster preparedness.
  • Recreation-More youth enrichment and intervention activities, mentorship programs, City Corps gang prevention.  Pre-school to you programs
  • Parks-New parks, sport parks, Campus Park, College Park, Ormond Beach
  • Library-Enhanced services for youth. Online tutoring services. New Colonia Branch Library
  • Street and Alley Repair-Increased Streets Budget.  Quicker repairs to streets, alleys and potholes. 

There’s something there for everyone.  The city estimates the tax would raise $10,000,000 a year to fund these programs.  Since this is a general tax, the measure would only have to get a simple majority.

I’ll grant you that these valuable services would enhance the quality of life in Oxnard.  So, you may ask, why the trust issues?  First of all, that 70% of Oxnard residents could possibly be in favor of a tax increase is hard to believe.  Our presenters made the point that polling only 400 people may seem like a small number but you can get an accurate reading from a sample that size.  I agree.  Problem is, we don’t know the wording of the questions.  Polls are conducted all the time with a specific outcome in mind and the questions are formulated to lead the peson being polled  to give a favorable response. 

Second issue: Oxnard City Manager, Edward Sotelo said many times that they were here only to provide information and were not taking a position in favor of the tax increase nor were they trying to convince us to support it.  Really???!!!  Seven of the highest ranking officials take time out their busy schedule to just give us a little information.  (I see you’re starting to have some trust issues, too.)  After the meeting I did a little research and learned that the Oxnard City Council had previously approved $150,000 information campaign to educate the citizens of Oxnard on the benefits of the tax increase.  That’s a lot of money to educate the public for a ballot measure you’re not taking a position on.  If the tax is approved, it will take $30 million dollars of taxable sales in Oxnard before that sum is recovered.  

Third issue: The City is calling it a half-cent increase.  It is not.  It is a half-percent increase.  It may seem like I’m arguing semantics but that language wasn’t chosen by accident.

Fourth issue: What the money will be spent on is not clear.  The presentation covered a lot of ground but it’s unlikely that the money will be allocated evenly across the board.  Once this tax is approved, the council can use most of the money for just one of those issues.  You might vote for the measure because you’d like to see more police and instead most of the money goes towards a sports park. 

Last issue:  How long is this tax for?  When asked, Sotelo says the ordinance hasn’t been written yet and the City is still trying to “find out” what the citizens of Oxnard would prefer.

It may seem like I’m arguing against the tax increase.  Not necessarily.  I just don’t think it’s being presented honestly.  This is a carefully orchestrated campaign that is being presented as if the City were only responding to Oxnard resident’s desires to pay more taxes.  Most people can see right though that.  Regardless of the possible merits of this tax increase I don’t believe it will be successful.  The economy is in bad shape, gas prices are soaring and folks are tightening their belts.  I’ll be surprised if 51% of Oxnard voters support a tax increase much less the 70% the City is counting on.

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