From: hamachi@adobe.com (Gordon Hamachi)
Subject: Real Estate News Summary, Part 133
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 19:34:05 GMT

Real Estate News Summary, Part 133, October 1992

1048.Existing-home sales in September fell to their lowest level in 8 months.
     Resales were off 0.9% from August, when sales fell sharply.  Blamed were
     lack of job security and bleak forecasts of future income growth.  Most
     sales are in the low-end markets.  The move-up market is faring poorly.
     Los Angeles prices were down 8% from a year earlier.  Many homeowners are
     simply keeping their homes off the market because they are unwilling to
     accept such reductions in their selling price. [Investor's Business Daily]

1049.The Atlanta mansion known as Lionheart goes to the highest bidder, with no
     minimum bid.  Despite all the 24-karat gold and Italian marble, the 27,000
     square-foot house had no takers last year at $12.5 million.  Nor did it
     move this past summer at $9 million.  Demand is slack right now, and more
     than 100 houses priced at $1 million or more are languishing on the
     Atlanta market.  You can't give megahouses away.  Across the country
     trophy homes like Lionheart have been sold at auction, where they often
     fetch 30% to 40% less than the original asking price.[Wall Street Journal]

1050.Bay Area housing prices have dropped as much as 20% to 30% in the past 3
     years, and the president of residential brokerage Cornish & Carey expects
     prices to drop another 10% before leveling out in 1994.  Yet he expects
     moderate appreciation to return by 1994 and continue through the end of
     the decade. [San Jose Mercury News]

1051.The Great California Home Rush!  Kennedy-Wilson will auction 215
     residential properties.  Minimum selling prices from $10,000 to $740,000.
     [Direct mailing]

1052.September single family home sales increased 36% in San Mateo County
     compared with 1991 figures.  Santa Clara County sales were flat.  Condo
     sales were down in both counties. [Times Tribune]

1053.A continued slump in the U.S. residential housing market is predicted
     unless the federal government reduces the deficit and turns consumer
     confidence around.  The prediction is in report by the PMI Mortgage
     Insurance Co., "The Economic Threat to American Home Ownership"
     [Times Tribune]

1054.The savings and loan fiasco left another mark when a new state law
     requiring real estate appraisers to be licensed goes into effect.  The S&L
     crisis was blamed in part on inaccurate appraisals.  Before the law anyone
     could call themselves an appraiser. [Times Tribune]

1055.New home sales fell 1% in September and other reports showed consumer
     confidence eroding in October.  The figures were accompanied by a sharp
     upward revision for August, which suggested to some that housing activity
     bottomed last spring.  Analysts cautioned against expecting large gains.
     [New York Times]

1056.The ongoing real estate skid deflated prices throughout much of San
     Francisco during the past 6 months.  Since April properties in only 3
     neighborhoods appreciated, 28 declined in value while 14 were unchanged.
     The Oct. 7 survey reported the sharpest decline in Nob Hill, where the
     value of a 2-bedroom condo fell 10.9% from last April.  Buyers are taking
     advantage of a glut of condos on the market.  Buyers are still extremely
     wary of the economy. [San Francisco Examiner]