We were talking in the car, the other day and my wife admitted to me that she was glad she listened to me a few years ago. We had refinanced our mortgage, and I wanted a variable loan, and she wanted a fixed rate loan.
The fixed rate seemed conservative, as the rates seemed likely to go back up. Our first loan was at 17%, so 7% seemed rather desirable. Currently our variable loan rate is in the low 4’s.
Speaking to my loan broker, Brian McNamara, -hmbloans @ aol.com- rates may be at an historic low in January. This coupled with the low cost of housing, the best I have seen in 20 years, makes the next few months look like an historic opportunity for buyers.
Brian tells me, “Rates for loans above $417,000k to 729,750k are very close in rate to the conforming loans below 417k”, but he says that qualifying is much tighter then the “bad” old days. “lenders want to see income and taxes, and minimum credit scores are higher”.
Still I wouldn’t own a house today, if I hadn’t taken the plunge, so long ago, i.e. 17%. And variable rate loans and “negative amortization” still hold a fond place in my heart.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
San Mateo County Housing Values Stabilizing
Zillow sent me the link below about average housing prices in Moss Beach since 2006. I thought it was interesting, because I had just made a similar chart from MLS statistics for my open house last weekend. http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Moss-Beach-home-value/r_53424/?scid=emm-101110_OctLocalPROClaim-bab
My chart is for the San Mateo Coastside so the data may be a little better; since the sampling is a larger slice of the pie, and I notice both curves show a leveling of values over the last few quarters.
Now I don’t really believe the average value (median) of housing in Moss Beach was ever 900k, which leads to the old notion of Lying with statistics. My data includes condos and places like Pacifica, which don’t always command the highest values. I have noticed over the course of time that often Moss Beach‘s average value is relatively higher then the rest of the Coastside.
I don’t believe that this means that a ‘70‘s build 2000 sq ft house in Moss Beach commands any more money then a similar one in HMB, but rather that since the sample is smaller, Moss Beach’s average values are more readily effected by a couple large ticket sales then other areas of the Coastside. Moss Beach has more cliff side, and acreage properties relative to more normal housing then other places on the Coastside.
I hope you find this interesting, and I want to express again that it appears the value of homes, not just on the Coastside, but throughout San Mateo County have leveled out, and appear to be stable, since early 2009.
My chart is for the San Mateo Coastside so the data may be a little better; since the sampling is a larger slice of the pie, and I notice both curves show a leveling of values over the last few quarters.
Now I don’t really believe the average value (median) of housing in Moss Beach was ever 900k, which leads to the old notion of Lying with statistics. My data includes condos and places like Pacifica, which don’t always command the highest values. I have noticed over the course of time that often Moss Beach‘s average value is relatively higher then the rest of the Coastside.
I don’t believe that this means that a ‘70‘s build 2000 sq ft house in Moss Beach commands any more money then a similar one in HMB, but rather that since the sample is smaller, Moss Beach’s average values are more readily effected by a couple large ticket sales then other areas of the Coastside. Moss Beach has more cliff side, and acreage properties relative to more normal housing then other places on the Coastside.
I hope you find this interesting, and I want to express again that it appears the value of homes, not just on the Coastside, but throughout San Mateo County have leveled out, and appear to be stable, since early 2009.
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