Ryan Baker’s Mortgage Blog
What a great time of year….beautiful weather and you can watch any major sport you want right now since they are all active…oh and an election for the ages coming up.
For today’ blog I included a list of reason’s why you might want to pay more than your monthly minimum mortgage payment.
- You want to reduce expenses as much as possible so you can put more money into your retirement fund.
- You plan to move in a few years and will need cash for your next home – for closing costs or for a down payment. Applying more money towards your mortgage balance will increase equity, which can be converted to cash if needed.
- Currently, you do not receive a tax break on your mortgage interest. If your mortgage is small, your interest may not exceed the standard deduction the IRS gives non-itemizing taxpayers. Without that tax break, the actual cost of your mortgage is higher.
- You pay private mortgage insurance (PMI). If you have less than 20 percent of equity in your home, making extra payments will build more equity sooner, allowing you to cancel your PMI. And eliminating PMI will reduce your monthly payments.
Feel free to shoot me an email with any mortgage related questions at RBaker@PeregrineLending.com
Mortgage Rate Chart
If you scroll down this blog page, you’ll see a new mortgage rate chart at the bottom of the right column. This chart provides current rates and tracks the rates over the past few months.
Diablo Canyon has a Jellyfish Problem
I found this AP story and I thought I’d post it here since I didn’t find it on any of our local newspaper and TV news sites….
AVILA BEACH, Calif.—An influx of jellyfish has forced the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to operate on reduced power.
The PG&E-owned plant, which is on the coast near San Luis Obispo, uses water from the Pacific Ocean to cool its two reactors.
According to a report from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday, plant operators reported a, quote, “rapid influx of jellyfish” on Tuesday afternoon but said reactor protection systems operated as designed and the system was stable.
September Sold Graph
I should have waited a few hours before posting my prior blog! Here’s the latest SLO County Sold Graph which includes September sales (click to enlarge it). I’ll be updating all the graphs on the SloWatch.com site later tonite.
The September Data Quick Sold Data is Released
You may have seen the headlines about California home sales increasing. That’s because the sold data from Data Quick was released yesterday and the media is writing their articles from it. September Solds were August Pendings so if you follow my blog, you already knew that our sales activity didn’t jump 65% as the statewide numbers say.
If you haven’t looked around on my SloWatch site or been following the blog, I would recommend looking at 2 pieces of info to best tell what is going on in our market. The first is to look at the blog post from last Thursday (10/16) where I breakdown the first 9 months of this year compared to last year. Yes, foreclosures are making an impact but not as much as a lot of other areas in California.
Then go to the www.SloWatch.com site and scroll down to the Sold graphs towards the bottom of the home page. Look at the SLO County Sold graph and you’ll see the line being pretty flat. September Pendings were around the same level as we’ve seen the previous months so the line will most likely continue at the same level for September and October Solds. Now look at the 2007 line and notice the peaks and drop offs. One of those drop offs is October. So be prepared for the headlines next month around this time when Data Quick comes out with their numbers to say something like SLO County’s sales are way up from last October. The fact is that we’ve been pretty consistent in sales activity this year but are down about 15% in sales vs. 2007. If you want to see how foreclosures are effecting the sales activity in other areas, just scroll down and look at the Santa Maria graph and you’ll see 2008 Sold activity WAY higher than 2007.
I REALLY don’t like the month-to-month comparisons between this year and last, especially when they compare statewide data. The headlines that result from those comparisons is not really painting an accurate picture on what’s going on in our local market.
Real Estate "Home Sale"
A little while ago I blogged about a National Brokerage having a 10-day sale where they lowered the price of their listings. Here is a comment from one of the Realtors in Wisconsin that participated. This was posted on a Realtor message board.
“We had over 300 listings participate in this 10 day sale. The response has been lukewarm after the first weekend. Many agents had only 1 or zero people through their 3 hour open houses.”
Doesn’t sound like the promotion is working too well (at least in Wisconsin). I still wonder what happens after the 10th day. Are they going to raise the prices back to where they weren’t selling before this “sale”?
SLO Pedestrians…Be Careful
The following are the 5 most dangerous intersections in SLO for pedestrians, according to the city:
- Monterey Street at Santa Rosa Street
- Boysen at Santa Rosa Street
- Descanso at Los Osos Valley Road
- Bee Bee at South Street
- Los Osos Valley Road at Madonna
Just Sold Reports Updated
I uploaded a new Just Sold and REO Sold report.
I know that some of you read this blog through other sites or with a RSS reader so you may not be aware of the other information that is available through my site. Below is a list of some of this information.
1) Price changes, updated daily – http://www.slocountyhomes.com/pricedrops.php
2) New listings – with Short Sale and Foreclosures color coded, updated daily http://www.slocountyhomes.com/newlistex.php
3) Just Sold reports- http://www.slocountyhomes.com/just_sold.htm
4) REO Sold reports - http://www.slocountyhomes.com/reo_sold.htm
5) Market snapshot – http://www.slocountyhomes.com/market_snapshot.htm Gives you an instant report of Actives, Pendings, and Solds and then emails you updates monthly.
6) Market stats – Median home price, inventory, etc. – http://www.SloWatch.com
Robotics Advancement
I know there are a couple high schools in the area that have robotics programs so I thought I’d post this.
This is a robot designed to be a pack mule for ground troops. About 50 seconds into the video the guy tries to kick it over and it’s able to stay upright.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
Light Bright and Airy Home Staging Tips #6
Adding home market appeal in a tough market… I want to piggy back on Keith’s Blog from a few days ago about virtual tours. As a long-time real estate shopper, realtor, investor and stager I am always looking at listings on the internet to try to figure out why they may catch a buyers eye. I agree that virtual tours in many cases can just be an added expense and not truly add to your pool of interested buyers.
I can say without hesitation that several excellent photos, not virtual tours, have often drawn me in as a buyer. Creating excellent photo opportunities is exactly what home staging is about. As a Stager, I often take more pictures of a house before, than I do after, since the camera really accentuates many negative points about houses and spaces. Much like how the camera adds 10 pounds to an actor, the camera takes away square footage in a cramped or cluttered house. With those before photos, I will be able to better study the house photos and remove negative features that will be exaggerated by the camera -before the house pictures hit the internet.
Most importantly, in my opinion, if you are going to go to the time and expense of doing a virtual tour, or even professional photographs - make sure that you stage or prepare the home BEFORE those pictures are taken, so that when your photos hit the internet, your house looks its very best.
For more questions or home staging insight please feel free to contact me or view my website at: www.LightBrightandAiry.com
Happy Selling!
