From Bloomberg: Home prices fell in 23 U.S. metropolitan areas in March, led by Sacramento and San Diego, as rising foreclosures prolonged the housing recession. The price per square foot in Sacramento, California's capital, dropped 31 percent to $160 from a year earlier, according to a report released today by New York-based Radar Logic Inc., a real estate data company.From Housing Wire: Most key markets in California saw motivated sales comprise a growing portion of transaction volume, as well. In Oakland, distressed sales were 35 percent of the housing market in March, RadarLogic said; in Sacramento, that number soared to nearly 50 percent.From the Sacramento Bee: At the current sales pace, real estate experts say, it will take 13 years to develop and sell all the new homes planned in Yuba County and its neighbor, Sutter County. "That is horrifying. That's like seeing a mouse under the table," says Dean Wehrli, a Sacramento-based home-building industry consultant, addressing a home-builders meeting last week.

From Home Front:
Mostly, it was acres and acres of dead subdivisions that just jumped out at a driver touring this part of the state. In so many places the streets and sidewalks are in, the utility wires are sticking out of the ground, the street signs are up - and it's nothing but weeds almost as far as you can see.
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In Edgewater: A street of 20 houses built by Roseville's JMC Homes with only one house occupied. In Plumas Lake: a Ryland Homes subdivision called Thoroughbred Acres. Five lovely models and nothing else. Behind it a pile of Ryland flags and poles. I walked up to read the writing on the flags and a jackrabbit ran off. Down Arboga Road, another subdivision by Lakemont Homes. Even the models had dead lawns.

I don't mean to pick on Plumas Lake. But some of it looked like a poster child for the consequences of risky lending. In many neighborhoods there is an overpowering feeling of abandonment and at the very least, neglect. I cannot remember anywhere - not in Lincoln nor Merced - seeing so many unkempt and unmowed lawns.From the Sacramento Bee (hat tip Jeff):

From the Stockton Record:The sales run for existing homes in San Joaquin County - mostly foreclosures [about 80%] - continued to pick up speed in April. But after a small median sales price jump in March, prices fell sharply in April, sliding below the $200,000 mark in Stockton [a drop of 43.0% YoY and hitting $240,000 in San Joaquin County, a decline of 36.8% YoY], according to figures from the latest Coldwell Banker Grupe-TrendGraphix monthly sales report, based on Multiple Listing Service data.
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Cameron Pannabecker, owner of Cal-Pro Mortgage Inc. in Stockton and a board director of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, said he is urging caution about buying now as real estate agents and brokers tout the current market as a great time to buy.

From the Today Show:
The six scariest real estate markets

Stockton, Calif.
Stockton has the highest rate of foreclosures in the nation...Unemployment is a whopping 10 percent, almost double the national average of 5.2 percent.
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Some people are simply walking away from their homes because they're spending too much on gas to commute back and forth to work in the Bay Area, plus their homes are no longer worth what they paid for them. Instead, they just move closer to work and rent rather owning. Local realtors report that homes have become vandalized or burglarized for copper plumbing or wiring, cabinets and other re-salable fixtures. In some areas of Stockton, there are more than five homes on a single street that are abandoned. Homeless people are squatting in homes, even without power or water, just to find shelter.

Sacramento, Calif.
Home prices in this area more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, setting Sacramento up for a hard fall. Since last year, the price per square foot in Sacramento dropped 29.8 percent to $161, according to the real estate data company Radar Logic Inc.

From the New York Times:At the end of 2007, areas with the highest vacancy rates in housing intended for owner occupancy fell into two categories: Rust Belt areas like Detroit, Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, and former boom areas like Orlando and Tampa in Florida, and Las Vegas. Although home prices have fallen sharply in parts of California, only the Sacramento area shows high vacancy levels.

High vacancy rates put renewed pressure on prices, of course, and also serve as a warning that the home building industry may have a long wait before it can regain volume.From the Modesto Bee:"The new home sales rate is nothing short of dismal," lamented Dean Wehrle, vice president of Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors. He said Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin county subdivisions are averaging one sale per month...Sales have been so slow throughout the three-county region that Hanley Wood said the inventory of approved lots is enough to last until 2012.
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From Forbes (hat tip Patient Renter):It's no secret that homeowners with subprime mortgages have taken a beating. Next up: those who have combined their mortgages with home equity loans, second loans or both. These combinations spell especially bad news for homeowners in Sacramento, Calif., San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Colorado Springs, Colo., markets with some of the nation's highest concentrations of homeowner debt. In these spots, prices are dropping, making it very difficult for homeowners to refinance as lenders are reluctant to take on risk.
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1. Sacramento, Calif.
Percent change [in median price] from 2007: -18.5%
Total outstanding mortgages: 480,881
Second mortgage or home equity loan: 129,736 (27%)
Both second mortgage and home equity loan: 7,288 (1.5%)Compare to other cities here.

From Time:The peach-colored house in a modest subdivision near downtown Modesto, Calif, used to be someone's dream home. But it stands out in a row of similarly hued homes where many have a "for sale" sign planted in their front yards. The two-story appears battered: its address has been scratched on a front panel and weeds choke what may once have been a manicured lawn. And then there is the overwhelming stench of human waste and stale beer. There has been no electricity and no running water since the bank repossessed it months ago. Still, at least three young men have been squatting here since January...Scratched in the entrance hall is a fitting salutation: "Welcome to Hell."...The dream home has become a nightmare.

From KCRA: A new Centex Homes development in Rancho Cordova is in limbo because of a dreary housing market, the developer confirmed Thursday. The 13 homes currently under construction in the Cypress at Kavala Ranch development will be finished, but none of the other lots will be developed for now.From Bloomberg: When Quinn Cuthbertson looks around his new neighborhood in El Dorado Hills, California, he sees rows of empty homes and barren hillsides. A promised new school and a clubhouse haven't materialized. Cuthbertson paid $460,000 for a four-bedroom house in this northern California town named for the mythical golden city. He now suspects his neighbor spent $45,000 less. Nearby, 87 of 98 Toll Brothers Inc. home sites are undeveloped.
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"Half-filled developments are an advertisement for a failing housing market," said Retsinas, a former assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "It also has a spillover effect on the surrounding community."
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Flippers. Floppers. Floplords. Now Squatlords.

• CBS13: Squatters Posing as Landlords In Foreclosed Homes

More videos:

• KCRA: Land Park In Real Estate 'Bubble Area' (hat tip Jeff)
• CBS 13: New Craigslist Scam Pops Up In Sacramento
• News 10: Renters Caught in Foreclosure Crisis

The good news (from a buyer perspective): Homes are becoming more affordable as prices plummet. From the the Sacramento Bee:
There's a flip side to the Sacramento-area housing downturn that has would-be buyers cheering: Sacramento is getting more affordable. Falling sales prices between last summer and the end of 2007 triggered a nice jump in affordability in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties, according to an index compiled this week by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo & Co. 27.2 percent of homes sold in October, November and December were affordable to households earning the region's median income of $67,200.The bad news? Affordability is only back to 2004 levels:
The new eligible buyer percentage for Sacramento was the best since 27.4 percent in the first quarter of 2004...[I]t doesn't take much to remember better days from 10 years ago. In the first quarter of 1998, 70 percent of area homes were affordable for people earning at least the median income, according to the home builders and Wells Fargo.The last time affordability was this low (aside from 2004) was in 1991, at the front-end of the 1990s housing bust. Between 1993 and 2000, the index remained above 50%.

From the Appeal Democrat:Our View: Stimulus plan is like giving drink to an alcoholic

When home prices soared as the result of cheap and easy credit, not many people considered that a crisis. It was fun for homeowners to stand around the proverbial water cooler and boast about the price of the house down the street. Well, prices have since fallen to the lowest levels since 2004.
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What goes up often comes down. But there's more than a market phenomenon going on here. Federal monetary policy has a direct effect on lending practices, and the government is getting actively involved now. That, in particular, should be reason for worry.
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From the Sacramento Bee:Thelma Pugh of North Highlands came to rely on home equity as a cushion. She and her husband took out a $25,000 line of credit a year and a half ago from Countrywide Financial Corp. They've used about $9,000, mostly to pay for home repairs and – when her husband was hospitalized recently – to pay some bills. "It was like a lifeline," she said. "If I couldn't make ends meet, I had this."

From the Stockton Record:A Stockton man sees the growing number of dead brown lawns of foreclosed homes in the area and sees nothing but green. Nick Terlouw has launched the Greener Grass Co., which amounts to a service in which he sprays dead lawns with a deep green, water-based dye that makes the turf look good enough for a golf course or a professional football stadium.

For between $175 and $225 per yard, Terlouw uses a motor-powered 50-gallon insecticide sprayer designed for treating orchard trees. He waves his magic wand and in broad sweeps, a la painting a house, makes tired, if not expired, turf sit up and sparkle like Shirley Temple.
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From News10's Dana Howard:
Last September, I was driving through the newer neighborhoods in the northern section of Stockton, looking for people who were facing foreclosure. It was one of many stories about the rampant number of foreclosures in the Sacramento area.

My strategy was to knock on the doors of homes that had "For Sale" signs posted out front. Surely, I thought, many who would be selling their homes in what was then a climate of depreciating home values must be selling out of financial necessity, possibly to avoid foreclosure. We must have knocked on 50 doors. The overwhelming majority of the doors were unanswered. It wasn't because the owners weren't home, but because the owners would never be home. The houses were vacant.

From the Modesto Bee:Northern San Joaquin Valley home prices have plummeted, but they haven't fallen enough to become affordable for most wage earners, a new study shows. Home buyers must earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably afford a median-priced house in Stanislaus County, the Center for Housing Policy reports. But workers in only one of the 64 occupations studied -- construction managers -- earned that much last year. Even two-income couples with good jobs -- such as accountants, police officers, school teachers and firefighters -- barely can cover ownership costs, the report showed.
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In calculating what's affordable, the study assumed not more than 28 percent of household income should pay the mortgage, property taxes and insurance. It also assumed buyers had a 10 percent down payment with a conventional loan.
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