Membership in Central Valley Realtors Association Plunges 59% in 1 Year

From the Stockton Record:

The Central Valley Association of Realtors, a trade group covering Stanislaus County and much of San Joaquin County, was expecting a huge membership loss this year as more and more agents dropped out of the sales market. But instead of an expected drop from 2,900 to 1,700 year to year, the association...has seen membership shrivel to about 1,200...Cliff Coler, the group's interim chief executive officer, said declining membership and revenue have meant a cutback in staff from 13 to four.
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Karl Enzmann,...Realtors group president-elect, said there was some surprise at the depth of the membership decline...."Some of the numbers hit us in the face like a cold bucket of ice water," he said, and belt-tightening has meant a 50 percent cutback in the CVAR budget.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento-area home builders are being extraordinarily cautious this year about starting new homes. That's evident in the newest count of building permits taken out at area city halls. Home builders in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties are pulling back at more than double the statewide average rate, seeking only 589 building permits to start new houses, condominiums and apartments in January and February. That compares with 1,833 permits the same time last year, the Burbank-based Construction Industry Research Board reports.
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When builders slow down like this, it means fewer jobs all down the line, from subcontractors to materials suppliers. It's also partly why the state Employment Development Department is reporting that jobless numbers in the capital region are up nearly one percentage point over February 2007.

From the Stockton Record:

Home starts in San Joaquin County slowed to 46, the lowest monthly level in years, based on building permits pulled in February, the Research Board reported last week. That was an 82 percent drop from 249 in February 2007.

From the Stockton Record:

It appears other county residents also are short on funds to pay essential expenses like property taxes. In 2004 and 2005, about 3.5 percent of those who owed property taxes were delinquent on their payments, according to the San Joaquin County Treasurer-Tax Collector's Office. That number rose a percentage point in 2006 and passed 7 percent last year. Homeowners get two tax bills each year, one in November and one in February. This tax year, nearly 10 percent of payers missed the first payment....

From the Sacramento Bee:

A host of real estate scams popular during the 1990s housing downturn are back this year and snaring unsuspecting homeowners and renters, say law enforcement and real estate officials. "The ones that know how to do it are remembering how to do it and doing it again," says Elk Grove real estate agent Alan Wagner, president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors.
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One is the fake landlord scam. Sacramento real estate agent Carey Covey says a would-be renter at one of his listings lost $2,000 after handing a security deposit and first month's rent to someone pretending to rent him the house. The house had been foreclosed on and was owned by the bank – not by the person posing as the landlord...Covey says con artists "track homes that have been on the market for a while, have them re-keyed and put an ad in the paper or Craigslist and offer it for rent."

From the Sacramento Bee:

Undaunted by the recent failure of two high-rise condominium projects planned for downtown Sacramento, a Los Angeles-based developer proposes to transform a leafy, four-block area south of the Capitol with five new residential towers. The Bond Cos., an experienced developer of infill housing and retail projects nationwide, filed an application with the city of Sacramento Thursday to replace 206 low-rise apartment units in the Capitol Towers neighborhood with five towers ranging from 15 to 33 stories....In total, Bond Cos. is proposing to build 1,646 new housing units.
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Mark Bachli, a principal in the Bond Cos., said the "market will determine what is actually built" on the Capitol Towers property, bounded by Fifth, Seventh, N and P streets.
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Jim Pachl, an environmental lawyer...is watching the latest idea for Capitol Towers with a wary eye...Pachl said he's troubled by the recent failure of the Aura and the Towers condominium projects. The Towers was under construction when it melted down financially, leaving a huge hole in the ground on the Capitol Mall. "I'm sitting here saying, 'How realistic is this?' " Pachl said.