Mike’s Real Estate Show

The grown of homes in the $2,000,000 + range over the past 7 years has been breathtaking. Looking back over my 30+ years in Sonoma County real estate we would go months before even seeing a $1,000,000 home come to the market. These where usually “ranch” properties with large acreage. But as this real estate machine hit its stride over the past 7 years those who bought $600,000 homes at the beginning found themselves residing in homes they probably could not even afford to buy!! These homes had appreciated to $1,000,000+. Read the rest of this entry »

What a year!! Whew! I predicted eveything about this year except for the massive “crater” which happened due to the “credit tightening” we experienced in late August. This “crunch” is still in effect as it has crippled the “jumbo” loans (all loans originiating over the conforming rate of $417,000) and since we are officialy a “High-Value” area this has knocked the slats out from a somewhere lack luster year. Our sales have been “limping” along since September with sales just over 200 units per month. From the perspective of a “year-to-date” monthly sales comparision sales have dropped over 50%!! And the median home price is starting to erode also. It took a while as the lower end market vaporized due to a number of issues; credit tightening, tougher underwriting guidelines, rate increases, full documentation for loans, etc. The median seemed to be fine as the only real activity was the higher priced homes which held the median up. Now we have a rash of short-sales and bank owned properties flooding the market and escrows are starting to close at these distressed prices. The median a year ago at this time was $547,000. Today it is $434,500 or a 27.5% drop. The sales activity is even more startling: December of ‘06: 438 units sold and today 186!! Read the rest of this entry »

The following “Hot-Lines” are supplied by frequent radio show guest and co-host Pete Phillippe, Mgr, Production Branch 707-521-4406.  If you are having difficulty in making your monthly mortgage payments then call the following number: 888-446-6390  If you wish to change or modifiy the “Terms” of your loan, either due to a “re-set” in interest rate or a more than anticipated “margin” hike then give this number a call: 800-669-6650. Read the rest of this entry »

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL…
Wrapping up the 2007 NFL Regular Season. Read the rest of this entry »

Rates as of 12/28/07  

My office will be closed for the New Year Holiday – January 1st, 2008!  Here’s to a wonderful 2008!  May you have much to celebrate and delight in this next year!

 Today’s rates quoted are a small sample of current rates – all quoted without points- call me about rates with point(s), different loan products and requirements!  (707) 284-2718 

Conforming                 fully amortized                        interest only

30 year fixed               6.00%                                      6.25%  This is the “Conforming” rate w/loans at $417,000 or below. Note the BIG difference in Jumbos!!

3/1 ARM                     5.75%                                      5.875%

5/1 ARM                     6.00%                                      6.25%

7/1 ARM                     6.375%                                    6.50%

10/1 ARM                   6.625%                                    6.875%

Jumbo                          fully amortized                        interest only               

30 year fixed               7.25%                                      7.50%     1.25% MORE with JUMBO money–Markets still unsettled on the “JUMBO” products!!      Read the rest of this entry »

This ”press-release” was issued by Freddie Mac and warns of foreclosure “Hero’s” who are just after your home.  

McLean, VA – Can a custom made video posted to YouTube™ keep troubled borrowers from losing their homes to fraud artists? Freddie Mac aims to find out.

One of the nation’s largest investors in residential mortgages, Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) decided to produce an Internet video dramatizing a common foreclosure fraud scheme after a new survey found one-in-four delinquent borrowers go to the Internet before their bank or lender for information about avoiding foreclosure. Freddie Mac’s anti-fraud video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/AvoidFraud.

Freddie Mac’s two-minute YouTube video uses professional actors to demonstrate how con artists can:

Get copies of foreclosure notices at City Hall or a county courthouse;
Persuade distressed borrowers to give up the deeds in exchange for suspicious promises to solve their financial problems;
Use the deeds to secure new loans for themselves; and,
Let the new loans go into foreclosure, which means the homeowners looking for help can still end up losing their house.
“With fraud reports on the rise, we are using every communication channel out there to warn borrowers about these fraudsters and urge borrowers to call their lenders when they fall behind on their mortgage,” said Ingrid Beckles, vice president, Servicing and Asset Management, Freddie Mac. “By working with our servicers, Freddie Mac is now helping an average of 1,000 delinquent borrowers a week avoid foreclosure through forbearances, repayment plans or other workout options.”

Freddie Mac decided to produce the anti-fraud video for You Tube after a 2007 company-sponsored study that discovered that 25 percent of delinquent borrowers go to the Internet first for mortgage information, only slightly less than those who call their mortgage lender (28 percent) or bank (32 percent). GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, conducted the survey of 2,400 borrowers.
Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible more than 50 million times, ensuring financing for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters.

 If you are buying the three homes then no problem. If you are trying to purchase just ONE of those three and are trying to get the BEST deal you can then you are committing fraud!  If you have a Realtor/Licensee dong this then they are either very desperate (the last agent you want to work with!) or just un-ethical! (The last agent you want to work with!). Either way Jane your actions are not in good faith. I would re-think your strategy.

   However, if you are buying THREE homes then what is the expiration on your contract for the offer? Sellers DON’T have to get back to you. The offer can lapse. I usually have a client write rejected across the offer if they don’t wish to respond as I want to show the other Realtor/Licensee the offer was presented (this with the agency signed if presented via fax).
  Are you making very low offers? You just might have made them mad and they are letting you wait.  My best to husband John!

President Bush signed into law Thursday a bill creating a temporary tax break for homeowners who are able to persuade lenders to forgive part of their debt, and extends a tax deduction for some families with private mortgage insurance.

The last time we had a market going south for an extended period of time and when “Short-Sales” strode the landscape it was 1989. We had Sellers going to lenders to work out “Short-Sales” and the “Debt Forgiveness” was the double whammy for homeowner’s defaulting on their home loans. The politicans at that time decried this horrible state of affairs, beat their chests, promised “relief” and did Nuttin Honey! So here we are back to the “Double Whammy” days of Seller’s defaulting on loans but since this is the “Steriods Era” we have a defaulting/foreclosure market ON STERIODS!

  But this time the Legislators have come through and given the Homeowner who is defaulting on his loan and trying to work out a “Short-Sale” RELIEF!! For the next three years, the IRS won’t count as income debt forgiven by lenders when our defaulting borrowers negotiate short sales or workouts on their primary residence that involve forgiveness of part of their debt. The amount goes up to $2,000,000! (portend of things to come??!!) but only runs for 3 years.

HR 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, also extends for three years a tax deduction allowing families earning $109,000 or less to deduct all or part their private mortgage insurance premiums from their taxable income. Savings? How about an average of $350 a year? Not great but hey, it helps! Many feel this will give incentive for a Seller to stay put. The Seller can try and work out a deal with their lender and keep their home. Getting the loan amount changed and reduced is the reason this bill now exists. Others think it now opens the flood gate for Seller’s to walk! Don’t have to now worry about getting nailed by debt relief so why not just let it go to foreclosure and put it up for sale as one of the hundreds of “Short-Sales” now flooding the market. Time will tell.  

Below you’ll find the obituary for my Friend’s son; Benjamin Herbert Floriani. His Father, Don Floriani, is our incoming Sunrise Rotary Club President. His Son Ben was tragically killed in a “wrong place at the wrong time” event which belied young Ben’s remarkable turn-around and on-track life. If you would like to contribute to a Scholarship Fund which will help a young person get and stay on track, please read below and contribute to our Rotary Club’s Scholarship program in his name.   Read the rest of this entry »

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday!  Our offices will close early on Monday and will be closed all day Tuesday.  We will resume normal business hours on Wednesday

 Today’s rates quoted are a small sample of current rates – all quoted without points- call me about rates with point(s), different loan products and requirements!  (707) 284-2718

 Conforming                 fully amortized                        interest only

30 year fixed               6.00%                                      6.375%

3/1 ARM                     5.875%                                    6.125% Read the rest of this entry »