Existing Home Sales Up 5%
January 25, 2012 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Mortgage Market Guide: Existing-home sales for December 2011 increased 5% from November. This is the third consecutive month of increases and the second highest reading of 2011. The December level was also 3.6% above December 2010, and as a whole, existing-home sales were up 1.7% from 2010. Total housing inventory dropped 9.2% for December, representing a 6.2-month supply, down from a 7.2-month supply in November. Existing Home Sales is a measure of the selling rate of pre-owned single-family homes, collected by the National Association of … [Read More...]
What’s Up in Euro Land?
January 16, 2012 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Mortgage Market Guide: Listed in this chart are the Euro regions and the debt set to be auctioned in the first quarter. This sets up for a real March Madness with a whopping 160 Billion Euro of the 400 Billion Euro set to be auctioned in March. … [Read More...]
Consumer Sentiment Reaches Highest Level Since May 2011
January 15, 2012 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Mortgage Market Guide: The consumer sentiment reading for January increased to a reading of 74.0, up for 69.9 in December. This marks the 5th consecutive month of gains since the 2011 low of 55.7. This is also the highest reading since May 2011. This survey measures the attitudes and expectations concerning both present and future economic conditions of 500 consumers. Just like Consumer Confidence, the level of consumer sentiment is directly related to the strength of consumer spending. … [Read More...]
FHA Extends Flip Waiver
December 27, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Last week the Federal Housing Adminstration, FHA, announced that they are extending their waiver on homes that are considered "flipped" homes. A flip property is one that has been purchased within the last 90 days and the current owner is now relisting the property for sale at a higher amount. Most of these homes end up being homes that are either purchased by real estate investors at the courthouse steps at auction for a low value and then relisted by the investor for sale. Some are homes that have been run down, purchased by an investor, … [Read More...]
Increase in November Housing Starts
December 21, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Mortgage Market Guide: Housing starts for November rose 9.3% to 685,000. The highest annual rate since April 2010. Leading the way was multi-family units, rising 32.2%. Single-family units saw an increase of 2.3%. Over the last year, housing starts are up 24.3%. The Housing Starts report measures the number of residential units on which construction is begun each month. A start in construction is defined as the beginning of excavation of the foundation for the building and is comprised primarily of residential housing. Changes in the rate of … [Read More...]
Dow Jones Average Monthly Returns
December 19, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Mortgage Market Guide: Displayed in this chart are the average monthly returns for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1929. July tops the list with an average return of 1.5%, while December and January come in second and fourth overall. It's possible stocks could be in for gain before year-end because of something that's become known as the "Santa Claus Rally". The Santa Claus Rally is usually a surge in Stocks in the week between Christmas and New Years. So keep an eye on Stocks in the week ahead. … [Read More...]
Consumer Sentiment Reaches 6-Month High
December 9, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Mortgage Market Guide: The comsumer sentiment reading increased for December coming in at 67.7, up from the November reading of 64.1. This is the highest reading since June and the 4th consecutive month of gains since the 2011 low of 55.7 in August. This survey measures the attitudes and expectations concerning both present and future economic conditions of 500 consumers. Just like Consumer Confidence, the level of consumer sentiment is directly related to the strength of consumer spending. … [Read More...]
Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Raises over $7,200 for Charities
September 14, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
SAN RAMON—Two charities have split more than $7,200 thanks to the 5th annual Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Charity Golf Tournament. The funds went to the Huntington’s Disease Society and to the Contra Costa Association of REALTORS Scholarship Foundation. The tournament has raised more than $47,000 for charities in its five-year history. The 2011 event, held June 27 at the Diablo Country Club, drew 109 golfers on a perfect day to play. “The feedback we got from the golfers was they had a great time, raised funds for two great … [Read More...]
Appraisals Get a New Look – Are You Prepared?
September 14, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Starting September 1st, appraisals started looking a lot different…with a lot more information, including “codes” that will be entered into a national appraisal databank called Uniform Appraisal Datasets. One set of codes has to do with “quality ratings” of the home and I wanted to share them with you because you may want to know what it all means. C-1 – The entire structure is new, never been occupied and has no physical depreciation C-2 – Existing home, no deferred maintenance and requires no repairs. This … [Read More...]
90% Financing Jumbo Loans
May 25, 2011 By Kaveh Leave a Comment
Over the last few years, mortgage guidelines have gotten very strick. We've seen loan programs completely go away and the ones that are left are more difficult to qualify for. One area of the market that has been dormant for some time is starting to show some life. These are jumbo loans. Jumbo loans are loans that are above the current conforming loan limits. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the current conforming loan limit is $729,750. Any loan amounts above this would fall under jumbo loans. Most lenders were requiring a minimum of a 25% … [Read More...]
Private Plane Ride Around San Francisco Bay Area
May 9, 2011 By Kaveh 2 Comments
A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I had a great opportunity to take a private plane ride around San Francisco Bay Area. Felix Boston with Farmers Insurance was our pilote. He had donated an hour long flight around the Bay to my company's annual charity golf tournament. So on Sunday May 1st, my wife and I met Felix @ Concord's Buchanan Airport. He took us over to his plane (Don't remember the type, sorry) and he started walking us through his steps of getting his plane ready each and everytime he takes off. Even though he has flown many of … [Read More...]
5th Annual Mason-McDuffie Golf Tournament
April 29, 2011 By Kaveh 2 Comments
Mason-McDuffie Mortgage is proud to announce our upcoming 5th annual Charity Golf Tournament. The event will be held June 27, 2011 at Diablo Country Club. Prior golf tournaments have been a huge success; we’ve raised over $40k over the last three years and about $8k last year. The funds we have raised have allowed us to make generous contributions to Breast Cancer research, a charity to research and prevent Huntington’s Disease, as well as to the CCAR Scholarship fund. … [Read More...]
