'We would've waited, but they told us we had to...buy now'

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Meritage Homes, the nation's 12th-largest homebuilder, is the latest to cut costs in Sacramento by consolidating operations...The company follows others that have consolidated to cut costs, including Warmington Homes and Standard Pacific Homes....

All homebuilders have gone through layoffs. But Greg Paquin, president of new-home analyst The Gregory Group, said the closings and consolidations have been the unexpected effect of the housing slump. "It's a new phenomenon," he said. "We haven't seen this type of contraction before."

It could be a signal that the current slump is deeper than past recessions. Some builders say the relatively strong economy now compared with the previous housing slump still bodes better for the industry.

From the Sacramento Bee:

If you bought a house in the Sacramento area last year, chances are your annual income came to about $80,000. But your loan application said you earned a good deal more. A Bee computer analysis of more than 61,000 Sacramento-area mortgages over two years reveals striking discrepancies – gaps as high as 25 percent – between what homebuyers earned and what was listed on their loan applications.

Behind the discrepancies was a cascade of "stated income" loans that didn't require proof of borrowers' incomes or assets. Although statistics aren't available on the volume of stated income loans, experts say these mortgages pumped a considerable amount of air into the area's housing bubble – and helped bring about its collapse. By putting people into homes they couldn't afford, stated income loans contributed mightily to a culture of loose lending and a wave of foreclosures that's washing over the Sacramento region.
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The Bee's analysis of census data shows that the region's homebuyers earned a median income of $84,000 last year, but the area's mortgage applications listed a median income of $102,000.
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As the area's home prices have dropped 20 percent in two years, construction has stalled and unemployment has risen above 5 percent. Neighborhoods around the area are affected. The region has the nation's fifth highest foreclosure rate, with 6,500 homes lost since January. The housing slump has spawned a new breed of Sacramentan – the foreclosure refugee – and thousands more will be born next year, when another round of mortgages reset and the crisis deepens.

From the Vacaville Reporter:

They came, they saw, they bid. And when the proverbial smoke cleared following Sunday's housing auction, 18 new homeowners emerged victorious while their existing neighbors in a luxurious Vacaville development were somewhat less enthused. "We welcome them to our neighborhood. We're just upset that it's affecting our property values," said Kris McLean, one of the original homeowners in the upscale Meadow Woods subdivision off Fruitvale Road.

The concern expressed by McLean and a host of original homeowners in the exclusive DeNova Homes development is that the discrepancy in prices - what they paid versus the "steals" newbie owners snagged at auction - would significantly and negatively impact their property values.

Case in point - McLean and her husband paid top dollar for their $786,000 property in April. "We would've waited, but they told us we had to ... buy now," she recalled, addling that there was no allowance for haggling over costs.

From the Vacaville Reporter:

The busted housing market has taken its toll on real estate agents, mortgage brokers, home furnishers and construction workers who live and ply their trades here. Hundreds of homeowners are in foreclosure, and nearly every owner has seen the value of his or her property decline.
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But it helps to keep things in perspective. For one thing, Vacaville, Dixon and, to some extent, Fairfield have fared much better economically than many cities and regions of late. Unemployment remains steady and below 5 percent, and is expected to stay that way.