Marin County’s jobless rate was 7.2 percent in April, down from 7.4 percent last month. So it’s not real estate news but it is tied in. If people don’t have jobs or in fear of losing them then they don’t buy homes, go on vacation or stimulate the economy. So if jobless rates are declining is it an indication that home sales are hitting the bottom? Stay tuned and to see the unemplOyment story from the Press Democrat CLICK HERE

It appears that inventory is up which means prices still have room to come down but in theis article published by the marin IJ they suggest the bottom is near. Read the Article

California ranks all schools on a 1,000-point scale called the Academic Performance Index (API), which is based on how well schools perform on a variety of tests. A score of 800 is considered excellent. The state also assigns schools a number from 1 to 10, based on how well they do when compared with all schools in the state. To see how the schools in Marin County compare to any other in the state click the link to get to the database provided by the SFGate

About a third of Marin’s high schools received API scores higher than 800, while only 17.1 percent of high schools statewide achieved that result. Read the full story from the Marin IJ.

The Obama Administration on Wednesday signed a bill that attempts to inject some hope into the housing rescue program–called Hope for Homeowners.

The original program asked banks to reduce mortgage balances voluntarily to 90 percent of a home’s current market value. The loan would then be refinanced into an FHA mortgage.

The program didn’t work because it forced lenders to sell short with no chance of an upside, says Tom Kelly, a spokesman for JP Morgan Chase.

The new version of Hope sweetens the pot by paying lenders $1,000 for every Hope-refinanced loan and easing the amount they have to write off by allowing loans of up to 93 percent of the market value.

But the most important change is that it allows the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA’s parent agency, to share home-price appreciation with investors, up to the appraised value of the property when the existing loan was first issued.

This bill originally included cramdown legislation that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the first mortgage, but that portion of the legislation was defeated in the Senate.

Source: CNNMoney, Les Christie (05/20/2009)

I’ve received a few calls and now I can comment on the fact that effective June 1st Vision Real Estate will officially be a part of McGuire Real Estate. I’ve been a part of Vision since its inception when Ron Parks, Nick Cooper and myself left Pacific Union to start our own boutique firm. I’m proud of the fact that over the past 5 years we grew the company to over 27 agents and 4 offices in Marin, Sonoma and San Francisco counties. If anything we were too aggressive opening an office in Tiburon and Mill Valley when the industry as a whole was retracting. So it is with a bit of sadness and a lot of excitement that I move into this merger with a renewed sense of mission.

What does this mean to you?

- I will be relinquishing all of the management duties I had with Vision Real Estate to focus on working with clients 100% of the time.

- Any existing listings or escrows won’t be altered at all.

- If I’m listing your home for sale I’ll be able to tap into a larger network of agents with potential buyers. McGuire has a large presence in San Francisco where many of the buyers for Marin County come from.

- If I’m representing you as a buyer you’ll continue to receive the same level of outstanding service. I’m currently listed #1 with Google for “Relocating to Marin County” and McGuire is one of only two brokerages that are qualified to do relocation work with LuxuryRealEsate.com, the most viewed luxury real estate website in the world.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns or congratulatory calls.

To see the Official Announcement Click Here

Victor Fisher

Founding Partner
Vision Real Estate
(C) 415-720-6100
Victor@MarinHomeSale.com
www.MarinHomeSale.com

These are one of the products that contributed to the housing crises but if used correctly can be a useful tool;

Potential home buyers in search of a mortgage are wary of all kinds of adjustable rate loans these days, but hybrid ARMs can be really good deals even in these times of historically low interest rates, some lending experts insist.

Hybrids are “a great product at a great rate,” says Christopher Cruise, a mortgage broker in Silver Spring, Md.

Currently, starting rates are under 4 percent, generally a full percentage point lower than traditional, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages. Hybrids are locked in at that starting rate for five, seven, or sometimes even 10 years, then they adjust—usually a maximum of 2 points a year with an overall cap of 6 or 8 points.

In the meantime, the savings on a hybrid ARM can be thousands of dollars and make sense for a buyer who doesn’t expect to be in a home for more than five or six years.

Even if they stay in the same house, it’s likely they’ll have an opportunity to refinance. “Seven years for a mortgage is an eternity these days,” Cruise says.

He recommends that buyers do the math, considering the worst-case scenario. In many cases, particularly with jumbo loans, the savings will still be substantial even if the loan adjusts to the maximum for a couple of years.

Source: United Features Syndicate, Lew Sichelman (05/03/09)

The jury is still out but in Sacramento which was one of the hardest hit cities of the housing correction signs that the bottom is near are appearing. Read the article from the New York Times