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Foreclosures Affecting Reddings Rental Market

April 9, 2009 By

In an article today on Redding.com they discuss how foreclosures are affecting the landlords and tenants is Redding’s rental market.

 
The economy and Shasta County’s increasingly affordable housing market now are causing a downturn in the area’s rental market.

Banners advertising space for rent or lease are plentiful along Redding’s Hilltop Drive as landlords look to fill empty units.

“We see a lot of people losing their jobs. They have to relocate or find something much smaller,” said Michelle Connaught, business manager for River Knolls on Hilltop Drive. “Right now, all of Hilltop Drive has been hit hard.”

The number of people looking for apartments on Hilltop Drive has declined since the beginning of the year, Connaught estimated.

With its panoramic views of Redding and the Sundial Bridge, River Knolls typically has a waiting list. But Connaught has found it increasingly difficult to fill vacant units.

River Knolls recently dropped monthly rents $50. Rents range from $800 to $1,120 a month.

“There’s not enough traffic because there is not enough work,” Connaught said of people looking for rentals.

Shasta County’s unemployment rate in February was 16.2 percent, the highest for any month in 16 years.

“Three weeks ago, we were fully occupied. Now we have notices. It’s just turned around,” said Linda Morrison, who manages Redding Hilltop Apartments on Hilltop Drive, where rents run $630 to $640 a month for a one-bedroom.

“People are moving into two bedrooms with a roommate to save money or they’re moving back home, or out of state.”

But job losses are not the only reason vacancies are up in some areas.

The Shasta Creek Apartments in Redding have about 20 vacant units, roughly a fifth of the complex. Manager Thomas Turner said some residents are leaving because they’ve purchased a home.

“We just lost five residents who bought a home,” Turner said.
The number of people who can afford to buy a home in the Redding area has reached nearly 50 percent, according to the most recent National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

Of the new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2008, 48.8 percent were affordable to families earning Redding’s median annual income of $53,300, the index reported.

The median sales price in Redding from October to December of last year was $195,000, down from $209,000 the previous three months.

But the declining housing market has affected the rental market in other ways.
Walt Swift of Swift Properties in Redding said homeowners who can’t sell but don’t want to reduce their asking price are opting instead to rent their places out.

“We get a slug of calls every week from people who can’t sell,” Swift said. “We are talking upwards of $500,000 homes, or at least they paid $500,000 for it, but they can’t get that.”

North state property management firms, too, are renting homes and apartments to families who have lost their property to foreclosure.

Chad and Kerryann Barnes were in Redding this week to look at homes to rent. The Barnes, who have two children, are renting in Fresno after losing their home in Los Banos last August to foreclosure. They’re moving to the north state for a new start.

The Barnes want to rent a home on property for about $1,800 a month.
“There’s a ton available and at a decent price,” Kerryann Barnes, 33, said.
Chad Barnes, a 34-year-old California Highway Patrol Officer who’s transferring to Weaverville, said in one day they looked at 10 attractive rentals that were available.

“We will be up here in the middle of June,” he said.

North state property managers said that being foreclosed upon doesn’t necessarily mean a family won’t make good tenants.

“I’ve rented to a lot of people who’ve lost a home in foreclosure,” said Deborah Sain of Hubbub Properties in Redding. “Those can actually be good tenants: They are previous homeowners, they realize what they can afford, they can pay on time and they’ll take care of the place.”

Swift said occasionally his firm will encourage a family who’s lost a home to foreclosure to write a letter explaining their situation.
“We will present the letter with the application,” Swift said.

Filed Under: Blog, Redding News, Uncategorized

Longs Drugs Maybe Building In Palo Cedro

December 10, 2008 By

Longs Drugs Store wants to build in Palo Cedro.  Several people have spoken out about this and think it will threaten local business.   This should be good for Palo Cedro, it will create competition and you can’t go wrong with creating new jobs.

Here’s the RS Article.

Filed Under: Blog, Redding News Tagged With: Palo Cedro

Redding Electric Utility Wants To Raise Rates

November 14, 2008 By

In a story from today’s Record Searchlight, Redding Electric Utility is proposing a rate increase and will be meeting with the Redding City Council December 16 to consider this proposal. 

It looks like our utility bills will be increasing next year.  This should help our local economy!

The average Redding household will pay $6.95 more each month for electricity starting in January, should the City Council approve a proposed rate increase.

The council on Tuesday will set a hearing for Dec. 16 to consider what could be the largest Redding Electric Utility rate increase in at least 10 years.

REU had planned to seek annual 5.85 percent increases through 2012 to cover business costs, budget documents show.

But the drought and a slumping economy mean REU will ask for a 7.84 percent increase for 2009 and an identical increase for 2010, said Paul Hauser, utility director.

The council will be given rate increase options ranging from 6.35 percent to 11.57 percent, Hauser said. The 11.57 percent option would raise the average monthly household electric bill by $9.69.

“Hydro is the biggest driver,” Hauser said. “Anybody who has been out to Lake Shasta recognizes that.”

REU gets roughly 22 percent of its electricity from Shasta Dam and other federal hydroelectric projects in average rainfall years. At less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour, hydropower is by far Redding’s least-expensive electricity source.

But no one can predict how much rain will fall each year, Hauser said. That’s one reason why REU keeps a cash reserve, currently at $42 million. The utility would be seeking a much higher rate increase were that reserve not there, he said.

The hydropower supply looked decent when REU last looked at rates in February, after a couple of months of healthy rain and snowfall, Hauser said.

But this past spring was the driest on record in Northern California. REU has had to spend $8 million more than expected buying more expensive electricity to replace the lost hydropower.

The contracting economy has meant an additional $3 million hit for REU in unrealized wholesale and retail revenue it had expected, Hauser said. The utility’s customer base hasn’t grown as quickly as expected, and that means REU has to spread costs for power plants, debt service and other hard fixed expenses over a smaller base, he said.

“The council is extremely sympathetic to the current economy and the pressures people are facing,” Hauser said. “But there’s just no way around this, with the low lake level and the poor economy.”

Filed Under: Blog, Redding News, Uncategorized Tagged With: redding

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Redding CA 96003

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