Mike’s Real Estate Show

Old friend and long-time good-guy, John Durand of Christopherson Homes will be my guest on the show this week. Obviously we’ll be talking about the “New Home” market and how the good folks in this benchmark Sonoma County building company are getting through this “market correction”. We’ll also be chatting up the recent appearance of the California Association of Realtors economist, Dr. Robert Kleinhenz here in Sonoma County. Here are some of his remarks:

• Last two market corrections we had in the late 70’s and late 80’s were Recession based. This correction, luckily, is NOT recession driven but is Affordability driven. More on this on the show.
• How long will this correction be? He is forecasting 1 to 3 years. This is predicated on interest rates, the shake-out in the mortagage industry.
• Interest rates lowered equal better affordability. For every 1% in lower interest rates this equates to 4% more in affodability. Right now our affordability in Sonoma County is hovering around 20%. This means only 20% of our citizens can afford to buy the median priced home based on their salaries/incomes!