Good news to report: President Obama is expected to sign a resolution passed late yesterday by Congress extending the current limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA loans through 2010. The limits were set to expire at the end of this year. This is especially critical for California, where more than 80 percent of all loans are financed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or FHA, and will help maintain the positive signs we are now seeing in California

This past week I had an appraisal issue with a buyer sale. This involved a home that had 3 offers on it, one was cash, and the other two were with financing. The sellers decided to take our offer with financing and gave us seven days to remove all of our contingencies and we gladly accepted after speaking to the mortgage lender. He assured us that he can make this happen as the buyers loan had already been in process. The appraisal was done using a automated value model and was completed on Tuesday, we had our value on Wednesday! One problem, the appraisal came in under value by approx. 5% of the sales price. Fortunately, the buyer had a very large down payment and the appraisal would not affect his terms of his loan which already had been locked in at a rate of 5%. The lender ordered a full walk through appraisal of the home and fortunately the home came in at full value of the accepted offer price.

We were able to remove all of our contingencies within the seven days as we had cooperation with the HOA that provided HOA docs within 5 days and with Homeguard Inspection Company as they jumped through hoops for us by completing inspections (home, termite and roof) within 5 days and provided us with all of the written reports the following day after the inspections. The HOA was very responsive in our request for exterior repairs, they are even allowing Homeguard to do all of the work! This goes to show you that with teamwork between agents, lenders, inspectors and HOA companies that great things are possible, it is not often that you can remove all of your contingencies within seven days with financing and an HOA involved!

This home is scheduled to close on time, November 12, 2009! I learned a few things on this transaction. The first is that cash offers are not always preferred, the main reason is most likely that cash buyers are not always willing to pay the asking price or above. I also learned that not all HOA companies are slow to respond. Did you know that HOA companies, by law, have ten business days to provide the buyer HOA documents? Most of the time the HOA companies take the full amount of time allowed by law and many times it is the last thing that buyer’s are waiting for before they remove all of their contingencies.

Coming soon! Gorgeous Silver Oak Townhome – Hardwood flooring, shutters, two-tone paint, updated kitchen with newer maple cabinets, stainless steel tops and much more! This home will be hitting the market in about 2 weeks! Look for more photos and a weekend open house coming soon!

Rates for 30 year home loans have inched up, hitting 5 percent for the first time in nearly a month.  The average rate in up to 5 percent, up from 4.92 percent.  The record low of the of 4.78 percent hit in the spring.  Rates are still very attractive for many people looking to buy a home.  Last month, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues agreed to slow down the pace of the program of the Feds buying mortgage backed securities, which has been keep interest rates artificially low.  The Fed has now agreed to wrap up the purchases by the end of next March.  It will be interesting to see what that does to the interest rates but I am pressed to say that rates will be heading back up.  

Homeowners in nine East Bay cities who sell or upgrade their properties starting in March must spend hundreds to thousands of dollars replacing their sewer lines under court orders obtained by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.  The orders are an attempt to stop the dumping of as much as 400 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the Bay each year as the result of overflows during rainy weather.  About 50 million gallons of partially treated sewage ended up in the Bay as recently as Oct. 13, when about 4 inches of rain fell on the East Bay.  Most of that was because of broken residential sewer lines that go from  homes to pipes in the street.  One court order, expected to be signed next month by all nine cities, requires the cities to strengthen existing laws or write new ones that require homeowners to fix or replace their lines when a home is sold or upgraded. It also will require those cities to fix their broken sewer collection systems.Â

If you have been putting off making energy-efficient upgrades to your home because you are worried about the cost and think you can not afford them, now is the time to stop procrastinating and take advantage of the energy-efficient mortgage (EEM) program and a new tax credit for upgrades.
What is an EEM?
An EEM helps homeowners save money on utility bills by enabling them to finance the cost of adding energy efficient features to a new or existing home as part of their Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured home purchase or refinancing mortgage.
EEMs are one of the most beneficial and under utilized programs that a homeowner can capitalize on in today’s market. EEMS’s are sponsored by federally insured mortgage programs (FHA and VA) and the conventional secondary mortgage market (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Lenders can offer conventional EEMs, FHA EEMs, or VA EEMs. The first step in to have a CHEERS rates or another approved energy rater complete an analysis of your home and obtain a report, which you then submit to the lender.

Advance Fees for Loan Modifications Now Prohibited (Effective immediately)

On October 11, 2009, Governor Schwarznegger signed Senate Bill 94 (Calderon), and the legislation took effect immediately upon his signature. This bill prohibits any person from demanding or collecting an advance fee from a consumer for loan modification or mortgage loan forbearance services (This Includes Attorney’s and their Retainer Fee). An advance fee is any fee for services demanded or collected prior to the services being completed.

The Bay Area’s September home sales and the median sales price both edged up from August to September as home buyers scramble to take advantage of the first time buyer tax credit set to expire at the end of November.  Another reason home prices edged up is that there are less homes on the market as inventory levels are down.  There are even less foreclosed homes on the market.  In Feb. 2009, foreclosures accounted for 52 percent of existing home sales in the Bay Area.  This number has dropped to 33% last month.  Banks are not flooding the market with foreclosures.  When they do come on the market, you’ve got so much demand that it creates a frenzy.  You have investors paying cash for them which makes it hard for anyone financing to get an offer accepted.

The U.S. non-manufacturing sector grew for the first time since August 2008. The Institute for Supply Management reported the monthly index of non-manufacturing activity rose to 50.9 in September from 48.4 in August. A reading above 50 signals expansion. Big gains were made in new orders, up more than four points to 54.2; backlog of orders, up 10.5 points to 51.5; and productivity, up nearly four points to 55.1.

According to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index, retail sales rose 0.3% in the week ending October 3. On a year-over-year basis, retailers saw sales increase by 1%, the second-best showing in a year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications for the week ending October 2 rose 16.4% to 756.3, the highest level since May. Purchase volume rose 13.2% to 306.1. Refinancing applications increased 18.2% to 3,377.1.

According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit debt fell for the seventh straight month in August by $12 billion, an annual rate of 5.8%. Economists had forecast consumer debt would drop $10 billion. Total consumer credit debt in August was $2.46 trillion.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 33,000 to 521,000 in the week ending October 3. The figure was lower than the 540,000 that economists had forecast. The number of people continuing to claim jobless benefits in the week ending September 26 fell by 72,000 to 6.04 million.

The Commerce Department said wholesalers reduced their inventories by 1.3% in August, following a revised 1.6% drop in July. It was the 12th straight monthly decline. Meanwhile, sales at the wholesale level rose 1% in August, the largest increase since June 2008.

Upcoming on the economic calendar are reports on retail sales on October 14 and consumer inflation on October 15.

Statewide figures released earlier this month show that from 2008-2009, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District show a gain of 13 points on its Academic Performance Index (API) Report.  This is very impressive! To be living in a area that already was achieving at high levels AND then go even higher!  SRVUSD went from a score of 901 in 2008 to 914 in 2009, according to the API report.  Students in the SRVUSD have an advantage because their parents are highly educated an value their children receiving a sound education.

The district scores are the sixth highest overall in the state, #1 among English learners and 4th overall in Asian scores in the state, and no. 1 in No. California, tied with another district.

Way to go SRVUSD!  Keep it up!