King Of Pop Was Also The King OF High Rents

This is the Kent mansion into which Michael Jackson was due to move this weekend.
The property’s owner, businessman Osman Ertosun, and his wife and two children moved out of aprox. 31 Million Dollar manor in Chislehurst, Kent, more than a week ago and were preparing to stay elsewhere for a year.
The Grade II-listed mansion is among the largest private properties in Greater London. Jackson paid about 2 million to rent it until next February. His concert venue, the O2 Arena, is just ten miles away.
The star had personally selected the house after visiting it secretly around the time of his Press conference in London in March.

Here is the rental where he died. His rent was $100,000 per month. Then of course you need grounds keepers, maids, utility bills, etc. May his soul rest in peace.

Bel Air is an affluent residential area located in the Westside hills in Los Angeles, California. Home to the stars, Bel Air forms the famous Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles, together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills.
The whole area is divided into two sectors. The lower portion is strictly residential, and houses the older estates north of the Sunset Boulevard. It boasts of vast expanses of flat and lush scenery, and is the spot to look into for those who plan on leasing a mansion. The upper portion weaves through the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. The area consists of the more quaint homes from post-World War II, and a couple of commercial districts along Mulholland Drive.
Many celebrities have made their homes within the gates of Bel Air. In fact, some of the more recent celebrity purchases include singer Avril Lavigne, who with her husband recently settled in a 12,000-square-foot mansion that cost them $9.5 million, and controversial singer Rihanna, who had to shell out $12 million for a Bel Air mansion. Of course, stars like Paris Hilton, Meg Ryan and Jennifer Lopez are also neighbors in the plush neighborhood.
The attraction of this neighborhood as a celebrity community is such that many find ways to stay in it despite financial troubles. Embattled pop singer Michael Jackson, for one, has taken the option of leasing a mansion in Bel-Air. In the midst of news about his financial woes, the singer recently signed a one-year lease contract for $100,000 per month over a mansion with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and 12 fireplaces.
And who wouldn't fall for the grand Bel Air charm and not consider leasing a mansion in Bel Air? Imagine the typical image of a Bel Air home: a house as big as a palace fit for a royal family, nestled on a vast expanse of manicured lawn, a lush garden of greens, a driveway and a big garage for your Mercedes and Porsches, a swimming pool and a tennis court, and a man in a tuxedo standing by to open the door for you.
Indeed, many affluent families who are looking for a taste of the celebrity life have considered leasing a mansion in this area as the next best thing to buying real property there. For anywhere between $20,000 to a whopping $100,000 a month, you can live the high life in this area and enjoy its star-studded attractions such as the Bel Air Country Club and the Hotel.

A nice piece of good news.....

********************************************************************************

I was at the state captial today and read a very positive real etsate piece in a paper called the SAC BEE and wanted to share it with you.

***********************************************************************************

Home sales, median prices rise in May
ShareThis
By Jim Wasserman

Sacramento-area home buyers closed escrow on 3,420 new and existing houses in May, a 14th straight month of sales climbing higher than the same month a year earlier.
May,which typically kicks off the summer buying season, also saw median sales prices rise again in five area counties, according to statistics released today La Jolla property researcher MDA DataQuick.
But it may be early to celebrate such tentative signals of improvement, as thousands of Sacramento-area borrowers still struggle with home loans. New notices of defaults across the region reached 3,633 in May and outnumbered home sales in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to Bay Area-based tracker ForeclosureRadar. Not all, however, are expected to become foreclosures.
Sacramento County showed one of the biggest improvements regionally, with prices for existing homes alone climbing a dramatically higher 9.4 percent - from $160,000 in March and April to $175,000 in May.
But that was still 22 percent below the May 2008 median of $225,000.
DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage attributed the abrupt May rise to a sales mix reflecting fewer hugely discounted bank repos and more higher-priced homes.
"It's not home appreciation," he said. "It's just getting back to a more normal distribution of sales across the home price spectrum."
Still, he said, "It could be that we've seen the lowest median in Sacramento County."
Here's why:
• Overall, the market share of bank repos fell to 59 percent in May in Sacramento County. That's down from a high of 71 percent in January and follows several rounds of foreclosure moratoriums.
• Homes priced below $100,000 in Sacramento County fell to their lowest level since Nov. 2008.
• Sales priced between $200,000 and $500,000 rose 13 percent from April to May in the capital county.
Prices for new and existing homes combined also rose from April to May in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada and Yolo counties. Prices were unchanged in Placer County and fell slightly in Sutter and Yuba counties, DataQuick reported.
These generally rising median sales prices - where half cost more and half less - reflected an upward statewide trend in May. DataQuick statistics showed a 12.3 percent rise from April in the nine-county Bay Area. The six-county Los Angeles region, including San Diego, saw the regional median rise slightly for the first time since July 2007.
DataQuick May sales highlights for new and existing homes combined in the region:
• Amador County reported a $209,500 median in May, price, up from $180,000 in April and down 29.5 percent from May 2008
• (El Dorado Countys median was $325,000, up from $313,000 in April and down 15.4 percent from the same time last year.
• Nevada County's median reached $352,000, up from $322,500 in April. The May median was just 0.6 percent lower than the same month last year.
• Placer County reported a $295,000 median price, unchanged from April, and 13 percent below the same time last year.
• Sutter County's $165,000 median was down from $170,000 in April and 15.4 percent below the same time last year.
• The Yolo County median of $276,000 climbed from $242,000 in April. It was down 12 percent from May 2008.
• Yuba County's $152,000 median was down slightly from $156,500 in April and is still down 26.4 percent from the same month in 2008.

The Horses Are On The Track

---Southern California home sales rose for the 11th consecutive month in May as sales of $500,000-plus homes started to come back. The median price paid increased slightly from the prior month for the first time since July 2007, the result of a shift in market activity where sales of deeply discounted foreclosures waned and mid- to high-end purchases rose, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 20,775 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties last month. That was up 1.3 percent from 20,514 in April and up 22.8 percent from 16,917 a year ago, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
Sales have increased year-over-year for 11 consecutive months.
May’s sales were the highest for that month since May 2006, when 30,303 homes sold, but were 21.2 percent below the average May sales total since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin.
Foreclosure resales – homes sold in May that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 50.2 percent of all Southland resales. That was down from 53.5 percent in April and from a peak of 56.7 percent in February. May’s figure was the lowest since foreclosure resales were 50.9 percent of all resales last October.
The remarkably sharp declines in the Southland’s median sale price over the past year have been exacerbated by a shift toward an above-average number of sales occurring in lower-cost inland markets rife with discounted foreclosures. However, the number of homes lost to foreclosure declined over the winter, leaving fewer for bargain hunters to scoop up this spring. Meantime, sales have begun to rise a bit in many mid- to high-end markets, which could be due at least in part to sellers dropping their asking prices.
Last month 83 percent of the existing Southland houses sold were purchased for less than $500,000, compared with 84.8 percent in April. Conversely, sales $500,000 and above rose from 15.2 percent of sales in April to 17 percent in May. The last time the $500,000-plus market made up more than 17 percent of all sales was last October, when they were 19.9 percent of sales.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the six-county Southland last month was $249,000, up 0.8 percent from $247,000 in April but down 32.7 percent from $370,000 a year ago.
The median price hadn’t risen from one month to the next since July 2007, when it increased 0.6 percent from $502,000 to $505,000.
Last month’s median was the second-lowest for any month since it was $242,000 in February 2002, and it stood 50.7 percent below the peak $505,000 median reached in spring and summer of 2007.
“We appear to be in the early stages of the market gradually tilting back toward a more normal balance of sales across the home price spectrum. As more sellers get realistic, more buyers get off the fence and more lenders offer reasonable terms for high-end purchase financing, we’ll see a more normal share of sales in the more established, higher-cost areas that have been nearly comatose,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
“Let’s not forget we’re into the traditional home buying season right now,” he continued, “meaning more people are purchasing for all of the normal reasons, such as a new job or to get settled before school starts. Many are concerned with finding the right home in the right area, not just the most deeply discounted home.”
Among the reasons high-end sales have been nearly frozen the past year: The “jumbo” mortgages needed to buy such homes have been more expensive and much harder to obtain since August 2007, when the credit crunch hit. Before then, nearly 40 percent of Southland sales were financed with jumbo loans, then defined as over $417,000. Last month it was only 12.0 percent, though that was up from 10.6 in April and the highest since last November, when $417,000-plus loans were used for 12.2 percent of home purchases.
At the lower end of the price spectrum, first-time buyers continue to rely heavily on government-insured FHA financing. Such loans were used to finance 38.4 percent of all Southland home purchases last month, down slightly from 38.9 percent in April but up from 19.7 percent a year ago. In the Inland Empire, more than half of all May home purchases were financed with FHA loans.
Absentee buyers, including investors who will have their property tax bills sent to a different address, bought 19.4 percent of the Southland homes sold last month. That’s up from 16.9 percent a year ago and 18.6 percent in April. The monthly average since 2000: 15 percent.
MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southern California buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,052 last month, up from $1,038 the previous month, and down from $1,782 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 52.1 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 60.7 percent below the current cycle's peak in July 2007.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains near record levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near the all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable. Non-owner occupied buying has risen and is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.

3 Months In A Row.........

Pending Home Sales Rise 6.7% / Third Straight Month of increase The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7%, to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2% above April 2008, when it was 87.5, the group said. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters (TRI) had expected the index would edge up to 85 from a reading of 84.6 in March. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001.
Pending home sales activity was greatest in the Northeast, where the index increased 32.6%, to 78.9, in April, 0.8% above a year ago. The only region that showed a decrease was the South, where the index declined 0.2%, to 93.0, 3.5% higher than a year ago. In the Midwest the index rose 9.8%, to 90.4, and is 11.1% above April 2008. In the West the index rose 1.8%, to 94.8, but is 2.9% below a year ago.
NAR’s Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions, and while the total number of existing-home sales is expected to improve, there will be sharp local variations. “The market has already bottomed in some areas, but this is an unusual housing cycle with some areas improving rapidly while others languish or decline,” Yun said in a news release.
Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer for future existing-home sales.
Paul Dales, U.S. economist for Capital Economics in Toronto, said
“The pending home sales index has now improved for three months in a row, adding to the evidence that housing activity is finding a floor,” Dales wrote. Nevertheless, even if existing-home sales were to rise to 5.1 million, they would still be 30% below their peak. Accordingly, even if activity is finding a floor, it is at staggeringly low levels.”