Archive for January, 2009
4.5% Fixed Rate Mortgages
On January - 26 - 2009
The media picked up on the prospect of 4.5% fixed mortgages back in November causing a lot of people to wait for rates to come down to this level before refinancing. 11 straight weeks of interest rate drops lead us to 4.5% fixed rate mortgages for the first time ever!!! Yay! But that celebration was short lived as rates jumped back up about a half a percent later that same week. Boo!!! Fundamentally pressures on interest rates are sound with much of the increase coming from banks trying to unclog their pipelines. So many people rushing to refinance caused most lenders to slow things up a bit by raising rates.
Also, there is a chance of a rate drop again this week as the Fed sits in a two day meeting focused on further helping to shore up the crumbling credit markets and build investor confidence. The $500 Billion dollars committed to buying Mortgage Backed Securities has lead us to record lows in interest rates.
Now here’s the bad news. First, with 50% of all home sales in the Bay Area Read the rest of this entry »
Bay Area Home Sales Up, Prices Down
On January - 13 - 2009
DataQuick Information Systems, www.DQNews.com
La Jolla, CA.—-Bay Area home sales decelerated in November but beat the year-ago mark for the third consecutive month. The allure of discounted foreclosures continued to drive sales in affordable inland markets, which helped push the median sale price down to its lowest point since former President Bill Clinton was in the White House.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined in the nine-county Bay Area fell to $350,000 last month. That was down 6.7 percent from $375,000 in October and down a record 44.4 percent from $629,000 in November 2007, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate information service.
The November median sale price - the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less - stood at its lowest since it was $350,000 in September 2000. It was 47.4 percent below the peak median of $665,000 reached last year in June and July.
The median has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 12 consecutive months, yanked lower by several factors: price depreciation; a shift toward more sales in the less-expensive inland markets; slower high-end sales; and buyers’ preference for lower-priced foreclosures.
Last month 47.6 percent of all homes that resold in the Bay Area had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months, up from 44.0 percent in October and 10.1 percent a year ago.
Visit DQNews.com for the full article.
Your Mortgage Minute - Bay Area - January 2008
On January - 13 - 2009
