Getting prequalified for a home loan is an essential first step in the buying process. Find out exactly how much home you can afford based on your income, debt, and other factors. It can also help you lock in a good interest rate and it puts you in a stronger bargaining position with the seller once you find the home you want.
Laguna Niguel listings: 35% distressed homes By JONATHAN LANSNER, OC REGISTER, 1/31/2012 Home-buying in Laguna Niguel sped up 14% in two weeks — with one-third of the local listings being distressed homes. Here’s what the latest report — as of January 19 — details about Laguna Niguel … Real estate for sale in Laguna Niguel [...]
Here’s what’s happening and what it means to home loan rates:
What is happening and why? To put it bluntly, the passage of the payroll tax cut extension is being funded via a mandate to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the nation’s largest providers of mortgage money) to increase their guarantee fees or “g-fee’s” by at least 10 basis points on the rate. So rather than giving a par rate of 4.00%, for example, the par rate is now increased by at least 10 basis points, or approximately 4.10%. But as you probably know…home loan rates are priced and offered in .125% increments, so this will most likely impact the consumer by .125% in rate. Whether you agree or not on the politics behind this cost being passed along to folks who are taking out mortgages, the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the increase will ultimately pay for about $35.7 Billion of the cost of the payroll tax extension.
A short sale has the same impact as a foreclosure. When the bank or lender reports your short sale to the credit bureaus, they generally treat both the foreclosure and the short sale as a delinquency. The credit bureaus, in turn, submit their information to Fair Isaac & Company, the people that compile the FICO [...]
In This Issue Last Week in Review:Consumers are feeling good, but how good was last week’s news?Forecast for the Week:It’s a holiday shortened week, but the economic calendar is full. News on manufacturing, inflation, and housing is ahead.View: Wondering what the housing trends for 2012 will be? Check out 11 trends we saw in 2011. [...]
Kurt Galitski Selected For “Orange County 2010 Real Estate Agents Who Provide Exceptional Service & Overall Satisfaction For Two Consecutive Years” Kurt Galitski of Costa Mesa, CA has been honored with a recognition by Orange Coast Magazine in its selection of “Orange County 2010 Real Estate Agents.” Costa Mesa, CA (PR NewsWire) January 17, 2012– Announcing [...]
OC Register, Jeff Collins January 13th, 2012 A former housing market skeptic has become a housing market booster, telling a gathering of real estate insiders Thursday that now is “a great time to buy a home.” Chris Thornberg, a former UCLA economist and a founding principal of Beacon Economics, once derided the National Association of [...]
Last Week in Review:Unemployment hit a three-year low. How did Bonds and home loan rates react?
Forecast for the Week: The second half of the week will be a busy one, with news on retail sales, consumer sentiment, and more.
View: Want some help keeping your New Year’s Resolutions? There’s an app for that!
Costa Mesa real estate for sale looks up recently. For the 22 business days ending November 8 — latest DataQuick stats — 70 residences sold in Costa Mesa vs. 52 deals closed in the matching period a year ago — a 34.6% increase over the past 12 months.
At the community level, for this period …
• In ZIP 92626 — median selling price of $485,750 that was down 7.5% vs. a year ago. Homes sold were 39 — that was up 77.3% vs. a year ago.
• ZIP 92627 — median selling price of $375,000 that was down 16.7% vs. a year ago. Homes sold were 31 — that was up 3.3% vs. a year ago.
Compare those trends with countywide data for the same period: Median selling price of $409,000 that was down 7.0% vs. a year ago. Homes sold in Orange County totaled 2,504 — down 1.7% vs. a year ago.
Also…
• Costa Mesa home sales were 2.8% of the countywide market in the latest period vs. 2.0% in the year-ago period.
• Of Costa Mesa ‘s 2 ZIP codes, both had sales gains vs. a year ago while none had a gain in their median selling price vs. a year ago.
• This year, 92626 was 56% of the Costa Mesa market in terms of home sales; 42% a year ago.
• Both of these 2 Costa Mesa ZIP codes beat the down 7.0% overall performance of the countywide median selling price for the past year.
