Archive for January, 2010
From Forbes.com: Ten Cities To Go From Renting To Buying
Original Article by Francesca Levy, 01.21.10, 04:50 PM EST
In these metro areas, now is a good time to make the jump to homeownership.
The U.S. government has pushed hard to make homeowners out of one-third of Americans who still rent their homes. It introduced and later extended a tax credit for first-time home buyers, and has kept federal interest rates at their lowest levels since the 1940s.
Market conditions are such that now is a particularly good time for some renters to take the hint.
In Depth: 10 Cities To Go From Renting To Buying
In Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., the premium to buy–the spread between what you’d spend on renting and what you’d pay each month for a mortgage–is far narrower now than its 15-year average. And economists predict a significant home-price hike in five years. So upgrading will cost much less than usual, and home buyers are likely to get a good return on their investment.
Interest rate chart for the last six months
Here is the interest rate chart (for the last 6 months) pulled today from bankrate.com.
Click on the image for a full-size view.
Market Focus – A monthly analysis of the San Francisco real estate market
SF_Market_Focus_Report_January_2010
As 2009 came to a close, the San Francisco housing market showed promising signs of stabilizing, particularly in comparison to other major housing markets across the country. Falling inventory levels and strong sales activity helped to drive continued improvements in the median home price. In December 2009, the median single family sales price increased for a third consecutive month, aided by the drop off in foreclosure sales and the growing proportion of sales in higher priced areas. The median sales price reached $755,608 in December 2009, a 7.9% rise from December 2008.
The Watch List
A weekly column focusing on distressed market conditions, commercial real estate properties, mortgages and corporations published by CoStar News…
Click the link below for the PDF.
SURVEY SAYS: Foreign Investors Still Bullish On U.S Property
Latest Survey of AFIRE Members Confirms Ongoing Interest from Offshore Capital in U.S. Market, but Not Many Wallets Have Opened Yet. PPR Predicts Foreign Buyers Will Lead Those Looking For Deals In 2010
By Randyl Drummer
January 20, 2010
Original Article
More than half of foreign investors now say the U.S. provides the best opportunity globally for growing the value of commercial real estate investments, according to the annual survey conducted among the members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE).
Read more
Special Report: Low Rates, Don’t Wait.
“ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END…” Or so the popular saying goes. And in mid-December, the Fed reiterated once again that their Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) purchase program…the program that has helped keep home loan rates low for much of the last year…will end on March 31, 2010 as previously stated. Here’s the lowdown on what this means, and all the latest news impacting home loan rates and the markets. During their regularly scheduled December meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve kept the Fed Funds Rate unchanged. But history has shown that when the Fed has left rates too low for an extended period of time, there is a price to be paid, via higher inflation. Yet if the accommodation is removed too early, it can derail an already fragile recovery. The Fed continues to walk this tightrope, trying to get it “just right.” Along with this decision, the Fed emphasized and reminded that their MBS purchase program will still end on their already revised deadline date of March 31, 2010. Why is this significant? Let’s look at the numbers to get an idea. The Fed purchased MBS in 2009 bringing the year-to-date total to $1.087T. This means there is $163B left to purchase before March 31, which in turn means the Fed will purchase about $11.5B on average each week through the end of the buying program. This is less than half of what the Fed was buying regularly throughout 2009 and a 1/3 less than what the Fed has been buying in recent weeks. So why does this point to higher rates around the corner? When there is lots of supply and diminishing demand, the price of that item will subsequently go down – it’s Economics 101. So, when MBS prices start to drop, the yield on those investments goes up, and the yields are directly correlated to mortgage interest rates, which means…you guessed it…that interest rates on mortgages have to go up as well. Give me a call if you want to see how you can benefit from the current low rate environment…before it becomes too late.
Read more
Fast Facts
(Editor’s Note: Set forth below are Unit Sales/DOM/Monthly Supply charts for the month of November for single-family homes, condominiums and 2-4 units, as well as Supply/Demand, Sales Rate and Median Price charts for the same month.)
Single-Family Homes
Condos
2-4 Units
Suzanne Gregg in the News.
San Francisco’s below-market homeownership program aims to help
middle-income residents stay in city
Sunday, January 10, 2010 (SF Chronicle)
(Original Article at SFGate.com)
by Jeremy Schnitker
If you’re a middle-class San Franciscan – heck, even an upper-middle-class one – owning property in the city is no small financial task. With average home prices hovering around $826,000, according to BlockShopper.com statistics, those bringing in less than six figures would have a difficult time finding homes in their price range.
Since 1992, city leaders have been trying to do something about that. The city has sponsored a below-market-rate – or BMR – program to assist those who can’t afford a market-rate home but want to stay in the city and still enjoy the benefits of home ownership.
Read more
After 5 years…
In 2009, its 5th year in business, Paragon…
- #3 in unit sales
- #4 in dollar volume sales
- Lowest in Days on Market as Listing Agent (of top 10 brokerages)
- Highest Sales Price to original List Price percentage as Listing Agent (of top 10)
- Average home sales price: $929,000
Resource for Mortgage Rate Trend Information
Here is a resource for information on mortgage rate trends. Bankrate.com provides a tool for creating simple charts in a variety of types for periods of 3 months to 5 years. Sometimes it’s nice to have a simple chart, and there are so many situations in which this could come in handy.
InvestSF
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