Real Estate
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Crabtree report: Housing market weakens slightly
The median sale price for existing single-family homes in the Bakersfield area was $130,000 in January, down 3.7 percent from December but up 2.4 percent year-over-year.
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New bill seeks to make some property fees deductible
A state assemblyman has introduced legislation aimed at easing and simplifying property tax payments.
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Upside-down borrowers face little-known tax deadline
With about half of all mortgaged homes in the Bakersfield area stubbornly under water, a critical deadline is looming that hardly anyone seems to know about.
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Housing market improving...slowly
Real estate experts are issuing year-end reports on the 2011 housing market, and by all accounts both the Bakersfield area and nation as a whole are on a heartening but agonizingly slow road to recovery.
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Crabtree housing report: Numbers point to strengthening market
Home sales in the Bakersfield area were slow in December, which is typical during the holiday season, but there are still signs that bode well for the long-term health of the housing market, according to the Preliminary Crabtree Report, a monthly gauge of the local housing market prepared by Affiliated Appraisers.
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Investors snatching up single-family homes
Investors are storming Kern County with cash offers to buy homes outright. Most are keeping the houses for rental income, but a few are fixing them up and reselling at a profit.
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Apartment market is heating up
Nervousness about other investment options is whipping up a frenzy to buy multifamily residential properties in and around Bakersfield.
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Crabtree Report: Housing data show 'trend toward some kind of a mend'
The Bakersfield housing market showed surprising strength last month, a time of year when sales are usually sluggish.
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Committee explores complexities of lowering development fees
A task force discussion on the hot-button issue of city development fees Tuesday generated lots of ideas, but few specifics.
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Bakersfield real estate agents reach settlement over pay
The state has reached a settlement of more than half a million dollars related to a real estate company's failure to pay four Bakersfield agents minimum wage and overtime pay.
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Task force to mull helping homebuilders
A task force of city staff and City Council members is set to address how to revive the sagging homebuilding industry in Bakersfield, and it's likely they will revive an old debate over development fees in the meantime.
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Cities consider legal intervention for blighted homes
Cities throughout California are grappling with foreclosed homes and struggling or recalcitrant homeowners whose properties have become eyesores. Now, an increasing number of local authorities are initiating health and safety receiverships, a legal process in which control of the property is temporarily taken from the owner and placed with a court-appointed officer.
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Full house: Extended families blend as economy takes its toll
Most people would go a little nuts if they had to cram four adults and four children into a three-bedroom house.
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Bakersfield area home prices flat, foreclosures losing steam
The median sale price of a single-family home in the Bakersfield area was nearly unchanged in October, rising 0.8 percent to $132,000 from September but down 2.2 percent over the same month last year.
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Local homebuilders apprehensive about proposed new energy mandates
Local builders are decrying proposals that would strengthen minimum energy efficiency standards for new construction, saying they could hinder new home building just as the struggling industry is clawing its way to a comeback.
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Keep Your Home California helps many, but critics say program slow to grow
A small but growing number of distressed homeowners in California are keeping their houses because of a state program funded with $2 billion in federal stimulus money.
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Local activists propose registry of foreclosed homes
Faith in Action, a coalition of local clergy and congregations, has a new campaign for the creation of an official registry of homes in or near foreclosure.
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Bakersfield rental market growing
Average monthly rent in Kern County rose 2.8 percent to $850 in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, according to a new report from RealFacts, a Novato-based real estate data firm.
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Kern City at 50: Residents celebrate their senior community
A full-page ad from the Friday, Oct. 6, 1961 issue of The Californian tells readers to "plan now to drive out Saturday and Sunday" all the way to Del Webb's Kern City -- "just three miles west of Highway 99 on Brundage Lane" -- for the freshly completed "active retirement" community's grand opening festivities.
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Report: Bakersfield median home prices hold steady year-over-year
The median home price for existing single-family homes in the Bakersfield area was $129,475 in September, nearly unchanged from last year but down 3.3 percent from August.
