Should you buy a home in 2012? We love to listen to the news...what are others saying?

Click on the link below and listen to what is being said. Let's talk about how I can help you get the right home for you.

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Are home prices rising already? Time to make your move....

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Here's the best news you've heard in years about Bay Area real estate. A new report offers not just a glimmer of hope in California's housing market, but predicts a roaring comeback over the next six years. We could be poised for a dramatic comeback.

ABC7 spoke with the California director of the Economic Forecast and he's predicating a rise in home prices is going to be the convergence of a number of factors. He is suggesting that more jobs, fewer distressed properties, and those historic low interest rates will all play a role in this turnaround.

The same panel of economists who warned the California housing bubble was going to burst is now predicting homes prices are ready to rebound.

"I am absolute thrilled that we are finally coming out with something positive," said Cherie Colon from Windermere Real Estate.

UCLA economists are predicting a steady climb in the median price of existing California homes. The UCLA Anderson Forecast anticipates an 11.5 percent price jump next year. The forecast calls for another 10 percent increase in 2013 and a median price of nearly $440,000 by 2017 -- that would represent a 52 and a half percent increase over today's prices.

Mike Sibilia is president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. He said, "52 percent by 2017 for median price, that is aggressive, but we've seen it before, and what I like is the steady growth is what I like to see."

The National Bureau of Economic Recovery says the recession ended in June 2009, but the foreclosure crisis and high unemployment have weighed heavily on any recovery.

Now, Jean Haneke is seeing signs of life. She's looking to sell her home in Morgan Hill.

"There are houses that are closing in our area, there are good sales, we've seen statistics on it, and we're looking for that sort of thing as a seller," said Haneke.

Foreclosures still count for about one third of all home sales in California and bay Area prices are especially zip code driven, but the UCLA Anderson Forecast suggests as a whole, home prices have hit bottom.

"I think locally we have already seen the start of it in some markets, but also don't expect it all to come because there are still the statistics that show that we're probably not going to be at 2006 levels again for 10 years or more," said Colon.

While the UCLA economist predict double-digit increases in terms of home prices, they say that home sales will remain relatively flat, bouncing in the 3 to 5 percent range, with the most sales activity taking place between 2013 and 2015.

(Copyright ©2011 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

13,780 Homes Sold Yesterday

To all those who have declared the real estate market dead, we want you to know that over 13,780 houses sold yesterday, 13,780 will sell today and 13,780 will sell tomorrow.

That is the average number of homes that sell each and every day in this country according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) latest Existing Home Sales Report. NAR reported that sales had increased 7.7% over the month before and 18.6% over the year before. According to the report, annualized sales now stand at 5.03 million. Divide that number by 365 (days in a year) and we can see that, on average, well over 13,000 homes sell every day.

We realize that these numbers are below the record for homes sold in 2006. We also know that we may never see those numbers again (and that is probably a good thing). But to say that the current real estate market is dead or that houses are not selling is totally inaccurate.

It's the time to buy now!

Ok, I know many of us have been saying this for some time now, but when the news media starts saying it – well, I guess that makes people stand up and take notice. A number of recent articles in the national press are now saying that it might be the right time for consumers, who have largely been on the sidelines, to jump back into the housing market.

I understand why potential buyers, whether first-timers or move-up buyers, remain cautious given all the economic headwinds and bad news out there. Economic growth has been slow, the jobless rate too high, and don’t even get me started about the politics in Washington, the euro-zone debt problems and the challenges facing Greece.

But I often urge buyers to examine what I like to call your “personal economy.” That is, if you have a steady job, reasonable credit, and enough savings for a solid down payment, you might want to take a deep breath and think about taking the leap into the housing market while prices and interest rates are so low.

Read what two of the nation’s top business publications, Fortune magazine and The Wall Street Journal, are telling their readers:

“Forget stocks. Don't bet on gold. After four years of plunging home prices, the most attractive asset class in America is housing.”

- “Real estate: It’s time to buy again,” Fortune Magazine article by Shawn Tully.

“Two key measures now suggest it's an excellent time to buy a house, either to live in for the long term or for investment income.”

- “It’s Time to Buy that House,” The Wall Street Journal article by Jack Hough.

Tully in the Fortune piece interviewed Mike Castleman, founder and CEO of Metrostudy, who has spent more than 30 years tracking data on the inventory of new homes in the United States. Each quarter, inspectors go through 45,000 subdivisions from California to Maryland. According to Fortune, inspectors examine 5 million lots and record whether they contain a house under construction or completed.

What has Castleman observed? The glut of new homes that the U.S. had a few years ago at the peak of the market has rapidly disappeared. Instead, he told Tully that he has seen a rapidly declining inventory that could force prices higher. In the 41 cities Metrostudy looked at, there are just 78,000 houses vacant and for sale, or under construction – less than a quarter 343,000 units at the height of the market in 2006 and less than the total a decade ago.

"The talking heads who are down on real estate will hate to hear this, but America needs to build a lot more houses,” Fortune quoted Castleman as saying. “And in most markets the price of new homes is fixin' to rise, not fall."

Metrostudy collects figures on the number of homes that are vacant and for sale in each city, and the number of months it takes to sell all them to determine whether individual markets have a surplus or a shortage of homes. "If we had anything like normal levels of buying, those houses would sell in 2½ months," Castleman told Fortune. "We'd see an incredible shortage. And that's where we're heading."

Fortune says that consumers may be confused by conflicting news reports on the housing market, and that could be impacting their confidence in buying a home. On one hand, housing affordability has never been better. But on the other hand, they continue to see housing starts falling and home prices still heading down in some markets.

Tully said economists Robert Shiller and Karl Case, authors of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices, have different views about where we ware in the cycle. While Shiller remains pessimistic, Case is more optimistic that things are starting to turn around, telling Fortune that "the lack of new home building is a huge help that a lot of people are ignoring.”

In its analysis of the housing market, Fortune noted that it’s important to look at the economic fundamentals of home ownership to see where the market is headed. As home prices rose sharply over the past decade, Tully said the magazine warned that a bubble was forming due to the level of new construction and the cost of owning a home compared to renting one.

“Eventually reality set in, and prices plummeted,” Tully said. “Our current view focuses on those same fundamentals — only now they're pointing in the opposite direction,” Fortune noted. “So let's state it simply and forcibly: Housing is back.”

The Fortune article said what will drive the recovery of the housing market is a sharp drop in new home construction, as noted in the Metrostudy research, as well as a big drop in home prices. Home prices have fallen about 30% nationwide since 2006, Fortune said, and more than 50 percent in hardest hit markets. With unusually high affordability levels, the article noted, Americans will start returning to the market.

While no one can predict with certainty the future of home prices and sales volume, it is safe to say that a turnaround will eventually happen. Timing the market is very difficult because you will never know the absolute bottom until prices have started going back up again. My advice is to look closely at your own “personal economy” and talk with a professional Realtor to see if now might be a good time for you to take advantage of low prices and rates, and join others in taking the plunge into buying a home.

CALL ME TODAY AND LET'S TALK REAL ESTATE 408 676 9657

60 Days till 2012!!

Hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween yesterday!

Happy 1-11-11
This means that you have 60 days to become a new homeowner or to become a 1st time homeowner before 2012.


Call me today and let's talk about how I can help you with your most important asset.
408 67 My MLS (69657)

A Housing Slump Everywhere?

Housing remains mired in a slump in most of the country, with nearly one in four homeowners under water.
Are you drowning in debt? When did you make your last mortgage payment? Call me today and let me tell you how I can assist you with your real estate.

As gloomy as the most of the housing market may seem with all the short sales, REOs and foreclosures, a handful of bold investors are attempting to make millions on flips of high-end houses.

Do you know the current value of your home? Call me today for a FREE home market analysis of your home.

monica.manocha@gmail.com

A homeowner or landlord??

HOUSE TALK OCTOBER 7, 2011
Should a First-Time Buyer Be a Landlord?
By JUNE FLETCHER

Q. I am a single professional in my 20s who rents with a few roommates. I read your comments about how Austin is a good place to invest in property, given the volatility of the stock market. I, too, am considering it. I am thinking of buying a three-bedroom, $150,000 house in a good neighborhood. With help from my family, I can put 20% down. If I rent out the extra two rooms, the income will cover the property tax and mortgage. But I travel a lot for work and I am not sure whether my company will transfer me or if I even want to stay in this area. Should I do it?

--Austin, Texas

A. I applaud your desire to invest in your financial future. And landlords get generous tax breaks while collecting rental income. But from what you've told me, I recommend holding off buying a home.

Managing a property—which includes screening tenants, collecting rents, paying bills and keeping the lawn mowed—while you are traveling is difficult. But my bigger concern is that you are not sure if you are even going to stay in the area. Unless you buy a fixer upper at a discount, rehab it and resell it quickly, the only way to make money in real estate is to hold on to a property until it appreciates. Even though prices have been rising in Austin, you will need to stay in the area for at least a few years to recoup your costs on a market-rate house.




Developments: Mortgage Rates Fall Below 4%

As a homeowner and landlord, you will have many expenses besides taxes and a mortgage. Assuming you put 20% down on a $150,000 house in Austin, you will have to pay an estimated $4,938 in closing costs, according to Zillow's calculator. You also will have to budget for repairs and maintenance—expect to pay between 1% and 3% of the home's purchase price each year—as well as for repainting and freshening the rooms when tenants move out. You will need insurance, and if you have a homeowners association, you will have to pay dues. When you sell, you will have to pay a broker's commission, probably around 6% of the selling price, and some fix-up costs.

Rental income will help to defray these expenses, but you cannot depend on a steady stream. There will be periods when one or more of the rooms will be vacant, and you may have to shoulder some extra costs to evict someone who doesn't pay the rent. You should have about six months of mortgage payments in reserve to cover these possibilities. You also should have cash on hand to handle expensive emergencies, like a furnace that conks out in a cold snap. Since you will have to tap family funds for a down payment, it doesn't sound like you have enough of a cushion yet.

That doesn't mean that you should give up on the idea of owning property. Just postpone it until you know where you will live and are on a more solid financial footing. In the meantime, continue to familiarize yourself with various neighborhoods and properties, talk to lenders and work with a real estate agent who understands your situation. Then you will be in a position to act when you are ready to put down roots.

The Silicon Valley Housing Market Update

Sales of existing single-family Bay Area homes rose in August from the previous month and compared with a year ago, according to a report Friday. But part of the increase was attributed to August having more business days to record deals, and sales were below normal for the month, typically one of the busiest for home buying.
"Lower prices and lower mortgage rates have drawn more people off the sidelines" to buy homes, said Andrew LePage, a spokesman for DataQuick, the real estate information service that issued the report. "But there are still a lot of folks holding off waiting to see if prices have bottomed out so they don't buy and find themselves in the position of others who owe more on their home than it's worth."
A total of 1,183 existing single-family Santa Clara County homes were sold in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from July and up nearly 12 percent from a year ago. In Alameda County, the 1,079 homes sold represented an increase of 2 percent from July and about 7 percent from a year ago. Contra Costa County's 1,210 sales were up about 10 percent from July and 12 percent year over year.
The median price of homes sold in August was up slightly from July in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties, but sagged a bit in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Joaquin counties, and was unchanged Bay Area-wide compared with a year ago.
The median price in August was $561,750 in Santa Clara County, $399,000 in Alameda County
Advertisement and $280,000 in Contra Costa County.

Many real-estate agents based in Cupertino, are encouraged by what they are seeing. They noted that five developers recently submitted bids on a Sunnyvale parcel of land in hopes of building new homes there. In addition, they are seeing a rise in the price of entry-level homes in Palo Alto, Cupertino and West San Jose -- areas that had been among the last to succumb to falling prices when the housing market tanked in 2008.

"I definitely am seeing improvement," Walker said. "Buyers are feeling more confident" about entering the market.
Sonia Dueñas and her husband bought a five-bedroom house in West San Jose in August for $810,000 after deciding "the time was right" for their family to move up from their townhome north of the city's downtown.
"It was a combination of things" that prompted the purchase, Dueñas said. "We felt comfortable with the interest rates, we qualified for the property without any issues, we were looking for certain things in a home, and it just happened to be the right one."
Besides, she added, "I have a boy and girl, and they were still sharing a room, so it was time to make a change."
But not everyone is finding it easy to get into the market. Robin Dickson, who works in the Danville office of J. Rockliff Realtors, said many mid-range buyers are having a tough time.
"The high end is becoming a little more solid, and the low-low-end investors are everywhere," she said. "But the difficulty in obtaining financing is really affecting the move-up buyers."
Because a lot of people, even with good credit, can't qualify to get a mortgage, cash is king, Dickson said. She said cash deals in her office are up about 30 percent compared with last year. She added that many buyers are looking at Brentwood and Oakley for housing options because, "you can buy so much more house for a lot less."
Kevin Kieffer, of Keller Williams Realty, said he is getting 20 to 25 calls a week from investors looking to buy low-end properties, mostly in Concord and Martinez.
"With what's going on in the stock market, people are looking for other ways to invest in property," he said.
However, some high-end home buyers are facing difficulties, too.
Sean Ryan, an entrepreneur specializing in software, two months ago paid $1.2 million in cash for a five-bedroom Danville house. But when he recently sold his previous home nearby, he said, it closed at about a 5 percent loss.
"We bought the new house with the understanding we could sell the existing home, but the market turned out to be a little more difficult than we thought it would be," he said.
Despite August's uptick in sales, "I don't think it means we're on a rebound," said Jeff Hansen, who handles home sales in Santa Clara County for Keller Williams Realty. But he added that it's hard to draw conclusions from just one month.
Comparing June through August, this summer's sales don't look too impressive. Santa Clara County had 3,573 single-family home transactions during the three-month period this year, which was 20 more than during 2010 and 227 more than in 2008. But over the past decade, the number of sales averaged 4,796, said DataQuick spokesman LePage, who believes the weak economy, political wrangling in Washington and worries about the nation's debt have caused many potential homebuyers to hold off venturing into the market.
"In a historical context, it's been a very slow summer," he said. And judging from the August sales data, "it definitely didn't finish with a bang."

The housing market is like temperatures!!

Bay Area Housing Market Heating up Along with Summer Temperatures

Maybe we just had a late spring. That’s one possible explanation for what we’re seeing in the Bay Area housing market. Normally, the real estate market picks up in March, April and May and then takes a breather over the summer for vacations, graduations, weddings and other activities. But this year it seems like that’s being reversed.
After a modest spring, the local housing market has been heating up this summer with strong sales in June and even into July in many areas. Sales activity has been especially robust in the higher end of our markets – over $1 million in much of the Bay Area and $2 million and up in San Francisco. But even the mid-level market was surprisingly active (more on that below).
As I was combing through last month’s sales figures, I noticed an interesting trend: In most of our Bay Area markets in June we had the highest level of million-dollar home sales since the summer of 2008. You might recall that was just weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent the financial markets into a tailspin and pushed our economy into the “Great Recession.” Now, three full years later, we’re seeing a much brighter picture for the local housing market.
Silicon Valley – There were a whopping 284 million-dollar home sales in June, up from 230 the previous month and the highest level the region has seen since June of 2008. The very high end of the market – those homes over $2 million – saw sales spike to 52 from 36 a year ago;
Clearly, the Bay Area’s relatively strong economy – especially the robust tech sector ­– is playing a key role in our housing market. As Inman News put it in a Friday article, “Tech is back -- and tiptoeing along behind it, at least by some measures, is the San Francisco-area real estate market.”
“Indeed, technology-based industry -- which drove Bay Area home prices to fabled levels during the headiest days of the housing boom -- seems to have found its legs,” Inman reported. At the end of 2010, San Francisco had an estimated 30,700 tech jobs, compared with the 32,800 at the peak of its tech boom in 2001, according to an analysis by real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
This all is not to suggest the housing market is completely out of the woods. Real estate is very much a local business. And while many of our markets are on the mend, others are still softer than they were a few years ago. And there still is an overhang of distressed properties that will continue to come on the market as bank owned REO sales in the months ahead.
While we take quite serious the nation’s fragile economy, and most recently the stalled talks to come to terms with our national debt limit, we can be thankful for the Bay Area real estate activity that continues to move forward. We are fortunate to live and work where we do. The limited housing stock, diverse job base, incredible universities, and great weather are all factors that help homebuyers focus on these terrific home values and low mortgage rates.
Silicon Valley – The best homes are getting lots of offers. Our Cupertino office says the majority of its sales are multiple offers. Seems like we are having a delayed spring. New single-family home listings in good areas of Los Altos, Mountain View and Sunnyvale are getting multiple offers and selling up to 15% over asking price, according to our Los Altos manager. Activity has increased recently in the Los Gatos area with more properties seeing multiple offers. Well-priced homes are continuing to sell at a quick pace while not so well priced homes continue to languish. Our San Jose Almaden office says a number of price reductions have led the way toward sales over the last week. Prices overall are not going up, but in fact appear to have dipped a bit. Multiple offers still abound for the “good deal.” In the San Jose Willow Glen area, open houses are pretty busy and sales have been steady. The Saratoga market seems to be steady. One home listed in Saratoga for $1.5 million received 18 offers and was bid up astronomically.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the summer weather, and have a great week!

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Bay Area housing market: It’s all about location

It’s an old real estate adage, but it couldn’t be truer today. When it comes to the health of the Bay Area (and the rest of the country, for that matter), the three most important rules for the housing market are location, location and location.

As readers of this column know by now, the upper end of the Bay Area market has fared relatively well in recent years while entry-level and mid-priced communities around the Bay have struggled far more to recover from the recessionary downturn.

I talked about this disparity in an interview with the San Jose Mercury for an article that was published on Sunday. As the Mercury noted, housing prices in many affluent cities in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula are nearing their pre-recession highs while other working-class communities have a long ways to go in their recovery.

One reason for this trend, as I pointed out to reporters, is that more-expensive markets never saw home prices drop as sharply as the areas with more subprime lending and subsequent foreclosures. Lower-priced communities had more marginal buyers, many of whom also made zero or small down payments. More of those buyers also took out resetting adjustable loans.

On the other side of the coin, residents and potential buyers in high-end communities generally haven’t been impacted by the overall economic downturn as much as homeowners in other areas. In Silicon Valley in particular, the strength of the tech industry and the growing number of successful start-ups and initial public offerings have created a tremendous number of affluent, well-capitalized buyers who are bidding up prices of a limited number of homes.

Because home prices in affluent communities never dropped as much as those in entry-level markets, these cities have less ground to make up in recovering from the downturn. Palo Alto’s median sale price, for example, is off about 12 percent from its peak in 2008 while the median in several low-to-middle income markets is still down nearly 50 percent, according to the news report.

Two of the largest Bay Area cities with a diverse mix of housing are recovering, albeit not quite as fast as Silicon Valley, according to the reports. San Francisco’s median sale price is about 22 percent below its 2007 peak while San Jose is 36 percent below its high-water mark. It’s important to note the sheer size of San Jose and San Francisco populations reflect diverse housing and incomes, compared to a small upscale community such as Palo Alto or Hillsborough. The same would hold true for Sausalito’s recovery versus County of Marin, for example. The smaller the community, the quicker median prices can move in either direction with just a few sales. In the East Bay, prices are rebounding faster in high-end communities like Orinda, Lafayette and San Ramon. Never before has the role of the local real estate professional been more important to help customers understand all the data available and sort through the appropriate comparable properties when home shopping or selling.

The market figures came from DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate information service. DataQuick compared quarterly median prices for single-family resale homes in 74 Bay Area cities since 2007 for stories that ran in the Mercury, Oakland Tribune and several other Bay Area news organizations.

According to MLS: Greater Bay Area Housing Market News

Greater Bay Area Housing Market Report

More Articles

For economists, poor jobs and housing data indicate a slowing economic recovery. For homebuyers, the news means lower prices and better mortgage interest rates. As of June 2011, qualified homebuyers - those with excellent credit and with funds available for down payments – couldn’t be in a better position to buy a home.

Prices are at their lowest since 2002, according to the Q-1 2011 S&P/Case-Shiller Index. Since 2006, prices have fallen 33%, greater than the 31% decline recorded during the Great Depression. According to the National Association of REALTORS, the national median existing-home price for all housing types was $163,700 in April, 5.0 percent lower than in April 2010. Distressed homes, which sell at a discount of approximately 20%, were 37% of sales, up from 33% a year ago.

Believe it or not, there’s good news hidden in the numbers. Analysts at Capital Economics say housing has actually overcorrected, and is undervalued by approximately 24%. Paul Dales, U.S. analyst, reports that currently U.S. housing is undervalued by approximately 24%, the lowest amount in 35 years. For that reason, he predicts that the housing slide is nearing its end. Foreclosures, which have pressured both prices and real estate appraisals for non-distressed homes, are still high -- but are leveling off. RealtyTrac says that U.S. foreclosure filings were down 9% in April 2011 from March, and down 34% from a year ago.

It takes confidence to buy a home. On June 3, 2011, the government reported that the jobless rate rose from 9.0% to 9.1%, a reversal of three months of earlier gains, which is likely to continue to keep the distressed home pipeline full for months to come. The news has sent mortgage interest rates plummeting. After a seven-week slide, the Freddie Mac survey announced on June 3, 2011 that the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.55%, down from 4.60% the prior week and 4.79% a year ago.

California
Like the rest of the nation, California home sales also declined in April 2011 from the previous month, but were up 5% over a year ago. And, unlike the national trend, home prices actually increased. The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home sold in California rose 2.5 percent in April to $293,570, up from a revised $286,510 in March, says the California Association of REALTORS (C.A.R.).

The combination of an average 4.8% fixed-rate plus prices well below the peak of 2006, point to improved housing affordability. The percentage of buyers who could afford to buy the median-priced, single-family home rose to 53% in Q1-2011, up from 50% in Q4 2010, according to C.A.R.’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index (HAI). All eyes are on the White House proposal to eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to reduce the high-cost-area conforming loan limit from the temporary $729,750 to a permanent $625,500. It’s unknown whether or not the pending rule will temporarily boost housing sales in high-cost areas such as the Greater Bay Area, as buyers try to close their loans before the temporary ceiling is removed at the end of September 2011.

Local Sales Trends – May 2011
Locally, according to MLSListings May 2011 County Indicators Report, home sales and inventory figures mirrored elements of both the regional and national pictures, but this market appears to be charting its own course. While overall performance in Monterey, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties fell compared to the same time last year, month-over-month changes are indicating some positive signs.

Closed sales in May dropped in four of the five counties from the same month last year. Santa Clara County had the largest drop at 21%, while San Mateo and Monterey each dropped by 15%. San Benito sales were down 8%, and San Mateo remained flat.

Compared to last month, sales increased 15% in San Mateo County, 4% in both Monterey and San Benito, dropped 3% in Santa Clara and remained flat in Santa Cruz.

Inventory increased or remained flat from the same month last year in all five counties except Monterey and Santa Cruz, where they were down 6% and 4% respectively. San Benito inventory was up 6%, San Mateo up 1%, while Santa Clara remained flat.

Compared to last month, inventory increased or remained flat in all counties. Inventory was up 8% in Santa Cruz, 4% in Monterey, 3% in San Mateo, and remained flat in both San Benito and Santa Clara.

New Listings compared to the same month last year dropped 15% in Monterey, 1% in Santa Clara, but increased 18% in San Benito, 2% in Santa Cruz, and just 1% in San Mateo.

Compared to last month, listings were up 18% in Santa Cruz, 8% in Monterey, 1% in both San Benito and Santa Clara, and decreased 4% in San Mateo.

Median Price dropped in four of the five counties compared to the same month last year. The largest drop occurred in Santa Cruz at 16%, San Benito was down 6%, Monterey down 5%, Santa Clara down 4%, and San Mateo showed the only increase at 10%.

Compared to last month, coupled with strong sales, San Mateo’s median price rose 14%, San Benito was up 6%, Santa Clara up 3%, while Monterey dropped 3% along with Santa Cruz which was down 2%.

Days on Market increased substantially from the same month last year in all counties except in Santa Cruz. DOM increased 84% in San Benito, 49% in San Mateo, 32% in Santa Clara, 13% in Monterey, and dropped 15% in Santa Cruz.

Compared to last month, days on market increased 35% in San Benito and 6% in San Mateo. DOM dropped 24% in Santa Cruz, 14% in Santa Clara, and 3% in Monterey.

Mortgage rates flat after hitting yearly low

Mortgage rates flat after hitting yearly low
By Derek Kravitz


Fixed mortgage rates stayed roughly flat after falling for eight weeks.

The average rate on the 30-year loan ticked up from a yearly low of 4.49 percent to 4.50 percent, Freddie Mac said Thursday. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinance option, fell to 3.67 percent from 3.68 percent. That's a low for the year.

Rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The 10-year yield has been dropping as fears over that economic recovery is slowing.

Most people can't take advantage of the low mortgage rates because they can't meet tougher lending requirements. And many who could afford to refinance likely did so last year, when rates fell to their lowest levels in decades.

Sales of new and previously occupied homes rose in April. But sales are well below healthy levels as waves of foreclosures have pushed prices down. Many would-be buyers are holding off, worried that prices have yet to bottom out.

And prices are expected to keep falling until the glut of foreclosures for sale is reduced, companies start hiring in greater numbers, banks ease up on their tougher lending rules and more people think it makes sense to buy a house again. In some areas of the country, that could take years.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a sigle day.


Let's set a time to talk today about how these mortgage rates can help you with your real estate dreams?


Call Monica @ 408 399 1495

Recovering Housing Market?

http://cbnctabletalk.wordpress.com/

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-7 Highest-Performing Major Housing Markets

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-7 Highest-Performing Major Housing Markets

San Jose Summary

The median sales price for homes in San Jose CA for Nov 10 to Jan 11 was $393,713. This represents a decline of 2.2%, or $8,802, compared to the prior quarter and an increase of 0.8% compared to the prior year. Sales prices have depreciated 37.5% over the last 5 years in San Jose. The average listing price for San Jose homes for sale on Trulia was $481,225 for the week ending Feb 02, which represents an increase of 2.6%, or $12,391, compared to the prior week and an increase of 3%, or $14,009, compared to the week ending Jan 12. Average price per square foot for San Jose CA was $289, a decrease of 1.7% compared to the same period last year.
Popular neighborhoods in San Jose include Willow Glen, Evergreen, Edenvale, Alum Rock, Berryessa, and North San Jose.

Silicon Valley home sales slump continues in December

Silicon Valley's home sales slump continued in December, with both the number of transactions and median prices in Santa Clara County down from a year earlier.

The number of single-family houses that changed hands was down 9.9 percent last month from December 2009, San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported today. The median price dropped 1.7 percent to $517,000.

The volume of condo sales fell 7.1 percent, and the median price was down 11.6 percent to $294,250.

The market in Silicon Valley reflected trends throughout the Bay Area, where real estate transactions were "dominated by distress sales," with move-up buying put on hold, DataQuick reported.

"While the dicey economy and employment concerns are major factors, tight mortgage credit is also a big issue right now, especially for the upper half of the market," DataQuick President John Walsh said in a news release.

"There's a lot of pent-up supply and demand out there, which will start to meet when the lenders reopen their spigots a turn or two," Walsh said.


Real Estate

California median home prices dip in DecemberHome sales hit 13-year low; slow recovery aheadMortgage rates: Average on 30-year fixed loans rises to 4.74 percentU.S. home sales: 2010 was weakest year since 19972010 was 2nd-worst year for home construction in half-centuryHome sales: Southern California median price flat in DecemberRent increases on the way, analysts sayMortgage rates: Average on 30-year fixed home loan dips to 4.71%


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