If you registered your phone number on the Do Not Call List, it may be up for renewal. The numbers stay on for 5 years and if you don’t renew, your number is fair game for telesales people.
It’s easy to renew for another 5 years. Go to www.donotcall.gov and enter up to 3 numbers. You’ll get an email for each number you enter. Click on the link and you’re renewed until 2012. Takes just a few minutes so click on the link above so you don’t have to worry about it again for another 5 years!
I’ve been working with computers for awhile. If you count the years I was programming with punchcards in my computer science classes at Cal Poly, it’s now over 27 years. While I’ve tried many software programs over the years, I have my favorites. One of these is Roboform (www.roboform.com). This program allows you to save logins you define on different websites and then login in for you when you revist them. This allows you to use different passwords on websites. Chances are you may be using on main password for all your logins, and you may have been using that one for many years! The account information with roboform is stored encrypted on your harddrive and you do need to enter in a master password each time you want to use the login. Another nice feature is you can store form information. For example, I register a lot of domain names so I have a form for GoDaddy.com so I don’t have to fill out all my name, address, phone number, etc. every time. It’s a big timesaver!
You can try the program for free. Check it out!!
If you’ve ever traveled in the Bay Area and crossed the Benicia Bridge, you’ve probably seen the mothball fleet of old war ships that have been there for 40+ years. They were looking to get rid of these and it looks like they may have found a home for at least 2 of them. According to the Tribune, officials are working on the paperwork to sink one ship west of Avila Beach and the other one near Morro Bay. The reason is to create a fish habitat which would attract divers and more tourist dollars.
Real estate advertising in Newspapers continues to decline. This is from the recent earnings press release from McClatchy newspapers-
“Gary Pruitt, chairman and chief executive officer of McClatchy said, “As we anticipated at the time we released our second quarter earnings, we have seen continued declines in real estate advertising, particularly in the California and Florida newspapers.”
As I blogged last month, the latest California Association of Realtors survey showed fewer and fewer Buyers (4%) are looking at newspapers for real estate and are looking at the Internet instead (72% of Buyers).
SloCountyHomes.com continues to grow. In fact, of the 69 properties that closed last week in the entire County (homes and lots), 6 of those Buyers used SloCountyHomes.com and the Keith Byrd Team of Realtors!!
Ryan’s Mortgage Blog:
Well the talk of the week is obviously the Fed cutting the target on the key short-term interest rate by half of a percentage point this week to 4.75%. This was a move that proved the Federal Reserve is worried about the Mortgage industry. They also cut its discount rate by another half of a point to 5.25 percent and indicated more cuts may come sooner than later. The stock market welcomed these cuts and jumped up 330 points following the announcement.
These cuts are supposed to help ease some of the worries/problems that nervous banks have had. It is supposed to stimulate more lending/borrowing and help ease some of the tension, but it is not a one-time cure. There are still major credit problems that many people face that aren’t fixable in the short-term. Because of the recent problems with bad loans and foreclosures a new equation needs be formed for the mortgage industry in regards to guidelines. By the feds cutting rates and maybe doing it one more time, this should make money “easier” to get for consumers than it has been over the last several months. BUT banks can’t fall back into lending to “questionable” borrowers. The right equation I am talking about needs to consist of a decent credit score/credit history and a reasonable down payment (or equity for refinances).
There are always two sides to the coin and Randy Plankey from Astoria Federal sent out an email this morning to his clients (mortgage brokers) and I will post a couple of key points so you can see it for yourself. “The rate cuts are turning into a negative for treasuries and mortgages, and rates are going to be up this morning. The fact that the Fed has abandoned the inflation fight in a desperate attempt to buoy the economy is seen as inflationary and weakening the dollar. Stocks are up, and so are commodities prices. The 10yr is up to 4.60% this morning. Consumers over the past several years think they can simply follow core interest rates and the bond market and that makes them ‘smart’ as it relates to their ability to predict where mortgage rates may or may not be on any given day. Because they don’t truly understand market dynamics in general, this particular cycle of liquidity issues and a Fed cut resulting in higher fixed interest rates probably has their collective heads spinning.”
So as you can see this cut may or may not be a god thing depending on your stance or situation.
If you have any questions regarding your current mortgage I would gladly answer any questions you have. You can reach me at 805-540-0866 or RBaker@PeregrineLending.com
It’s interesting that with the housing boom, I didn’t see too many people sharing what their crystal ball said but not so now that the market is in decline. The link below is one analysts prediction on what will happen to home prices. They think Santa Barbara will have one of the biggest declines in median home prices (-25.9%).
(thanks to Ron for sending me the link!)
I updated the Just Sold Reports just now for residential, multi-family, and lots/land.
http://www.slocountyhomes.com/just_sold.htm
Here is the average of % of List Price from the last few residential reports:
8/30- 9/16 – 189 solds – 94.92% of last List Price
8/18 – 8/29 – 77 solds – 96.34%
8/2 – 8/17 – 187 solds – 96.03%
7/24 – 8/1 – 124 solds – 95.91%
7/15-7/23 – 89 solds – 96.13%
7/7 – 7/14 – 61 solds – 95.67%
7/2 – 7/6 – 42 solds – 97.48%
6/24 – 7/1 – 117 solds – 96.13%
