Low Mortgage Rates in Bay Area Not Easy to Get
Bay Area mortgages have gotten all dressed up but they have nowhere to go because many prospective borrowers can’t qualify.
Average rates for home loans have plunged below 5 percent for the first time on record, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. But squeamish lenders, the credit squeeze, intensified scrutiny and shrunken staffing for the finance industry have coalesced to hamper consumers on the hunt for a mortgage.
“The meltdown in the mortgage industry has caused a knee-jerk reaction from lenders and underwriters,” said Ginny Ferguson, president of Pleasanton-based Heritage Valley Mortgage. “We are getting loans done. But they are closing at a snail’s pace.”
Sonoma County home sales surged again in December as plummeting prices drew buyers into a market packed with properties unloaded by banks and sellers avoiding foreclosure.
The 408 sales was a four-year high for December, the ninth consecutive annual increase in the county and more than double the number from a year ago, according to The Press Democrat monthly home sales report.
Yet prices fell to a seven-year low, indicating the region’s housing downturn is far from a bottom. The median price dropped to $325,000 in December, down 30.3 percent from a year ago, because purchases continue to be concentrated at lower prices.
For the Brave, the Moment is Now
WHILE the Titans of Wall Street now tremble at the thought of buying an apartment in this faltering real estate market, an emerging group of buyers is brave enough to look the Cyclops of uncertainty in the eye and begin shopping and even sign purchase contracts.
Many of these buyers have never received a fat bonus check, so they don’t miss it now. They did not suffer huge stock market losses, because they didn’t have huge stock market investments. They aren’t mourning the loss of value in their existing co-ops or condos, because they have never owned one.
They have jobs and good credit ratings, and they are looking to buy.
And now, brokers say, these mostly first-time homeowners are taking advantage of reduced apartment prices and interest rates that have fallen to the lowest levels in a generation. They’re making deals — sometimes far below asking price — on apartments marketed for under $1 million, and especially under $500,000.
Cost Plus to Close in Vallejo, Only Bay Area Closure
Cost Plus Inc. today announced its store in Vallejo will be the only Bay Area location among 26 the Oakland-based specialty retailer plans to close nationwide to trim costs.
The company has five Cost Plus World Market locations in the North Bay, including stores in Santa Rosa, Napa, Greenbrae, Vallejo and Fairfield. The store at 105 Plaza Drive in Vallejo is among 26 “underperforming” stores Cost Plus on Friday said it would close next fiscal year, which begins in February.
Keeping the House Makes for a Messy Divorce
Splitting up after years of marriage? Divorce your house, then your spouse.
That bit of advice goes against the almost universal desire to hang on to the family home, especially by the spouse who ends up with custody of the children.
“If you’re still linked through the house, then you’re not really divorced,” says Kelly Lise Murray, a Harvard-trained lawyer and Nashville real estate agent.
People tend to underestimate the true cost of homeownership, drastically overstating the remaining spouse’s ability to afford the place, Murray says.
Even in a friendly divorce, certain key expenses are overlooked. Lawn care, homeowners association fees, even the basic costs of maintenance are among the costs that are rarely considered, either by the courts or the splitting spouses.
Developer Harold “Hal” Ellis, Jr. Dies
Harold “Hal” Ellis Jr., an iconic Bay Area developer who dramatically reshaped downtown Oakland, died Tuesday in his Piedmont home after a five-year battle with metastatic melanoma. He was 77.
“We have lost a giant in our industry,” said James Falaschi, a business partner with Mr. Ellis for the last decade and longtime friend. “There’s not a person in the real estate industry in the area who doesn’t have some debt to Hal for all the leadership that he brought.”
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | bay area, Cost Plus, divorce, Ellis, prices, Sonoma, Vallejo
