If Only They Believed...

From the Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento-area renters say they're still feeling glum about their home-buying prospects after a real estate boom that doubled home values. A new survey shows 61 percent believe their "American dream" of owning a house in Sacramento is out of reach...73 percent believe owning a housing in the capital region is a smart investment. 79 percent cited financial concerns as a barrier.
...
MBK Homes' new Sacramento division is using the results to suggest that a better understanding of financial options would help potential buyers believe they have a shot at buying a new home. The builder says would-be buyers might have more financing options than they think. Lenders are still doing zero-down financing, and some builders are paying closing costs, MBK said.

From the Modesto Bee:

Home sales prices continued their downward slide in May throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley, according to statistics released Thursday by DataQuick Information Systems. Here's a summary of median sales prices:

Stanislaus County — $338,250, which was 12 percent below May 2006 and $11,750 below April.

Merced County — $297,500, which was 19 percent below May 2006 and $18,500 below April.

San Joaquin County — $395,000, which was 11 percent below May 2006 and $4,000 below April.

From insidebayarea.com:

With one foreclosure filing for every 88 households, or nearly 7.5 times the national average, San Joaquin County was the metro region with the country's highest foreclosure rate in May, according to a report released this week by RealtyTrac.com.
Patrick Bill, a Realtor who works in the Tracy area for Keller Williams Realty, said San Joaquin County's high foreclosure rate is making it harder for first-time home buyers to get a home loan, which is leading to fewer home sales and lower home prices. In recent months, lots of lenders have tightened up their underwriting standards in response to higher foreclosures rates that resulted from many subprime borrowers getting hit with higher mortgage payments.

"Its affected the good buyers, the buyers who could have qualified to buy rather easily (a few years ago). It's a much harder process now," said Bill.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Mosquitoes definitely love the housing slump for its rising numbers of neglected and abandoned swimming pools...In the past 33 days they've reported 363 algae-plagued swimming pools to the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District. That's since a Bee story reported the district's efforts to recruit real estate agents to fight the tiny carrier of West Nile virus...The district says 250 reports of slimy pools arrived within two days of the story. Typically, that's the monthly total.