FHA Conforming Loan Limits Raised Back to $729,750

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Last week, Congress passed a bill raising the FHA upper limit for Los Angeles and other “high cost” areas back to $729,750 and President Obama signed it into law on Friday.  However, whereas before the expiration of the upper loan limits, these loan limits applied to all GSE loans including Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and… Read More

Chief Economist Discusses 2011 Housing Market

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On Thursday last, I had the privilege of taking one of my clients and my assistant to hear the Chief Economist of the California Association of Realtors, Leslie Appleton-Young, speak about the 2011 Housing Market, especially about Los Angeles County and the South Bay. I’ve heard Ms. Appleton-Young several times before and, as usual, she… Read More

How does a Short Sale affect my FICO score?

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How does a short sale affect a person’s credit score? Now, new research indicates that the changes, though significant, may not be as bad as you think. This article from the company that does FICO scores, shows the result of recent research. As shown in the article, a lot of it depends on what your… Read More

Market Update Beach Cities and Palos Verdes Sales Price Trends June 2011

The market trends are looking positive for a change. Here is the chart showing the last year’s worth of data from the three Beach cities of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. As shown, the average price is finally starting to go back up a bit, although the trend is too new to call… Read More

Interest rates are ridiculous right now

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At this morning’s sales team meeting, Grant Norris from RPM Mortgage talked about new loan programs that can get loans of about 5 percent with 5 percent down, and in some cases even lower, more like about 4.5 percent. They have some programs for Jumbo loans up to $979,750 that require only 10 percent down,… Read More

FHA Home Loan Limits in So Cal May Decrease

As discussed in this Wall Street Journal article, the FHA loan product that has been a large part of the real estate recovery in Southern California may be changing and not for the better.  The current upper end loan limit of $729,750 may expire in October and be reduced back to the previous upper limit… Read More

Government support for the 30 year mortgage may be waning

As discussed in this article from the New York Times, the government’s goal to eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may end up making the 30 year mortgage a thing of the past.  Because the government assumes the risk associated with the mortgages that have long been provided to the middle class by Fannie Mae… Read More

California Association of Realtors Speaks Up for Mortgage Deduction

This news release from the California Association of Realtors (CAR) expresses CAR’s strong support for continuation of the Mortgage Interest Deduction.  CAR President Beth L. Peerce said: “A reduced government presence in the mortgage market will raise the cost of homeownership and make mortgages less available. Moreover, Congress needs to understand that during economic downturns,… Read More

Mortgage Money Getting Tighter — Now is the Time to Act

As discussed in this article from the Wall Street Journal on Friday, mortgage rates are rising and there is some concern that mortgage availability may be impacted as well.  FHA loans may start requiring at least a 10 percent down payment, leaving the days of 3.5% down in the dust.  This is a real concern… Read More

RPM Mortgage Forecast, Part 2

Yesterday we talked about Rob Hirt’s presentation about what went wrong.  Rob also went through his predictions for this year (about 2/3 correct, but even on the ones he wasn’t right on he was mostly close) and then finally gave us his predictions for 2011: Rob says the shape of the economic recovery will not… Read More

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