Archive for the ‘ Market Conditions ’ Category

Mid Year Market Update

This month’s newsletter is loaded with statistics about San Francisco housing including median sales price in various neighborhoods, inventory supply, and average price per square foot for homes and condos.   Click HERE to access the online version.  If you have questions about your home or neighborhood please contact me! [ READ MORE ]

Spring Market Update – Demand Up, Supply Shrinking, Prices Stable

Demand in the San Francisco home market continues to strengthen, while supply (as measured by months’ supply of inventory) continues to tighten. Median prices remain surprisingly stable, jogging up and down in small increments over the past 4-5 quarters, but always staying within a 3% range. The spring season is typically an active sales period, though [ READ MORE ]

Home price index released: Prices in SF are up

From CAR: The annual rate of home-price decline improved in January in the 10-City and 20-City Composites tracked as one of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released yesterday.  The 10-City Composite remained unchanged in January compared with a year ago, and the 20-City Composite declined 0.7 percent compared with January 2009.  [ READ MORE ]

Mortgage Market Update

FED RATE STIMULUS ENDS MARCH 31 As most know, the Fed has been using a $1.25 trillion budget to buy mortgage bonds since January 1, 2009 in order to elevate mortgage bond prices and push rates down. Rates are 1.125% lower than they were when the program was announced, and the Fed will use up its [ READ MORE ]

San Francisco is #1 market ripe for recovery

From the Today Show, check out the Top 5 markets ripe for recovery  San Francisco is #1 Interest rates are low and the tax credit expires soon, what are you waiting for? [ READ MORE ]

The Housing Market – What YOU Need to Know NOW

Expiration of the federal tax credit for home buyers is fast approaching. In order to qualify for the credit, you must have a signed purchase and sale contract in place by April 30. (In addition, the sale must close by [ READ MORE ]

Mortgage Update from RPM

Rates rose about .125% this week on better than expected retail sales figures for February and mixed market reception of 3yr, 10yr, and 30yr Treasury auctions. The longer-dated auctions compete directly with mortgage bonds for attention, and the paltry reception of these new issues caused mortgage bonds to trade lower—when bond prices drop, rates rise. The [ READ MORE ]

The San Francisco Market: Bounce Back or Double Dip?

We live in a constant storm of analysis and opinion as to what is happening and will happen in real estate. Due to national statistics in December (and other economic indicators), some have predicted a nasty “double dip” in the home market subsequent to the recovery which began last spring. But the market goes into [ READ MORE ]

Mortgage Market Update – courtesy of RPM

Rates traded up and down about .375% this week on fears about business inflation and Fed rate hikes. Today’s tame consumer inflation contributed to rates dropping again, and rates end the week roughly .25% above all time record lows. But this record low rate window looks to be closing. Rates could rise by about 0.5% [ READ MORE ]

Will interest rates spike when the Fed’s buyback program ends?

Great article in SF Gate that explains how the end of the federal buyback program could affect mortgage interest rates.   Here are some excerpts: “Rather than being held by banks, today’s mortgages are sliced, diced and resold on Wall Street to create liquidity – money that then can be lent in more mortgages. After the credit [ READ MORE ]