Since April, there have been 64 sales of single family homes in the Beverly Center-Miracle Mile area, and 90 YTD. At $ 491/SF List/$ 463/SF Sold, down about 22% from the 2006 peak of $590/SF Sold.  Current SFR inventory is at 6.5 months using  data for the last 5 months, and 7.4 months YTD.

Condos: 20 sales since April, 36 YTD., $465/SF List/$433/SF Sold, down about 17% from the 2006 peak of $523/SF Sold.  Condo inventory is  at 12  months since April and 10.6 months YTD. While the SFR market has picked up, suggesting a “normal” market of about 6-7 months, condo inventory has increased in the same period. Please note these numbers do not include pocket listings, or bank owned property not actively listed.

I have included a list from a recent article from the Reverse Mortgage Daily that lists the top 10 wholesale reverse mortgage lenders for the past year. I’ve heard from more than one mortgage pro that reverse mortgages may eventually go the way of the subprime loan. The idea here is with the current amount of baby boomers reaching retirement age , combined with declining home equity, lenders will have to tighten underwriting standards, thus lowering payments to homeowners to reflect the risks.

The Home Ownership Moves The Economy (HOME) act (  HR 2801) is a bill which if passed, will extend the current tax credit into 2010, and allow all homeowners to take advantage of the credit. Read more here.

Since April, there have been 62 sales this season of single family homes in the Hancock Park-Wilshire area. That is about 13.7 per month, and with 170 active listings that puts inventory at 12.4 months supply- up from 8-9 months from the April-May period. The average $/sq.ft was $474 list/$436 sold- off about 22% from the 2006 peak of $ 564list/$556 sold.

There were 72 condo sales in the same period, or about 16 per month, with 167 active listings which translates to  inventory of 10.4 months supply. This number is also up from 8-9 months supply from April-May as well. So far, the average $/sq. ft. for condos is $352 list/$319 sold this season, down about 30% from the 2006 peak of $463 list/$455 sold.

Notice that not only are $/sq.ft numbers down, but also the spread between list and sold figures have increased. A shrinkage of this spread will be as telling as the inventory numbers in the future. If you are considering selling your property in this market, these numbers should be taken into consideration, especially with increasing inventory and homes currently selling for about 90% of what they are listed at.

The CA Attorney General’s office has a new website which has info on how to avoid loan modification fraud. I know I have written about this before, but I still get the feeling many homeowners do not know where to go to get the information they need. You can find the site here.  The latest on the AG’s office crackdown on foreclosure “consultants” can be found here.  Please help spread the word so more California homeowners can learn about this site.

By Nick Timiraos

Lookout, below. California could get hit by a new wave of foreclosure sales.

Notices of default, which mark the first step in the foreclosure process, fell by 1.5% in July from June but increased by 12% from one year ago, according to ForeclosureRadar, which tracks California foreclosure sales.

Meanwhile, filings for notice of trustee sales, which show the number of properties scheduled for a foreclosure sale, increased by nearly 32% in July from June. New trustee sale notices, excluding those sales that have been canceled or already taken place, rose to a record level of nearly 125,000 in July, up 10% from one month ago and nearly double the levels during the 2008 foreclosure peak.

The increases in pre-foreclosure notices came after foreclosure auction sales fell by 23% in June, ending three straight months of increases. California had 17,000 foreclosure sales in July, a 40% drop from the July 2008 high. Nearly 45% of sales resulted in prices that were at least half of the original loan balance.

Meanwhile, housing inventory listed for sale in California and several other markets continues to shrink as the summer selling season winds up.

In the 28 housing markets tracked by ZipRealty, an online real-estate brokerage, the number of homes listed for sale in July declined for the 13th straight month and as this WSJ story noted, homes and condos listed for sale decreased by 2.5% in July from the previous month and by 27% from the previous year.

In Las Vegas, homes and condos listed for sale fell to nearly 13,000 in July, the lowest level in four years. Listings declined by 6.5% in Las Vegas and fell by 43% year-over-year. Austin, Texas, saw the largest monthly inventory decline in the markets tracked by ZipRealty, with a 10.5% drop in July. Los Angeles saw monthly listings fall by 5.3% while active listings dropped by 55% year-over-year.

But if these foreclosures materialize, the decrease may prove a distant memory in the fall.