One piece of good news coming out of the Great Recession is the increasing affordability of housing.

The typical U.S. family earning the nation’s median income of $64,000 a year could afford to buy 70.1 percent of all homes sold in the United States during the third quarter, according to a report from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo. The report relied on the government standard of spending no more than 28 percent on housing. In the same quarter of 2008, only 56.1 percent qualified.

The five most affordable areas are:

* Indianapolis
* Youngstown, Ohio
* Detroit
* Warren, Mich.
* Grand Rapids, Mich.

The five least-affordable areas are:

* New York City
* San Francisco
* Honolulu
* Santa Ana, Calif.
* Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, N.Y.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (11/19/2009)

San Francisco parents with school age children often leave the city, hoping to avoid;

a) the public school lottery and b) the price of private schools as alternative.

And according to Marin Magazine’s Tim Porter,
“Facing this kind of math, an increasing number of families with school-age children are moving to southern Marin, pushing up kindergarten enrollment in several high-scoring school districts. Many of these new Marinites are former San Franciscans….. frustrated, either with San Francisco’s school lottery system or the lack of kid friendly housing.”

To Read more from the SF Gate CLICK HERE

Planning on traveling to SFO or Open Homes in San Francisco? Be aware that sections of 19th Avenue in San Francisco may be closed certain weekends starting 11/13/09 (7pm). The sections closed are due to Muni Transit work on streetcar tracks and Water Dept. work on water pipes. However, Thanksgiving, most of December, and New Years will not be impacted.
Planned closures include:
Fri. 11/20 thru Mon. 11/23: CLOSURE of 19th and Judah northbound
Fri. 12/4 thru Sat. 12/5: CLOSURE of 19th and Judah southbound
Sun. 12/6 thru Mon. 12/7: CLOSURE of 19th and Judah northbound
Fri. 1/8 thru Monday 1/11: CLOSURE of 19th anCd Taraval southbound
Fri. 1/15 thru mon. 1/18: CLOSURE of 19th and Taraval northbound
Fri. 1/22 thru Sat. 1/23: CLOSURE of 19th and Taraval southbound
Sun. 1/24 thru Mon. 1/25: CLOSURE of 19th and Taraval northbound

Free H1N1 Flu Vaccine Clinics for High Risk Groups Planned for Marin County Residents Vaccination Clinics have been scheduled throughout Marin County in November and December. These clinics will only be administering the H1N1 vaccine. Vaccine supplies are limited and, therefore, will only be given to higher risk people including:
- Pregnant women
- Persons who live with or provide care for infants younger than 6 months of age
- Health care workers and emergency medical services personnel
- Children and young adults age 6 months – 24 years of age
- Persons 25-64 who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications, such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes and immunosuppression.
(Senior Citizens, even with medical conditions, are not included in the CDC priority vaccination groups)
Clinics are scheduled as follows:
Wednesday, November 18th
West Marin Elementary School
11550 Highway 1 @ Point Reyes Station
3-7 pm as supplies last

Thursday, November 19th
Manzanita Recreation Center
630 Drake Avenue, Marin City
9am to 4pm as supplies last

Saturday, December 5th
Novato Teen Center
950 7th Avenue, Novato
9am to 4pm as supplies last
More information is available at the Marin County H1N1Flu website (www.marinflu.org)

According to Zillow.com home prices seem to be stabilizing but about 21% of homeowners are underwater on their homes.

Home in the Sleepy Hollow area of San Anselmo

• REALTORS® and real estate appraisers are the best sources of information on current market conditions. Consumers should begin the home valuation process by consulting with their REALTOR® or a local real estate appraiser. REALTORS® can provide homeowners with a list of homes that recently have sold in the area, and use that data to help determine the most accurate and competitive price for the home.

• Homeowners also can contact their local tax assessor’s or county clerk’s office, many of which post real estate transactions on their Web site. The records will indicate what properties have recently sold in the neighborhood and the respective sales prices. Consumers should look for homes that have sold within the last six months for a more accurate picture of current market conditions.

• Online sites such as Zillow.com and Trulia.com also provide free online home value estimators. Consumers should be aware though that these sites derive some of their information from public records, including tax appraisals, and are subject to error.

To read the full story from the New York Times please CLICK HERE

Fannie Mae last week announced a new Deed for Lease™ program. The new program allows borrowers to voluntarily transfer their property back to the lender and then lease back the house at market rate. The lease period is for up to 12 months, with month-to-month contract extensions after that period. The program is designed for borrowers who do not qualify for or have not been able to obtain other loan-workout solutions, such as loan modifications.

To participate in the program, borrowers must live in the home as their primary residence and must be released from any subordinate liens on the property. Tenants of borrowers in this circumstance also may be eligible for leases under the program. Borrowers or tenants interested in a lease must be able to document that the new market rental rate is no more than 31 percent of their gross income.

Homeowners thinking of participating in the Deed for Lease™ program should visit Fannie Mae’s loan look-up Web site at http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ to see whether their loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie. Mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration and other government agencies are not eligible for the Deed for Lease ™ program.

To read the full story, please click here.

A Marin Housing Authority program that makes it possible for low-income residents to buy homes in Marin is continuing to struggle, even though it recently won an 18-month court battle with the banking giant HSBC for possession of a Sausalito condominium.
The court fight kept the condominium in the below-market-rate program. But it cost the Marin County redevelopment agency about $390,000, nearly a quarter of the agency’s yearly tax revenue. County supervisors, who serve as the agency’s board of directors, approved the expenditure.

“There was a concern that a precedent would be set, that we would lose one of our homes to a bank and it would encourage other banks to be more aggressive. We would really be putting our stock of affordable housing at risk,” said Leelee Thomas, a Marin County planner who oversees the county’s affordable housing efforts.

To date, the owners of more than 15 of the 315 homes in the program have experienced financial difficulties that required the housing authority to consider repurchasing the homes. In a number of cases, the owners took out second mortgages in violation of the program’s rules, then defaulted.

Participants in the below-market-rate housing program sign agreements giving the Marin Housing Authority the right to repurchase the homes at a restricted price, far below the market, if the participants violate the terms of the program, default or over-encumber the property with loans. To read the full story from the Marin IJ CLICK HERE

The House today and the Senate yesterday passed legislation to extend the $8,000 home buyer tax credit to May 1, 2010, for first-time buyers and add a $6,500 tax credit for repeat buyers if they’ve lived in their home for five of the past eight years. Home prices are capped at $800,000.

The legislation in both houses was included in a bill to extend unemployment benefits and is expected to be signed by President Obama shortly.

“REALTORS® appreciate the swift action by Congress to extend the home buyer tax credit and expand it to some current homeowners,” says NAR President Charles McMillan. “As the leading advocate of housing and real estate issues, we urge President Obama to sign this legislation into law quickly to keep the momentum going in the fragile recovery of the nation’s housing market.”

Under the bill, income limits are expanded to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for joint filers. Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.

Households who have binding contracts in place by April 30 will be allowed an additional 60 days to complete their transaction. The deadline for members of the military serving out the U.S. for at least 90 days between Jan. 1, 2009, and May 1, 2010, has been extended one year.

Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds their tax bill, the government will issue a check. Taxpayers will be able to claim the credit on their 2009 income tax return for purchases made in 2010.

For more information on the credit CLICK HERE

Source: The Associated Press (11/5/2009)