Tenant can't just cancel his decision to move out

A renter gave written notice that he would vacate, then changed his mind. What are the landlord's rights?

Question: I own a four-plex in an area where rental rates have recently begun to increase. I had not raised the rents on my property in several years, so I recently gave a 30-day notice of an 8% increase to my tenants. One told me he could not afford the increase and gave me a written 30-day notice that he was vacating. About a week later he told me he changed his mind and decided to stay and accept the increase.

This tenant has been occasionally late paying his rent in the past, and I am worried that he really won't be able to afford the additional rental rate. Now that he has canceled his notice of termination, what are my options? I am thinking about requiring him to agree to a new credit check so I can tell whether he will be able to pay the new rental amount. Can I do that?

Source: Latimes.com

Initial foreclosure filings fall 11.9% in fourth quarter

Fewer California borrowers entered foreclosure during the final three months of the year, according to new data. But the holiday respite, coming after a sharp summer increase in new defaults, may not last.

The number of California homes entering foreclosure in the fourth quarter fell 11.9% from the same period in 2010 to the second-lowest level over the last four years, said DataQuick, a real estate information firm in San Diego. A total of 61,517 notices of default, which are filed to initiate foreclosures, were recorded on California properties during the fourth quarter. That was a 13.7% drop from the third quarter of 2011.

Source: Latimes.com

Two Obama initiatives to address foreclosure crisis face hurdles

The president's proposals include an expanded refinancing plan for struggling homeowners and a new, aggressive probe of financial firms' mortgage practices.

Two new initiatives from President Obama to address the foreclosure crisis — more help for struggling homeowners and aggressive investigations of financial firms — face significant hurdles as the nation's real estate troubles linger in a volatile election year.

A new refinancing plan that expands on an existing initiative would allow homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments to retool their loans and save as much as $3,000 a year on payments. This expansion would be paid for by a new tax on large banks that Obama originally proposed in 2010 that has gone nowhere in Congress — and is unlikely to be approved by Republicans facing reelection in the fall.

Source:Latimes.com

Investors flood Southern California housing market in December

A record number of investors and second-home buyers flooded the Southern California real estate market in December, though not enough to give sales in the region a bump over the same month a year earlier.

With the investor dominance, low-cost homes reigned. That helped push the region’s median home price back down to its lowest level in 12 months, according to San Diego real estate firm DataQuick.

Source: Latimes.com

Southern California Home Sales Surge 14% on Investor Purchases

House and condominium sales in Southern California rose 14 percent in December from the previous month as investors and second-home buyers made a record share of purchases, DataQuick said.

A total of 19,247 homes sold last month in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties, the San Diego-based data seller said today in a statement. Investors and second-home buyers accounted for 26.4 percent of transactions, up from 25.1 percent in November and matching a February 2011 peak.

The regional housing market in 2012 “might offer the ‘rock bottom’ for pricing that many buyers and sellers have been waiting for,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in the statement. Foreclosures and short sales, where a home is sold for less than the amount owed, accounted for more than half of Southern California sales, pushing values down.

Source: Businessweek.com

Number of 'Improving' Housing Markets Nearly Doubles

The number of housing markets showing measurable improvement nearly doubled in January, with the addition of 40 new metros to the Improving Markets Index put out by First American and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

The index tracks housing markets that are showing signs of improving economic health based on three independent datasets – employment growth from the Labor Department, home price appreciation from Freddie Mac, and single-family housing permits from the Census Bureau.

The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in employment, home prices, and housing permits for at least six consecutive months.

Source: Dsnews.com

Voters Oppose Policies That Threaten American Homeownership

A group convened on the steps of the South Carolina State House Thursday to express their support of homeownership and their opposition to policy changes that might threaten American homeownership.

The group – consisting of Realtors, housing industry professionals, politicians, business leaders, and community leaders – assembled to encourage elected officials “to protect homeownership from threats including scaling back or eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, reducing access to affordable mortgages and loans for home buyers and small businesses, and the foreclosure crisis,” according to an announcement on the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) website.

Source: Latimes.com