JUMBO RATES FALLING- GREAT NEWS!

JUMBO RATES FALLING- GREAT NEWS!
Just a quick bulletin to inform you of some fabulous news.
The interest rates on the newly coined "Conforming Jumbo Loans" (from $417,001 to as high as $729,750) have plummeted, and are now a mere ¼ % higher than standard conforming loan rates. (By contrast last week they were nearly a full percentage point higher.) This adds great buying power for your clients in this price range!
Moreover, Freddie Mac has announced that they will be buying more Conforming Jumbo Loans, adding further liquidity to this market.
And in further good news, rates for standard jumbo loans (those above $729,750 in San Francisco- lower in lower median home price areas) have dropped also.
At the risk of being overly optimistic, it appears that the tide is beginning to shift. We're starting to see buyers come out and buy in the hardest hit areas. This is causing lenders to believe that we may finally be at or near the bottom of the pricing cycle. Keep your fingers crossed! Next thing you know, they might even start easing up a bit on underwriting!

An Educated Person

John Taylor Gatto: What Is An Education?
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Schooling Is One Thing, Education Is AnotherBy John Taylor Gatto
The question "What Is An Education?" has so many interlocking parts that no short essay can possibly be comprehensive, yet everyone would agree that both an education and a schooling have to have goals. You can't get anywhere unless you have a destination in mind!
Let me offer you 11 personal observations based on living a long time and living a long time as a schoolteacher. If kids get a sense there is no firm hand on the tiller, they have an unfortunate tendency to eat you alive! Also, they aren't very forgiving where what they consider "wasting their time" is concerned, and as you've probably already learned, the various goals of "the future" or "getting into a college" don't have much staying power with kids.
No matter who I taught or where I taught I always set out to let the kids know that I had definite goals in mind which would take years to achieve but which, I was determined, nobody could disregard without hurting themselves. Whatever "subject" I taught, I would relate the classroom abstraction to one of 11 principles I felt constituted the core of an educated human being.
In the hope you might find some use for a list, which took me years to compile, here they are:
1. An educated person writes his own script through life. He is not a character in a government play, nor does he mouth the words of any intellectual's utopian fantasy. He is self-determined.
2. An educated person know the ways of the human heart; he is hard to cheat or fool.
3. An educated person knows his rights and knows how to defend them.
4. Time does not hang heavily on an educated person's hands. She can be alone. She is not at a loss for what to do with time.
5. An educated person possesses useful knowledge: how to build a house, how to make clothing, how to build a boat, how to grow food, how to ride, dance, hunt, how to be physically masterful. Why would you want your daughter to know the name of the president of Iraq until she knew the name of the tree outside her window? Why would you want your son to understand Mogadishu until he understood how to scramble an egg? How were you ever sold such a bill of goods? Don't answer that, we both know - in school.
6. An educated person possesses a blueprint of personal value, a philosophy. This philosophy tends toward the absolute, it is not plastically relative (*altering to suit circumstances). An educated person clarifies his own values without advice from agents of the state. An educated person knows at all times who she is, what she will tolerate, where to find peace. But at the same time an educated person is aware of and respects community values and strange values.
7. An educated person can form healthy attachments wherever he is because he understands the dynamics of relationships.
8. An educated person accepts and understands his own mortality and its seasons. He understands that without death and aging nothing would have any meaning. An educated person learns from all his ages, even from the last minute of his life.
9. An educated person can discover truth for himself; he has intense "awareness" of the profound significance of being and the profound significance of being here.
10. An educated person can figure out how to be useful to others, and in trading time, insight and service to meet the needs of others he can earn the material things he needs to sustain a wholesome life.
11. An educated person has the capacity to create new things, new experiences, new ideas.
Everything you teach should be directly related to this package, I think. If it is, and it is clear that it is, you will have no trouble with kids - and you will discover surprisingly that you are learning as much as you teach.
© John Taylor Gatto
Editor's Note: Mr. Gatto's generosity with permission to reprint his work is legendary. However, he has specifically requested that Homefires inform readers that this particular piece is copyrighted and is not to be further reproduced. Contact the author for more information.

Redwood City Market Snapshot 4/27/2008

Weekly Redwood City Real Estate Market Snapshot beginning March 23, 2008-today

Current: 3/23---3/30---4/7---4/15---4/27
12 - New Listings: 8 - 18 - 24 – 17 - 18
00 - Price Increase: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 01
16 - Price Decrease: 10 - 7 - 8 - 6 - 11
11 - Solds (C.O.E.): 8 - 11 - 9 - 6 - 09
01 - Expired Listings: 0 - 0 - 6 – 1 - 00
00 - Withdrawn: 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 05

12 - Pending Sales: 16 - 12 - 14 – 12 - 10

My interpretation of this data is that we are still in a strong real estate market; Pending Sales and Solds are keeping ahead of new inventory coming onto the market as New Listings. Prices have decreased more this week than in the past, which I believe is because the sellers are bringing their home into line with the true real estate market.
Additionally, the homes that are in beginning and middle stages of foreclosure are required by the banks to drop their prices on a regular basis at a set percentage. They don't want to see a low price without first testing the market at a higher list price. (It is part of the process banks make over extended borrowers go through before they will look at a "short sale" purchase agreement. It makes sense if you think about it.)

In Redwood City it is still a great time to sell your home or investment property if you price it to the current market. As a buyer this is a great time to get a bargain on some properties. I saw a home come on the MLS this week at $299K! If you have some extra cash you might want to consider the idea of purchasing another piece of property.

The outlook in the future is a very strong upswing in prices! As Will Rogers said..."they aren't making dirt anymore."

Redwood City Market Snapshot 4/21/2008

Weekly Redwood City Real Estate Market Snapshot beginning March 23, 2008-today

Current: 3/23---3/30---4/7---4/15---

• 18 - New Listings: 8 - 18 - 24 - 17
• 01 - Price Increase: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0
• 11 - Price Decrease: 10 - 7 - 8 - 6
• 09 - Solds (C.O.E.): 8 - 11 - 9 - 6
• 00 - Expired Listings: 0 - 0 - 6 - 1
• 05 - Withdrawn: 2 - 1 - 1 - 2
• 10 - Pending Sales: 16 - 12 - 14 - 12

My interpretation of this data is that we are still in a strong real estate market; Pending Sales and Solds are keeping pace with the new inventory coming onto the market as New Listings. Prices have decreased more this week than in the past, which I believe is because the sellers are bringing their home into line with the rest of the market.

Additionally, the homes that are in beginning stages of foreclosure are required by the banks to drop their prices on a regular basis on a set percentage, not all at one time. (It is part of the process banks make over extended borrowers go through before they will look at a "short sale" purchase agreement.

FYI: San Mateo County is only one of 4 counties in US that is not in a declining market.

HELP! Anyone know how I can line my numbers up so they would be easier to read?

Current Redwood City Market Snapshot

Redwood City Market Snapshot:
7-Day Intervals:
3/23 3/30 4/7 4/15
Listings: 8 18 24 17
Price Increase: 0 0 0 0
Price Decrease: 10 7 8 6
Sold: 8 11 9 6
Expired: 0 0 6 1
Cancelled: 1 5 5 4
Withdrawn: 2 1 1 2
Pending: 16 12 14 12

My interpretation is we are still in a strong real estate market with Solds and Pendings higher than new Listings. That is what's called a “sellers market” and buyers are still buying homes in Redwood City.

YTD Housing Inventory Snapshot for Redwood City

I don't see any burst bubble in Redwood City real estate! 108 new homes came on the market for sale and 131 homes sold or are currently pending sales. I interpret that as a low inventory market. That is good for sellers is it not?

Since Jan. 1, 2008

New Listings: 108
Price Increase: 2
Price Decrease: 41
Solds: 84
Expireds: 29
Cancelled: 51
Withdrawn: 7
Pendings: 47

Redwood City Market Snapshot: 4/7/08

Redwood City Market Snapshot:
7-Day Intervals:
3/23 - 3/30 - 4/7
Listings: 8 - 18 - 24
Price Increase: 0 - 0 - 0
Price Decrease: 10 - 7 - 8
Sold: 8 - 11 - 9
Expired: 0 - 0 - 6
Cancelled: 1 - 5 - 5
Withdrawn: 2 - 1 - 1
Pending: 16 - 12 - 14

My interpretation is still a strong market with Solds and Pendings equal to or better than new Listings. The Spring market is here and buyers are still buying homes in Redwood City.