With foreclosures rising and home prices diving, there is a bright spot in California’s residential real estate market: Solar-powered homes are starting to outsell traditionally electrified new homes in several markets, and developers are stepping up their use of the technology.

Perhaps it’s only fitting for a state that so openly celebrates its sunshine. Still, the growing popularity of household solar power is an encouraging sign for the thousands of solar enthusiasts and vendors gathering in Long Beach this week.
“Those builders are seeing that they’ll get more buyers coming to their developments when they have solar. They sell like hot cakes,” said Bernadette del Chiaro, energy specialist at the advocacy group Environment California.

Existing-home sales dropped in August when mortgage availability problems were peaking, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Total existing-home sales — including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — were down 12.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.5 million units in August from a year-ago level of 6.31 million, and are 4.3 percent below the 5.75 million-unit pace in July.

Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, expected the decline. “The unusual disruptions in the mortgage market, including a significant rise in jumbo loan rates, resulted in a fairly high number of postponed or cancelled sales, with many buyers having to search for other financing when loan commitments fell through,” he said in a statement. “Lower sales contributed to a buildup of unsold inventory.”

It would be one of the most expensive houses ever sold in San Francisco - a neoclassical villa with a four-story floating staircase and glass atrium, a facade of French limestone and a roof of 19th century Florentine tile is on the market for $65 million.

Despite the price tag, the home is a mere shell - it doesn’t have interior walls, floors or ceilings - and will require more than $10 million to complete. And it will require a buyer with a net worth of just under $1 billion. While any such buyer would surely pay cash, financing the palace with 10 percent down would mean a mortgage and property taxes of around $500,000 a month.

CHICAGO - Home sellers are not automatically turning up their noses at offers that come in far below their asking price these days as prices stagnate and the inventory of homes for sale remains elevated in many markets.

But buyers who do ask for deep discounts still risk offending sellers to the point where they quash any deal. So before making an aggressive offer, some homework is in order, real estate professionals say. Further, buyers need to effectively explain why the price of a home should be lower.

I had an adjustable-rate mortgage once. I fully understood that after two years, my low come-on interest rate would be reset at a more realistic level. But when the two years passed — powee! It was still something of a shock.The current mortgage crisis is about aggressive lenders, reckless borrowers and cheated investors. It’s also about psychology. The adjustable-rate mortgage has been the perfect enabler for an instant-gratification society.

The EZ early payments let homebuyers borrow more money to buy more house than they could with a stodgy fixed-rate mortgage. Thus, they spare many the chore of saving for a solid down payment. As for the rate spike on the horizon, well, tomorrow is another day.