GMAC To Close Local Offices
From Home Front:
Regionally, GMAC is closing three offices in Gold River, Yuba City and Stockton and laying off 20 staffers, said GMAC spokeswoman Jeannine Bruin.From the Merced Sun-Star:
County Bank laid off about 20 employees Tuesday -- the first time in its 31-year history that the bank has been forced to cut back on staffing.From the Sacramento Real Estate Blog:
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County Bank has remained unscathed from foreclosures because it didn't carry any home loans. However, it did lend money to developers, who've been having a hard time paying off construction loans.
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Though no more layoffs are in the works, [company spokesman Thomas] Smith didn't rule them out. "Are housing values going to decline further?" he asked.
The average home that sold in Sacramento County this August fetched $235,367, down 33.1% from last year’s average price of $348,698. The median sale price was down 33%, from $313,500 in August of 2007 to $210,000 in August of 2008.From the Sacramento Bee:
More than a year after a collapse of two big residential tower projects in downtown Sacramento, a still more ambitious generation of downtown living is coming into view. Much depends on the economy and other variables in the next 20 to 30 years. But serious plans exist for up to 15,000 residential units north of downtown at the railyard and nearby Township 9. If all goes as hoped, the first of these homes, condominiums and townhouses may open in a rebounded housing market – and one also shaped by high-priced gasoline that discourages long commutes.
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[Developer] Suheil Totah believe[s] they'll hit the "market" perfectly, opening a lot of this in 2012. They believe, as do most, that the housing market will be soaring again.
7 comments:
they'll hit the "market" perfectly, opening a lot of this in 2012. They believe, as do most, that the housing market will be soaring again.
Jeez, more local pain in the future. I can appreciate the vision of redeveloping the railyard into something useful, but it seems to me that we're more in need of good jobs than good housing. One comes before the other, after all.
Don't you think the railyard will do ok and just cause more pain in the areas that have long commutes and less amenities?
It's a great location - I wish they'd build a harbor with waterfront places, but that would probably be a flood nightmare.
My comment about pain is in response to the developer's comment that real estate will be "soaring" again. If the developer is in some way banking their plans on the assumption that real estate will soar, then they (and the rest of us) are in for more pain. Defaults will occur, etc.
I'm sure that such a development could do fine, but things will not be well if it depends on an assumption that is false.
The railyard would do just fine if the developers don't expect that 2005 prices would be available in 2012.
From an aesthetic point of view, infill projects are one of the legitimate venues of modern design and compact housing. The problem is, these types of projects are promoted as upscale, when the reality is that more middle-income housing is needed. I love downtown Sacto, and I would have bought there in 2003, but I was already priced out by then. The design of that Iron Triangle project is appealing to me, but the location is barren and dismal, and it's still overpriced with no real yard space to speak of.
As far as commutes and jobs go, they are assuming that the jobs will be downtown. That is not where the jobs will necessarily be. In my own field, my employer is expanding up the I-80 corridor towards Auburn. A competitor (that I might end up seeking employment with) is further up the Hwy 50 corridor in Placerville.
The REIC fantasizes about all the MDs that want to live in East Sac to be close to the hospitals clustered downtown. I see a reality of MDs moving further to the outskirts; many patients complain that their long-time docs offices are relocating to Folsom.
You've got to ask, what kinds of jobs will people be doing that they earn the money that developers will seek for these projects.
dream on suckas!!!
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