Housing market active...
#16
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The new servicing agent doesn't have a good rep, apparently. So they are trying to change and the intro email we got the other day stated that with new transfers, there would be no penalties for 60 days until things were smoothed out with the transfer. Hopefully it goes smoothly, but I still think they're all a bunch of money grubbing twats. ![Sneaky](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/sneaky.gif)
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We still haven't got our letter from them yet but my wife spoke to someone on the phone who explained everything pretty clearly to her. We got one of the dodgy ones but as we pay electronically, they are unable to hold payments.
My wife works in a bank though, so we have the option of refinancing throught them, which we were thinking about anyway. Having said that, we worked out that with our property taxes going down (by almost a grand a year
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#17
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Not sure what you think the problem is, because most banks, including mid-large banks, and the federal housing agencies (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc), sell off the servicing rights to the highest bidder, and have done so for decades. I don't care where I send my mortgage payment, or who processes it, it makes no difference to me.
As to the housing market, it's been completely insane in San Francisco for the last twelve months. I hope I'm wrong, but it almost feels like there's another bubble in prices developing here.
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We just bought a house. (Yay!) We started the process a while ago, and have been through a few twists & turns, so I'm not sure how indicative our house purchase is of the present housing market in our area.
We got our house for well below asking price. We had thorough inspections done & based on the findings put in a substantially lower offer. After a lot of back-&-forthing the sellers agreed.
However...we are on a section of the coast with lots of second-home and summer-home stock. I think the market is still slower in this area, as even well-to-do people are no longer snapping up second homes the way they used to in the heady days before the housing crash.
We got our house for well below asking price. We had thorough inspections done & based on the findings put in a substantially lower offer. After a lot of back-&-forthing the sellers agreed.
However...we are on a section of the coast with lots of second-home and summer-home stock. I think the market is still slower in this area, as even well-to-do people are no longer snapping up second homes the way they used to in the heady days before the housing crash.
We just spotted another fixer-upper near us but in a posher sub-division which has an asking price probably half of its last assessed value (we bought ours for about 2/3 of last assessed value). If we had the capital we'd be tempted to enter the flipping game!
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#19
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The banks hold very few mortgages on their own books. I think the government still ends up (through Fannie Mae, FHA, Freddie Mac...) with about 80% of the mortgages either by holding or insuring them. It used to be different pre-crash, but effectively the government is propping up the mortgage market. I just refinanced and my mortgage has already been sold to Freddie Mac. I still make payments to my bank so I don't care.
As to the housing market, it's been completely insane in San Francisco for the last twelve months. I hope I'm wrong, but it almost feels like there's another bubble in prices developing here.
As to the housing market, it's been completely insane in San Francisco for the last twelve months. I hope I'm wrong, but it almost feels like there's another bubble in prices developing here.
Last edited by Michael; May 23rd 2013 at 4:45 am.
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#20
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Same over our side of the Willamette. Apparently there is only a 3months supply of houses on the market in the Portland Metro area. In Happy Valley the house builders are snapping up land and getting ready to build again.
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#21
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Locally, depends.
Some houses have sold in days while some others have been on the market for months. There's one house up the road that's been on the market most of the year.
Seems to slow down a little in the summer as people move in to the area and rent while there's a lot of rental going, but buy more in winter as it's a challenge to find a place during the winter months.
Some houses have sold in days while some others have been on the market for months. There's one house up the road that's been on the market most of the year.
Seems to slow down a little in the summer as people move in to the area and rent while there's a lot of rental going, but buy more in winter as it's a challenge to find a place during the winter months.
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Locally, depends.
Some houses have sold in days while some others have been on the market for months. There's one house up the road that's been on the market most of the year.
Seems to slow down a little in the summer as people move in to the area and rent while there's a lot of rental going, but buy more in winter as it's a challenge to find a place during the winter months.
Some houses have sold in days while some others have been on the market for months. There's one house up the road that's been on the market most of the year.
Seems to slow down a little in the summer as people move in to the area and rent while there's a lot of rental going, but buy more in winter as it's a challenge to find a place during the winter months.
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Getting into the local school is less of a issue down this way. It is for kindergarten though as there aren't many places offering full day and then it's a lottery for AM/PM spots.
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#24
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The market here in Bend, Oregon, is very volatile. Prices went through the roof from 2004 to 2007 and then crashed hard in 2008. Ours crashed in value from $480,000 (next door, which is a little smaller sold in the peak for $450,000) down to $150,000. Depending on which real state mouthpiece is on the news on any day, values are projected to rise 20% to 40% this year. Inventory is reportedly down to about 20 days. We're seriously thinking about selling up and getting out this summer.
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Or Fannie Mae or Freddy Mac securitizes them and sells them through wall street (over 98% of the Mortgage Back Securities issued since the crash). Although Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac can currently get very cheap short term money (up to 5 years in duration but higher profits if shorter) and make a large profit, hopefully they securitize most of the mortgages otherwise they'll have another major problem when interest rates eventually rise and can no longer get cheap short term money.
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#26
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I have been working with an all cash buyer for a number of months and we have bid on 6 homes all over the asking price and we still don't have a property in escrow
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#27
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The house we just bought was on the market for about a week. We saw it on the first day and put an offer in. There were fifteen other bids on it, no idea why our offer was chosen, but glad it was ![Regular Smile](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/msn/regular_smile.gif)
We put offers in on four other houses and were outright rejected from them all.
Inventory is very low in the San Diego area and houses are being snapped up. While we were looking I made a list of thirty houses (from Zillow) that we wanted to look at. Our realtor went through the list- every single one of them was already in escrow. Crazy times!
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We put offers in on four other houses and were outright rejected from them all.
Inventory is very low in the San Diego area and houses are being snapped up. While we were looking I made a list of thirty houses (from Zillow) that we wanted to look at. Our realtor went through the list- every single one of them was already in escrow. Crazy times!
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The house we just bought was on the market for about a week. We saw it on the first day and put an offer in. There were fifteen other bids on it, no idea why our offer was chosen, but glad it was ![Regular Smile](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/msn/regular_smile.gif)
We put offers in on four other houses and were outright rejected from them all.
Inventory is very low in the San Diego area and houses are being snapped up. While we were looking I made a list of thirty houses (from Zillow) that we wanted to look at. Our realtor went through the list- every single one of them was already in escrow. Crazy times!
![Regular Smile](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/msn/regular_smile.gif)
We put offers in on four other houses and were outright rejected from them all.
Inventory is very low in the San Diego area and houses are being snapped up. While we were looking I made a list of thirty houses (from Zillow) that we wanted to look at. Our realtor went through the list- every single one of them was already in escrow. Crazy times!
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#29
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Interesting to me that the east & west coasts seem different (anecdotally here, at least), with the markets still slower in the eastern cities & burbs. I wouldn't have expected that, yet I'm glad of it since we're here on the east coast.
Maybe reflective of the economy coming back to life?
Maybe reflective of the economy coming back to life?
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Interesting to me that the east & west coasts seem different (anecdotally here, at least), with the markets still slower in the eastern cities & burbs. I wouldn't have expected that, yet I'm glad of it since we're here on the east coast.
Maybe reflective of the economy coming back to life?
Maybe reflective of the economy coming back to life?
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