| Helping People Live the Paso Style;
Real Estate News, Events, Wine, Food, Living |
September 2011 |
WINE NOTES(Local Wine and Real Estate News)
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MERS
Most have probably never
heard of MERS. It's a little known privately held company which is
becoming very controversial in today's mortgage loan crisis. MERS is the
acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Service. This company
acts as a database clearing house for many loan servicing companies in
the US. So what does this mean? Since mortgage loans are
sold often and the Servicing companies processing those loans may change
just as often, MERS puts itself as the security interest
holder of record when your Loan and Trust Deed are recorded with the
county. As the loans are sold or servicing companies change,
MERS merely changes it's database saving he mortgage holders and
servicing companies the difficulty of updating county records each time.
So why is this controversial? A couple of reasons.
No one really cared until the mortgage crisis hit. Now,
the banking world is relying on this one outside company, not
accountable to anyone, to track mortgage ownership. They get it
wrong occasionally and Banks foreclose on the wrong properties and the
county has no way to know. As a homeowner you have an uphill battle to
fight when it happens.
The other reason is part of the whole illegal foreclosure processing
going on. Many state laws only allow foreclosure by the Owner of
the Mortgage and only after they produce a copy of the original Note.
Since with MERS, they are neither the Owner of the Mortgage Note nor do
they have a copy of the Original Note, it becomes a legal
challenge point to the legality of foreclosures in many areas of the
country.
Now, you have a little additional knowledge of of MERS.
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QUICK REAL ESTATE STATS:(California)
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Median Home Price-
California $294,230 |
Highest Median Home Price
Marin $761,030 |
Lowest median home price
Madera $92,500 |
Mortgage rates- week ending
08/25/11:
| 30-yr |
fixed |
4.22% |
Fees/points: 0.7% |
| 15-yr |
fixed |
3.44% |
Fees/points: 0.6% |
| 1-yr |
adj |
2.93% |
Fees/points: 0.5% |
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WINE AND LOCAL TRIVIA
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 My
wife and I just had a fabulous trip to France. I
learned some interesting facts about the wine industry which
many probably don't know. What wine region has the
highest volume of wine production in the world?
| a) | Bourgogne
(Burgundy), France |
| b) | United States |
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c) |
Bordeaux, France |
| d) | Languedoc,
France |
(Please visit
http://www.pasostyleliving.com for the answer) |
PASO STYLE LIVING REAL ESTATE (Local Real Estate Market Conditions)
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 Opinion: There
is so much press about the Real Estate and Housing markets.
There is always a headline about Housing Starts, Homes Sold, Median
Sale Price etc. It difficult for a professional to make sense
of it at times. So if you are confused, I think that's
purposeful by the media at times.
Locally, more homes were
sold this month over last, but expected with that, average
selling prices were down. Each community within the North San Luis
Obispo County area had some variation, but the trend is
consistent.
Now, my personal sense of the local
market. We went though a large number of Foreclosures earlier
in the year, but I sense the volume of new foreclosures on the
market has slowed. There is more activity of a normal sale
(non distressed, not a Foreclosure or Short Sale), but
the sold activity is focused more on what would be considered the
Middle to lower end of the market. In August there was only 1
home which sold for more than $500,000. I think this indicates
that many people are deciding to stay put. They are not
selling unless they have to because of Job or financial difficulty.
There have been a lot of encouragement for Banks to do Short
Sales, but there are lot's of counter incentives also. A
positive thing for consumers may actually hurt Short Sales.
California recently enacted a new law on Short Sales and Recourse.
Originally, California considered Purchase Money loans to be non
recourse. The was extended about 2 years ago to include all
First Trust Deeds for personal residences. That was recently
extended again to include Second Trust Deeds for personal
residences. The reason for this law change is many borrowers
were receiving approval for their short sales from the Second Trust
Deed holder and then a few months later getting calls from
collection agencies trying to collect on the Second Note. A
major hardship for someone who had already lost their home.
There are some who speculate that the effect may actually harm Short
Sales. Most First Trust Deed loans are owned by Hedge Funds,
China, or who knows. Generally, they receive the most of any
proceeds from a Short Sale and the Second Trust Note holder is left
with little to nothing, but they could still pursue recourse.
Quite often, Second Trust Deeds are held as portfolio loans,
which means the Banks themselves own the note. Speculation is
since they no longer have recourse, they will not approve the
Short Sale and take their chances in foreclosure.
It's still opinion, but we'll see!
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Real Estate Up, Down, and Around:
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Area(8/1/11-8/31/11) |
Avg Price |
Homes Available | Sold |
Pending |
| Atascadero |
$303,508 |
113 |
25 |
29 |
| Paso Robles |
$288,455 |
210 | 55 |
54 |
| Templeton |
$468,591 |
69 | 11 |
9 |
| All Paso Wine Country |
$310,434 | 454 |
107 | 102 |
| Paso Wine Country contains the following real estate areas (Paso Robles, Atascadero, Templeton, San Miguel, Creston, Shandon, and Santa Margarita) (Single Family Homes, SFRSB)
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REAL ESTATE HOT LIST (Special Properties for Sale in the Paso Wine Country)
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FOOD CORNER (Personal Recipes and Favorite Restaurants of the Paso Wine Country)
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Pate
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A good Pate is one of my favorite dishes. It's
somewhat ironic because I don't like Liver. This
particular recipe I developed recently and I believe
produced the best Pate I've ever had. Good luck.
Let me know what you think!
| 1/2 c |
Onion, Diced |
| 1/2 c |
Celery, Diced |
| 1/2 c |
Carrots, Diced |
| 1 Lb |
Chicken Livers, Deveined and chopped |
| 1 Lb |
Smoked Bacon, Chopped fine |
| 1 Pkg |
Gelatin |
| 2 |
Eggs |
| 1/2 |
Stick Butter |
| 1/2 c |
Heavy Cream |
In a large skillet gently melt the butter and then
sweat the Onions, Celery, and Carrots until tender and
the sugar and juices released. Run the Bacon
though a food processor to grind it up as much as
possible. Add bacon and Liver and cook slowly
until no longer pink. Season to taste. Be careful
of salt because the bacon will contribute a lot of salt.
When done, Add to food processor with all
remaining ingredients and process until a fine slurry.
Strain though a large kitchen strainer or mill into
terrine dishes. Bake for approximately 1 hour at
350 degrees in a water bath being careful not to burn
the tops.
Enjoy!
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