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Understanding the Financial and Mortgage Crisis

Understanding the Financial Crisis

The Mortgage Banking Meltdown Explained.

Tracy Housing

Tracy is pretty much the same as Mt. House. Sales is up and supply is down. During the housing boom in 2005, all you heard from the media was the the tight supply of housing, and not the bubble. Now price is affordable, and the media only talk about the bad news.

Let's look at the numbers, you could rent a decent four bedroom house in Tracy for about $1500/month. You could buy the same house for about $200K now. For a 200K mortgage, your monthly housing expense is about the same as rent.

200k FHA loan @ 6%, $1523 PITII
principle & interest(pi) $1181
tax(t) $209
Home insurance(HI) $50
Mortgage insurance(MI) $83

I don't think anyone can predict which way the Real Estate market will go, but home price is much more reasonable now.

Mt House in CBS News

Mt House in CBS News

Mountain House in the news.

I just read an article in NYT about Mountain House where 90% of the home owners are up side down. Is the Real Estate market really that bad here? Let's look at some facts.

• We had eighty months of inventory last year and now is down to three. Nobody was buying last year because prices were too high. Now you can buy a really nice 2000+ sqft home for under 300K. For what they are paying for mortgage in Mt. House, they can only rent a 2 bedroom apartment in the Bay Area.
  
• Also, prices are stabilizing at around $130/sqft in the last three months. Look at the chart and draw your own conclusion.
• The number of homes sold & pending in Sep 07 was 2. There were 61 homes sold & pending in Sep 08.

What do you think? Is it really that bad here?

I came across this video. If you think we have it bad in the central valley, take a look at the inland empire down in SoCal.

REALTORS® Report Foreigners Come to America ¿ to Buy Homes

WASHINGTON, August 07, 2008

International real estate purchases in the U.S. continue to be a significant share of business for many Realtors, according to the 2008 National Association of Realtors^® Profile of International Home Buying Activity.

This new research indicates that international buying activity in the U.S. is widespread. NAR estimates that between 150,000 and 190,000 homes were sold to foreign nationals from May 2007 to May 2008. Recent foreign buyers purchased properties in every state and the District of Columbia. The most popular states where international buyers purchased homes are Florida, California and Texas. Arizona, New York, Washington and Nevada were also popular.

How to write an offer for REO properties

REO Reality Check - 10 Tips to Get Your REO Offers Accepted and Closed

As a Broker/Manager of a large real estate office(291 licensees as of July 2008) in a city (Las Vegas) that is dealing with 70%+ of monthly closed transactions being short sales and REOs, I've written this post with the intention of educating and spreading the word to as many people as possible that there is a stress-free way of accepting the market, adapting and enjoying success.

Avoid the inevitable frustration and stress so many real estate agents and buyers are currently experiencing by educating yourself and your buyers about the REO (Real Estate Owned) buying process!

Sales volume is picking up in Central Valley

Bargain hunters are keeping real estate agents hopping throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Sales this July compared with last July were up 155 percent in Stanislaus, 129 percent in San Joaquin and 105 percent in Merced.

California Central Valley Housing Market

This is Michael Zagaris, the CEO of PMZ realty. In this video, he explains the state of the RE market in California Central Valley.

Click To Play

Link to PMZ blog

Real Estate Round table A Real Estate conference sponsored by Modesto Bee

Short Sale is not always the best option

I ran across an article when quietly walking away is actually better than doing a short sales.

Subprime Primer

To understand why and how we got into this Subprime mess, Check out the Subprime Primer. It is really funny.

Subprime crisis is a zero sum game.


Lecture on Housing Bubble. Part 1:


Lecture on Housing Bubble. Part 2:


Lecture on Housing Bubble. Part 3: