Despite being mired in the “Great Recession” on a local, regional and national level, Encinitas is faring well. The City is financially sound due in large part to strategic planning, fiscal discipline across all departments and responsible financial management policies.
The Budget’s Executive Summary states, “Encinitas is one of only three cities in the County [along with Del Mar and Coronado] that experienced positive growth in assessed value over the past year. Consumer confidence, and therefore spending, have begun to improve and sales tax revenues have been up almost 7% from the prior year. The budget reflects continued, but slow, recovery.” The City adopts a two-year operating budget. The approved FY2011-12 and FY2012-13 budget was adopted on May 25, 2011 and is balanced in both years. Projected revenues are sufficient to pay for operating requirements, including debt service payments, with funds remaining to meet projected capital requirements and maintain reserves. This has been accomplished by developing realistic budget assumptions, focusing on core service demands and prioritizing the capital plan while focusing on the Council’s highest priorities of ensuring public safety, maintaining the City’s sizable infrastructure system and providing core services to residents and businesses.
Financial Strengths
• The City continues to maintain one of the highest credit ratings in the State. It has been issued a credit rating of “AA+” (implied AAA), which was recently affirmed by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a leading international independent credit rating agency.?• S&P gave the City the highest ranking of “Strong,” indicating that “Practices are strong, well embedded, and likely sustainable.”
Looking Ahead
As with your personal budget, some things are beyond the City’s control. The State’s unresolved budget issues include a projected $9.6 billion deficit through 2013. Typically, the State “shares” its fiscal woes by borrowing from local agencies.?The ongoing uncertainty of future State actions adds an additional challenge to the City’s long-term financial planning. Nevertheless, believes Budget Officer Teri Shoemaker, “Our rigorous financial planning process allows for quick reaction to economic changes.”
To review a hard copy , please email tshoemaker@cityofencinitas.org.
Posts Tagged ‘Encinitas Homes For sale’
Encinitas Fares Well in Tough Economic Times
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011Moving? Don’t Stop Decorating Your Current Home Yet
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
Are you anticipating a move? Are you planning to sell your house? Prepare to redecorate. And for good reasons.
Decorating changes you make to prepare your house for the real estate market can hasten its sale, increase the financial return and give you a head start on moving preparations.
A move means you face decorating adjustments in your present home as well as planning the personal décor for your new home. But decorating and accessorizing principles applied to market a house or condo differ from those applied when simply living in that same space.
In your present home, you need to depersonalize the décor and remove the stamp of your personal style. Instead of layering for warmth, a minimalist approach is recommended, which you’ll see in many model homes.
So gather your creative energy and decorating talents, shift into high gear and steer toward the goal of broadening the appeal of the home you are selling before you focus on your new residence.
Broaden the Appeal of Your Home
Of course, you want the showings of your property to be positive. How can you make that happen? Well, start by assisting potential buyers in picturing themselves owning and living in your house. Remove your family pictures, trophies, monogrammed articles and signs at the door with your name on it. These accessories all convey that you live here. The buyers need to see the house as a home for them.
Buyers also need your help to visualize the intended use for the rooms they are viewing. If your dining room is currently being used as an office, it’s time to turn it back to its intended use. Yes, home offices are a positive feature, but it is better to situate it in a smaller bedroom rather than offer a home with no dining room. This principle applies to all rooms that are currently being used in ways contrary to a standard floor plan.
Get Rid of Clutter
The next step is to reduce visual distractions. Collections of figurines, dolls, ducks and personal clutter may make you more comfortable living in your home, but they divert the buyer’s attention from where you really want it to be.
Adopt that minimalist style and start your packing process. This will encourage the buyers to focus on the positive features of the home rather than your possessions.
How do you bring attention to those positive features? Effective furniture placement is the simplest way. For example, to showcase your fireplace, the preferred arrangement would have your sofa and chairs flanking the sides of the fireplace rather than facing it directly. This will create a direct line of vision to this attractive element.
Next, open your fireplace screen and place greenery in the firebox to add depth and appeal. Creatively placed artwork can also enhance a focal point. Also, try positioning your plants and greenery near windows as it will help draw the outside in and visually enlarge the room. Use placement to show off all the dominant focal points. Remember to open your window treatments to allow maximum light as well as feature attractive views.
Knock! Knock! Who’s There?
Your front door is the most important place “in” your house. Buyers pause there the longest and gather clues as to what to expect inside. Entice them! Add healthy plants with bright color. Add a welcome mat that is new and fresh. Place a lovely, seasonal ornament on the door (which you have cleaned to a shine or applied fresh paint).
Do you have a porch? Add an inviting chair. First impressions count and this is an important spot that must be remembered and receive your best decorative touches.
The Most Bang for Your Decorating Buck
In many cases, investing a little decorating money when marketing a home is recommended. The best place to start is to freshen the paint on your walls. The impact on prospective buyers can be amazing. Choose a neutral paint color of ivory, beige or light taupe. Millwork and trim, if painted, should be a lighter shade to show some contrast.
Is your carpeting showing soil and wear? Sometimes professional cleaning and restoration will make a sufficient difference. However, does your rug color have broad appeal or does it make a strong personal statement? Consider installing new carpet. It is normally very cost effective.
Again, the color should be a neutral one that is in the same family as the wall paint. Coordinate color choices with any permanent surfaces in the home, such as tile floors or counter tops. If you are lucky enough to find hardwood floors under the carpet, restore them rather than recarpet. Hardwood floors definitely increase the value of the home.
If this whole process seems daunting, you can always reduce your anxiety and stress by hiring a professional like me to assist you. Relax…I’ll handle the details!
6 Tips for Choosing the Best Offer for Your Home
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Have a plan for reviewing purchase offers so you don’t let the best slip through your fingers.
Selling your home will go a lot smoother if you think of it as a business transaction and don’t let emotions get in the way.
You’ve worked hard to get your home ready for sale and to price it properly. With any luck, offers will come quickly. You’ll need to review each carefully to determine its strengths and drawbacks and pick one to accept. Here’s a plan for evaluating offers.
1. Understand the process
All offers are negotiable, as your agent will tell you. When you receive an offer, you can accept it, reject it, or respond by asking that terms be modified, which is called making a counteroffer.
2. Set baselines
Decide in advance what terms are most important to you. For instance, if price is most important, you may need to be flexible on your closing date. Or if you want certainty that the transaction won’t fall apart because the buyer can’t get a mortgage, require a prequalified or cash buyer.
3. Create an offer review process
If you think your home will receive multiple offers, work with your agent to establish a time frame during which buyers must submit offers. That gives your agent time to market your home to as many potential buyers as possible, and you time to review all the offers you receive.
4. Don’t take offers personally
Selling your home can be emotional. But it’s simply a business transaction, and you should treat it that way. If your agent tells you a buyer complained that your kitchen is horribly outdated, justifying a lowball offer, don’t be offended. Consider it a sign the buyer is interested and understand that those comments are a negotiating tactic. Negotiate in kind.
5. Review every term
Carefully evaluate all the terms of each offer. Price is important, but so are other terms. Is the buyer asking for property or fixtures—such as appliances, furniture, or window treatments—to be included in the sale that you plan to take with you?
Is the amount of earnest money the buyer proposes to deposit toward the downpayment sufficient? The lower the earnest money, the less painful it will be for the buyer to forfeit those funds by walking away from the purchase if problems arise.
Have the buyers attached a prequalification or pre-approval letter, which means they’ve already been approved for financing? Or does the offer include a financing or other contingency? If so, the buyers can walk away from the deal if they can’t get a mortgage, and they’ll take their earnest money back, too. Are you comfortable with that uncertainty?
Is the buyer asking you to make concessions, like covering some closing costs? Are you willing, and can you afford to do that? Does the buyer’s proposed closing date mesh with your timeline?
With each factor, ask yourself: Is this a deal breaker, or can I compromise to achieve my ultimate goal of closing the sale?
6. Be creative
If you’ve received an unacceptable offer through your agent, ask questions to determine what’s most important to the buyer and see if you can meet that need. You may learn the buyer has to move quickly. That may allow you to stand firm on price but offer to close quickly. The key to successfully negotiating the sale is to remain flexible.
Fannie Mae to offer 3.5 percent buyer assistance
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Fannie Mae announced that homebuyers purchasing a Fannie Mae-owned HomePath property will receive up to 3.5 percent in closing cost assistance. The initial offer must be submitted on or after April 11, 2011; and the sale must close on or before June 30, 2011 to be eligible for the incentive. Additionally, buyers must reside in the home as their primary residence (sales to investors are excluded).
“Attracting qualified buyers to the market and reducing the inventory of vacant homes remains essential to stabilizing neighborhoods and helping the market recover,” said Terry Edwards, Executive Vice President of Credit Portfolio Management. “Since interest rates remain low, the incentive will go a long way toward helping even more families buy a new home so this is a great time for Fannie Mae to offer some assistance.”
All Fannie Mae-owned HomePath properties are listed on HomePath.com and most listings include detailed property descriptions, photographs, community and school information, and more. In addition, many Fannie Mae-owned properties are eligible for special HomePath Mortgage and HomePath Renovation Mortgage financing, which offers homebuyers an opportunity to purchase with as little as 3 percent down.
Young families and adults ages 31 to 45 are likely to lead the home buying recovery
Friday, April 8th, 2011
Generation X –young families and adults ages 31 to 45 – are likely to lead the home buying recovery as it gets underway, according to real estate experts who spoke at an educational Webinar produced by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in partnership with Builder magazine
These potential home buyers are most likely to think it’s a good time to get off the fence – and have strong opinions about the design features their new homes will include.
At 32 percent of the population of home-buying age – generally defined as those who are at least 30 years old, the Gen X population cohort isn’t the largest, but it’s the most mobile, said presenter Mollie Carmichael, principal of John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif. “They are in full force with their careers and they need to accommodate growing families,” she said.
In sharp contrast, even though they constitute 41 percent of prospective home buyers, Baby Boomers continue to wait for the market to improve, and their decisions to delay retirement also delay their decisions to downsize into a smaller home, Carmichael said.
Most of the 10,000 buyers and potential buyers in 27 metro areas that the consulting company surveyed were optimistic about a new home purchase, with between 85 percent and 89 percent saying that it was a good time to buy a home. Only 13 percent said they thought home prices would continue to fall, further evidence that it’s “not all about price,” she said. “They want something compelling, from a design or personalization standpoint,” said Carmichael.
In addition, though the average home size is shrinking, a majority of prospective buyers said they would like a bigger home than the one they have. “These are first-time buyers or younger families looking for more room to grow,” she said.
Seventy percent said that they were willing to pay $5,000 more for a green home, but those responding to the survey said that they expected new homes to already have many green technology features. They also said they would pay a premium for dark wood cabinets, a separate tub and shower and a fireplace in the living room, and more preferred a great room over formal spaces.
And while community amenities are important to Gen X buyers, 46 percent said they prefer a home in a large-lot, suburban development, versus the 21 percent looking for a traditional or “walkable” neighborhood.
Webinar panelist Heather McCune, director of marketing at Bassenian/Lagoni Architects in Newport Beach, Calif., also emphasized that design will be important in generating sales in the emerging marketplace. “The notion of ‘build it and they will come’ no longer works. Design matters,” she said.
McCune said buyers are looking for homes with a connection between indoor and outdoor spaces, even in colder climates, to create the perception of greater home size, even if the space is only usable for part of the year. They also want more storage, an open floor plan and flexibility in the garage.
“While Gen X numbers are smaller than the birth cohorts before and after them, their numbers have been enlarged by steady immigration,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Gen X may wait longer than their predecessors to establish their own household or buy a home because of the recent recession impacts, but the trends are still likely to occur as they have for past generations.”
3 Common Misconceptions That Needlessly Lower Credit Scores
Saturday, March 19th, 2011People are having to make tough financial choices today. There are 3 Common Misconceptions That Needlessly Lower Credit Scores many don’t have to do that wreck their credit scores-
Misconception 1: Paying late didn’t hurt my credit since I’m caught up now. Late payments are credit score killers. It’s great that you caught up,but it doesn’t change the fact that you paid late. Anything other than ‘paid as agreed’ on accounts on your credit report hurts your score.
Misconception 2: Dollar amounts matter in credit scores. Dollar amounts don’t matter in FICO scoring; ratios and recency do. The effect on your score is the same for a $1 late payment as a $1,000 late payment. The fewer late payments on your credit report, the higher your score—regardless of their dollar amounts.
Misconception 3: Closing credit card accounts helps your score. If you cancel a card, you may have just thrown away your chance to increase your score by continuing to build on years of positive credit. Very long term positive account history can really boost your score. It’s best for your score to keep cards open and active, using them for small purchases. Next best is to just keep them open so you can build your score back up quickly by using them later.
Don’t make a bad situation worse. In tough economic times, people often buy more on credit than they usually would. The amount they pay in interest on these purchases is largely determined by their credit scores. Poor decisions that lower scores combined with an already tight budget can be very costly, making money problems worse than they have to be.
Check with a financial and/or credit advisors regarding your specific situation.
Cash Is King In Home Buying Throughout California
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011Investors have been buying up a lot of California real estate, with cash. According to DataQuick Information systems, 30.9% of all sales in California were made in cash, a new record.
Cash activity has been brisk for months in foreclosure-ridden areas such as Riverside and San Bernardino. But now, the cash buyer has become a major player in Southern California’s most expensive communities, where cash deals account for as much as two-thirds of home sales.
The trend is being driven by several factors, analysts say, including the difficulty of getting a “jumbo” loan from lenders still stinging from the mortgage meltdown. It also reflects speculation by wealthy investors who believe home prices are at or near a bottom.
According to the report, in the $1-million-and-up market, 29.2% of buyers paid cash last year — the highest percentage since 1994. For homes selling for $5 million and up, 62.2% paid cash.
Cash buying has reached fever pitch in parts of Orange County, where the Balboa community of Newport Beach saw the highest percentage of sales going to cash buyers last year of any $1-million-plus Southland community — 66.7%.
Other big cash markets were Montecito, with 57.2% of sales, and Beverly Hills, with 45.6%.
DataQuick shows that just shy of 52 percent of cash buyers seemed to be absentee owners who asked to have property tax bills sent to an address other than those of the house they were buying. Those buyers could be investors or people purchasing a second home for vacations.
Wells Fargo lowers credit score requirement for FHA mortgages
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011Wells Fargo recently announced that effective Jan. 15, 2011, it will accept FHA-insured mortgages for borrowers with credit scores as low as 500. For borrowers with credit scores ranging from 500 to 579, a 10 percent down payment is required, and the down payment may not be a gift or be part of a down payment assistance program. Borrowers with credit scores of 580 to 599 are required to put down 5 percent, and the down payment may not be a gift or part of a down payment assistance program. Borrowers with a credit score of 600 or higher are required to have a 3.5 percent down payment, and a gift is acceptable. For all borrowers, seller concessions are limited to 3 percent.
ONE COMMON BARRIER TO SELLING A HOME
THE HOUSING MARKET IS DOWN. The Federal Reserve recently noted that after losing ground in the spring, Americans’ wealth grew 2.2% throughout July-September, and household net worth rose to nearly $55 trillion. But despite this, the value of real estate holdings sank 3.7%. It’s true, the real estate market truly hasn’t fully recovered, and it would be disingenuous to sugar-coat it and say that you’ll easily get your ideal asking price in a week if you sell. But still, too many people read the second statement above—home prices are down—without taking it in stride with the first: things are improving overall. A lot of us focus on bad news without looking at the good. Home values have not fully rebounded. But the increase in Americans’ wealth means there are more people with cash freed up to buy. Also, these figures don’t take geographical areas into account. Your area might be doing better than the national average. The best way to know what’s best for you is to ask a trusted real estate professional. Communication is the key to success, rather than hiding when you see a negative headline.
FHA “ANTI-FLIPPING” RULE EXTENDED
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has extended its 90-day “no flip” rule on recently rehabbed properties for another year. The ruling, which allows investors who acquire foreclosed properties at below-market value to be exempt from waiting the customary 90 days before reselling them, was set to expire at the end of January 2011. Vicki Bott, deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing at the FHA, said that first-time buyers have responded overwhelmingly to the opportunity to buy “turnkey” renovated homes with low down payments and they have performed well on their mortgage obligations.
The 90-day waiting period originally was put in place to protect FHA borrowers against predatory practices of flipping where properties were quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers. Bott said that while the FHA is concerned about flipping in general, they have not seen any of the fraud problems, defaults and re-foreclosures that cost the agency millions in insurance payouts in earlier years.
Pacific Station In Downtown Encinitas Now Open For Sale
Saturday, February 5th, 2011After five years and a cost of nearly $40 million, Pacific Station Flat’s, Loft’s and Town Homes are now on the market. Located on the 101 just north of The Lu
mberyard, the architecture is an Encinitas inspired eclectic mix of two story Loft’s and Townhomes and single story flat’s that range from 600-2400 square feet. You can even buy one for an office. Within walking distance of Encinitas restaurants, Moonlight Beach, Cottonwood Park, specialty shopping, new public library and the Coaster Train Station. This unique project creates a synergistic environment which will only increase when the nearly completed Whole Foods opens. With only 47 units only a select few will have the opportunity to live in Encinitas’ premiere lifestyle destination. Call or email me at rob@robdennyhomes.com if you would like to see one of these highly detailed and varied architecture homes today.