Don’t Look Now!

Doom and gloom in the housing market is everywhere you turn today. It seems you can’t turn on the TV, radio, Internet or read a newspaper without a dozen references to the HOUSING MELTDOWN! screaming at you. But grab those bootstraps, buckaroos and buckarettes, cuz it looks like the Bay Area is turning around. Yes, prices are down sharply and many of the sales taking place are bank-owned (foreclosed) properties. However, sales numbers are rising for Silicon Valley with the lower end sales going much quicker in year over year comparisons. As the low-end sales increase and the foreclosures and short sales are snapped up, we will see a stabilizing to increasing price demand.
Why does everywhere you look tell you that if you bought a house in this environment you must have fallen from the turnip truck? There are 2 good reasons: first, those are most always national headlines. We in the Bay Area (I include Santa Cruz County here) have a unique market place because of increasing population, good job growth and increasing wage growth. Secondly, Bad News Sells. Remember that James Bond movie a few years back where the villain was the head of a media empire and he tried starting a war in order to sell papers? Same thing is happening here.
Yes, we are being impacted by the mortgage problems, but buyers who are qualified and do their research about specific properties that are available, have an opportunity to position themselves very well when this mess clears itself up.

Fixed Interest Rates for Conforming Loans (under $417,000) as of 8/22/08, p.m. are:
Rates quoted are for a 30 day lock in period for 0 points
30 year fixed: 6.5% (APR 6.57%) payments are $2,635.72/mo.
15 year fixed: 6.125% (APR 6.246%) payments are $3,547.11/mo.

Posted by bruce at August 22, 2008 03:49 PM