Affordability Index has been dropping in Santa Clara county. California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) measures First-time Buyer Housing Affordability Index (FTB-HAI) on a quarterly basis. This measures the percentage of households that can afford to purchase an entry-level home in California. The higher the index, more affordable it is for a first time buyer to […]
Effective immediately, FHA has rescinded the second appraisal requirements for properties located in San Jose and rest of the Bay Area (Considered declining markets). For Bay area borrowers where loan amounts can generally exceed $417,000 2nd appraisal requirement was a problem on 2 counts: Increased fees towards appraisal (2 appraisals hence double the fees) Danger […]
Fannie Mae announced a program called “First Look” which will help First Time Home Buyers compete with investors for foreclosed homes in San Jose and rest of the Bay Area. Under the program, dubbed First Look, Fannie plans to consider offers only from potential owner-occupants and certain public-housing entities during the first 15 days in […]
Home sales jumped in October, rising far more than expected as First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit offset fears about joblessness. Sales of existing homes increased by 10.1% to a 6.10 million annual rate from 5.54 million in September, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Monday. Total housing inventory at the end of October […]
The week that was: Oct retail sales were +1.4% overall and ex autos +0.2%. Retail sales are increasingly of interest to markets as we move into Christmas shopping ( the politically correct reference is Holiday shopping). NY Empire State manufacturing data; the overall index declined to 23.51 from 34.57 in October. Housing starts crumbled like […]
The week that was: Not much in the way of economic measurements last week; it was a four day week for the bond and mortgage markets with Veteran’s Day falling on Wednesday. Weekly MBA mortgage applications index was +3.2% from last week; it was all re-finances, its index up 11.3% while purchase applications dropped a […]
This update contains the temporary changes to the FHA Condo Approval Process for San Jose and rest of the Bay Area as outlined in Mortgage Letter 2009-46 B. Here are the 6 things you need to know about these changes: 1. These temporary changes are effective on December 7th, 2009 through December 31st 2010; except […]
The Week that was: After the dust settled interest rates ended the week about unchanged from the previous week; the stock market gained on continued better data from manufacturing and services sectors (DJIA +311). Two events marked the week: The FOMC policy statement on Wednesday and Friday’s employment report. The Fed in the statement at […]
President Obama signed the congressional resolution extending through 2010 the current conforming loan limits of $417,000 for most areas in the U.S. and $729,750 for high-cost areas, including San Jose. The counties of Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo, San Francisco & Contra Costa in the Bay Area will have the maximum loan amount at $729,750.Yesterday […]
