69% worry about the price of homes going up soon 85% think homes are “affordable” 68% think it’s a better time to buy than 6 months ago Nearly half don’t know about the $8000 tax credit Whether they knew before the survey or not, 77% said that the $8000 credit made them more willing/interested in [...]
Sacramento's Public Radio (Capital Public Radio) reports that home buyers are snatching up $10,000 tax credits at a faster than expected rate. By April 1, 2009 more than 26% of the available funds have been utilized. The state expects that they may even run out of funds by the end of summer! Listen to the [...]
Interesting note that supports our views on the unlikelihood of rates moving much lower - last Friday, Jack Koskinen, interim chief executive of Freddie Mac, said that home loan rates are near the bottom and that any further decreases will be small. Mr. Koskinen commented on mortgage rates after he attended the meeting between President [...]
This update from Mortgagee Letter 2009-09 establishes appraisal requirements for declining markets. Here are the 10 things your appraiser must do or provide for all FHA appraisals done after April 1st, 2009:
While pending home sales declined on a soft economy, housing affordability is at the highest point since the numbers have been tracked in the 1970's. read the full report on NAR's site. NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, said it’s ironic with the weak housing market that [...]
Here we go again... For a few months now we have been trying to give our clients early notice of is again being noticed and reported on by the national media. This time it is the Wall Street Journal. According to the journal... The relative cost of owning versus renting is swinging back in favor [...]
Kim and I wanted to make sure that you heard about $10,000 tax incentive that has just been approved in the newly signed California budget. While this does nothing to shrink the inventory of existing resales homes, it will put some people back to work in the badly hit construction industry. The bottom line... $10,000 [...]
As part of the Federal governements new stimulus package, we now have a new set of loan limits for 2009. Most, if not all counties in California will benefit from these new loan limits. Sacramento jumps to $580,000 San Diego jumps to $697,500 Click on this link to see a PDF from the feds about [...]
Time Magazine has recently posted an article making the case for buying a home! Though a number of us in the industry have felt this to be true for some time now, it is interesting to see the national media involved in the conversation. It had to happen at some point! You can read the [...]