Get Expert Help on Home Buying at 7th Times Fair

Are you one of those house-hunters who have been anxiously waiting for Southland home prices to finally hit bottom? Then listen up. This could be your year. Many real estate experts think we have bottomed out. Prices in many communities have stabilized and have even begun to inch up.

And the Southland housing market has rarely been more affordable, thanks to six years of falling prices and mortgage rates at 24-month lows. Six years ago, only 17% of all California families could afford the median-priced home, according the California Assn. of Realtors. Today that number has more than doubled to 37%. In Los Angeles County, 34% of families can afford the median-priced home, and in Orange County, the number is 40%.

Even in a market as ripe as this one, however, home buying is still a complex and confusing process, and expert advice is crucial to making the most of this opportunity.

But relax: We’ll round up the experts for you at the seventh annual Los Angeles Times Home Buyers and Sellers Fair, to be held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 2 in the Petrie Room of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The all-day fair, the largest consumer-education event of its kind in the United States, will include question-and-answer workshops on all aspects of buying and selling, cleaning up your credit and finding the right mortgage.

Besides the workshops, 50 exhibitors--including lenders, agents and home builders as well as the state Department of Real Estate, Internal Revenue Service, FHA, VA and Consumer Credit Counseling--will be on hand to talk with you at their booths.

Fair-goers can view home listings, get credit checks, pre-qualify for home loans and learn about the various mortgage programs available. There also will be demonstrations on using personal computers to access buying, selling and mortgage information on the Internet.

A special feature of this year’s fair will be the “New American” campaign sponsored by the Federal National Mortgage Assn. (Fannie Mae), which will provide home-buying information in seven languages and a range of tools to better understand the mortgage market.

In the fair’s opening workshop, “Real Estate Q & A” columnist Robert J. Bruss; “Your Mortgage” writer Dian Hymer; Ilyce Glink, author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask”; and new-home expert Jeffrey S. Meyers will discuss getting started in the housing market, including how to begin your house hunt, picking a real estate agent and negotiating a good deal. They will also answer audience questions.

A second workshop on mortgages and credit will feature consumer advice from Times “Property Values” columnist Ron Galperin; Earl Peattie of Mortgage News Co., which provides loan data to The Times; home-loan lenders; and credit counselors. They will cover such topics as choosing and qualifying for the right mortgage, smoothing out dings in your credit report and working out debt problems.

Admission to the fair is $5. A $1-off coupon will appear in upcoming editions of the Real Estate Section of The Times. For exhibitor information, call (800) 775-4662.

Also, on the Internet, check out the Virtual Los Angeles Times Home Buyers & Sellers Fair at ttp://www.ired.com/LAFair