Comfort for ill and traumatized children in our area

Project Linus is an all volunteer organization that provides comfort and security to seriously ill and traumatized children through handmade blankets in our area.

Rosemarie Durkton, a resident of Cathedral City, is the Coachella Valley Chapter Coordinator. Ms. Durkton has recruited “blanketeers” to make the blankets, as well as arranging with Coachella Valley organizations such as hospitals, shelters, and social service agencies for the distribution of these blankets.

The Coachella Valley chapter has created and delivered more than 19,000 blankets, over 5,000 caps and almost 2,000 dressed teddy bears to date to agencies such as the nurseries at Desert Regional Medical Center, Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, Well in the Desert Homeless Shelter, Shelter from the Storm and the Marine Air Combat Hospital at 29 Palms.

If you are able to create beautiful blankets, and/or donate appropriate fabric to be used to make the blankets, send me an email to corina@windermere.com or call me at 760-799-1540, I will be happy to stop by to pick up materials or blankets at your home and deliver them to Rosemarie.

Did You Know....?

Kitchens are always one of the primary selling features for a home in just about any price range.

If you have an outdated kitchen with dark wood cabinets, outdated appliances, older counters, a poor work flow, or other problems that could be solved by a partial or complete remodeling, you will generally see more of a return on the home's selling price than the amount of money you invested in the remodel.

Bathrooms are another area of the house that returns well on selling. If the home has only one bathroom, the addition of a second one is generally a huge return. Adding a bathroom to a master bedroom to create a master suite is typically another good return, as is remodeling outdated bathrooms.

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California won't tax forgiven home debt

Tax relief is on the way for thousands of fearful California mortgage borrowers. Most no longer face a double whammy of losing their homes and then paying a big state tax bill on the forgiven degt.

State lawmakers passed SB401, a bill to exempt borrowers who lost homes to foreclosure or short sales in 2009 from state taxes that can run into thousands of dollars. The same is true for certain types of loan modifications.

State officials say 100,000 people statewide will be spared paying tax they otherwise would owe.

The bill affects people who had debt forgiven as they lost homes in foreclosures, short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure last year and through 2012 now. Also affected, are those who got loan modifications that cut the amount they owe the bank.

In short sales, a bank might accept a sales price of $250,000 when it is still owed $350,000 on the home. In deeds in lieu of foreclosure, the bank simply takes back the house and may forgive what's still owed. The difference is the forgiven debt. Borrowers can avoid state taxes on up to $500,000 in forgiven debt.

The Franchise Tax Board says the tax forgiveness measure mostly applies to people who refinanced their homes to get better interest rates or extract equity, and then had a short sale or foreclosure where debt was forgiven.

But the tax board also warned that refinanced dollars taken out as cash and spent on items other than home improvements may be taxable.

Those who bought houses and never refinanced before doing a short sale, loan modification or foreclosure are unaffected. In most cases the banks just take back the houses. There is no forgiven debt, and no tax bill, said the tax board.

Investors are also unaffected. They still must pay state taxes on forgiven debt. The bill affects only people who live in their home.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

2010 First Quarter - Market Analysis

click on chart to enlarge

For most families, your home is your biggest investment. For many of us it will also be our retirement fund.

Because of this, one of the most important features in my blog will be the Market analysis.

This will give you information in regards to what is listed at this time; homes that are in some way under contract; and as well as what has sold recently in your neighborhood.

The abreviations above the numbers are as follows, address, city and map page.

Then comes # of bedrooms, # of bathrooms, square feet of the house, square feet of the lot and the year it was built.

The next column will show certain ammenities such as garage, spa, pool, etc.

The Date column shows the day the home was listed, gone into a contingent or pending status or sold.

Next to the date, it shows the dollar amount per square foot; then how many days it was on the market.

The last two columns show the home original price, the listed price reflects any changes that have been made to the original price and under sold properties, it will show the actual sale price per public records.

I hope you will find this information useful. Of course, you may call me or email me with any questions that you may have.