Burbank Real Estate Blog

Burbank has some great resources for Burbank residents aimed at being proactive and keeping our neighborhood safe.

Neighborhood Watch-Burbank Police Department has representatives that will sit down with you and explain how to set up a neighborhood watch so you can be proactive and help prevent gang activity, loitering, break-ins and auto thefts. 

For more information call the Community Resource Office at 818-238-3235.

Illegal Parking- Burbank Police Department will issue tickets, just call 818-238-3000.

Illegal Dumping-No one likes trash and junk sitting on their street!  Burbank has a weekly bulky item pick-up service that will remove bulky items.  Call 818-238-3805 two business days before your trash pick-up and give your name, address and location of the items. 

Graffiti removal at no charge!- Call 818-238-3806.

Abandoned shopping carts - Call 818-238-5280.

Burbank has a Zero Waste Plan that will aim to reduce waste in a significant way, by the year 2040.  To start, it calls for the gradual reduction and elimination of disaposable plastic bags and styrofoam..

The impact, at this point, is primarily on businesses that use styrofoam or plastic bags and at this point they will not be penalized.  This plan is intended to be a guide and will encourage both businesses and residents to conserve and do their part.

The City has started to do their part by using recycled paper and printing reports on both sides of the page.

In the future they will look at new rules, such as how garbage rates are structured, to provide incentives for residents to waste less and recycle more.

The Public Works Department will present a detailed plan at a future city council meeting, no date yet.

For more information on City of Burbank recycling.....check out Burbank Recycling programs.

Although there were no major economic reports out today and the housing reform bill was approved and signed into law this weekend,wil be signed into law, the market could not hold on to positive territory.  It's expected that this will help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stay in business and will help mortgage originators who sell the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Financial sector dragged the markets down and what's being termed as a "bear market rally" stumbled in a big way.  Continued concern over earnings, financial sector mortgage writedowns and the economy are weighing heaviy on the stock market.

The warning from the International Monetary Fund that bad credit conditions will continue to be a strain on the economy certainly did not help.  I know we all want to declare that this is over, but unfortunately it's not. 

Again, the caveat that while all this is happening on a macro basis, it's the microcosm of your particular real estate community that has to be evaluated.  Looking at certain areas of Burbank and the San Fernando Valley will tell you that not all areas are created equal and while some areas are feeling the pain of many short sales and foreclosures, many areas are not.

We'll see what the rest of the week brings........

Burbank homeowners and renters may be eligible for free state monies.

This valuable program is offered July 2 to August 28th for eligible Burbank seniors at the Joslyn Center, on Wednesdays from 9- 10am and Thursdays from 1-3pm, by appointment. 

Free assistance will be given in order to receive these dollars from the State of California.

You must bring in proof of income, ie...federal and state tax return for 2007, earnings statements, proof of age etc.

For more details, call (818) 238-5353.

Magnolia Park Vintage Car Show and Festival August 23, 3pm-9pm

The Magnolia Park Partnership and residents will be hosting a 4 block street fair and car show!  Between Hollywood Way and California.

Admission is free and it promises to be a fun event!

I have lived in Magnolia Park for 15 years and this event is one of the many reasons I love being a Burbank resident!  Come out and join the fun.

Another interesting week as crude oil continued it's correction, but the market gave some gains back amid earnings and worries over the state of financial institutions.

• The Fed approved new rules to protect consumers against mortgage fraud.  These rules are expected to go into effect October 1, 2009.  The intent is to protect against deceptive practices and establish a new set of advertising rules for mortgage lenders.

• California enacted a new Foreclosure Reform Law last week to stem the tide of high foreclosure rates.  The new law requires mortgage lenders to contact homeowners in order to go over options that would avoid foreclosure.  One important provision is that owners acquiring foreclosed properties would be required to maintain the exterior of vacant properties.  It also extended the time frame residential tenants have to vacate foreclosed properties from 30 to 60 days.

• Stocks finished a tough week................read on

Don't forget that on August 5th, 5-8pm, is National Night Out!

This annual event will take place at the Chandler Bikeway and Keystone. The goal is to strengthen neighborhood spirit by encouraging residents and law enforecement to work together on community projects and goals.

What's exciting is that they will be showing the master plan for future bike paths in Burbank.

Sponsored by the Burbank Police Department, Friends of the Chandler Bikeway and Burbank Park and Recreation and Community Services.

There's always the good news and the bad news.......I'll start off and end with the good stuff, there's not much today.

On a positive note crude oil prices have been much lower this past week as the bubble seemingly has burst on the speculation that was driving oil prices up.   Crude oil finished the day at $125.50, up $1.05.........but, quite a bit lower than the $145+ prices we were seeing in the last two weeks.  Hand in hand with that the dollar continues to strenthen.

Stocks however, had a dismal performance....down 283 points to finish the day at 11,349.  The decline was led by financial institutions, which posted their worst drop in 8 years and home builders.  The amount of writedowns due to the mortgage mess continues and based on what analysts are saying, we're not out of the woods yet.

Washington Mutual shares declined a staggering 31% in the last two days, just to an example of the carnage out there.  One positive note on all this is that those home buyers looking to purchase a foreclosure may have more to choose from soon in addition to the current supply. 

Existing home sales for June were down 2.6% .  What's troubling about this is that although the median price of a home fell 6.1% inventories were up to an 11.1 month supply signaling that the housing market is still struggling.  Tight lending standards and slightly higher mortgage rates are making things a bit challenging.

Jobless claims were up.

Other news came from the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report for the latest six-week period.  It shows the economy as increasingly weak across most of the U.S.

All 12 districts reported slower home sales, continuing big inventories and falling home prices.

New York and Chicago also reported that buyers had increasing difficulty getting mortgage financing. The survey said tighter credit standards are hurting commercial real-estate activity.  California, Arizona and Nevada "have seen sharp increases in home foreclosures," the Fed said.

The good news is that many analysts think the worst is behind us.......having said that many also note that it will probably be another 6-9 months and another 10-15% downside until we're looking at an upswing in home prices.  I do continue to tell home buyers that there are many bargains out there with the current inventory of foreclosures. 

Don't wait too long as interest rates are expected to rise in the next year.  That extra 10% discount on home prices may not be worth as much next year as it is today!

The big news for the week came late on Friday.

After market close, it was announced, that IndyMac Bank, a leader in “Alt-A” loans, had been seized by the Office of Thrift Supervision, due to a run on deposits. This made IndyMac Bank the 2nd largest federally insured financial institution to be seized by US regulators. The largest failure, if you are curious, was in 1984, Chicago’s Continental Illinois Bank and Trust. A successor institution, IndyMac Federal Bank FSB, will open next week.

About now I’m remembering two years ago, when many prominent individuals were talking about how the subprime situation was under control said it would produce minimal fallout. What caused all this was the huge number of defaults on mortgage loans made to, well, people who could not afford them. More troubling is the fact that there has clearly been little to no oversight of these institutions.

The why is easy, everybody seemed to be making money, investors were making money and more people were given the ability to buy property, so it seemed like a win win for all.

Problem is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  Some blame US Senator Shumer from New York, for creating this mess.  Last month he blamed their lax lending rules for putting the institution on the brink of collaspe.  He may have accelerated it, but let's be clear, IndyMac is to blame.  Instead of using common sense they allowed greed to drive their internal policies. Now they and many shareholders and depositors are paying for their greed, not to mention the people who should not have been sold those mortgages in the first place.

IndyMac managed to acrue $900 million in losses. So now depositors are left with the grim reality that only $100,000 on deposit with Indy Mac Bank will be insured. What’s even more troubling about all this is that the FDIC has 90 institutions on it’s troubled bank list and Indy Mac Bank was not one of them. So this begs the question of how many more might fail.

Other news....can be found at the Burbank Real Estate Report!