Although the foreclosure rate in California soared in the second quarter, it is still not clear exactly how bad this is. It certainly is not good, however in spite of the soaring foreclosure rate, foreclosures are still below normal.

In the time period April through June lenders 20,752 default notices to homeowners, up 67.2% from the same period last year.

The trend in the numbers of homes for sale is continuing to increase across the country. Housing inventories are clearly rising. The more houses for sale, the more downward pressure there will be on home sales.

A study by ZipRealty has found that housing inventory has increased in 18 major markets across the US. This data is based on condos and single family homes.

Now that we are approaching Labor Day we are at a transformation point for the trading year. The slow low volume trading of summer is about to come to an end and we are likely to see higher trading volumes going into the fall.

Looking at the top ten ETFs for this year so far, we see two groups that stand out. We see the country funds of China ( no surprise), Spain , Belgium and France all in the top ten performing funds so far this year.

The boom times of buying a single family home or condo and quickly flipping it for a profit has passed. In spite of warnings of housing bubbles and a real estate market waiting for disaster, investors this time last year were feverishly buying up real estate in Florida, Las Vegas, Arizona and other hot spots. One year later what has happened? Have these people gotten burned? Have they made Hugh profits? Well it all depends on the market.

As the real estate bubble is topping out more and more real estate scam artists are launching attacks on homeowners. The IRS has initiated 235 fraud cases against individuals in 2005 and the number is expected to remain steady or increase during 2006.

The types of fraud vary but the most prevalent fraud cases are related to mortgage fraud. Mortgage frauds are contributing to the higher number of foreclosures among homeowners.

For the month of June 53,700 homes and condos were sold statewide in California in June. The pace of resale’s has picked up a little from May and has increased 3.8% in one month. In the broad picture home sales have decreased 20.7% from the same period last year.

The median home price for the state has hit a new high and weighed in at $478,000 in June.

In April 47,250 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the state of California. That's down from 54,500 in March which is a drop of 13.3%. April of 2005 was one of the strongest months for real estate in California's history. What a difference a year makes. Sales were down 21% from last April. Even though sales were down, prices were not.

In April of 2006, prices were up 10.

If you are a real estate investor and missed the housing boom, you may get another chance. Overheated in the eastern and western markets are cooling off, but there are new opportunities out there. Some of the cities that sat out the boom of the last few years are now showing stronger appreciation gains. Cities such as Dallas, Houston and Atlanta are showing signs of a strengthening real estate market.

Home sales are dropping in Southern California. For the fourth month in a row, home sales have continued top drop, according to data for March. At the same time, the median price for a home in Southern California, has climbed above the $500,000 mark. This is a divergence of trends. In the last several years home sales were robust and increasing and so were home prices.

The latest report from PMI Mortgage Insurance company looks at real estate trends. The report indicated that if you owned a home from 1986 thru 2005 in 50 of the largest metropolitan areas, you did very well. During that period of time, if you owned a home for 10 years or more, you profited 100% of the time. If you owned a home during this period for 7 years, the percentage of homeowners that profited were 95%.