Helping or Hurting?

Missed this one a few weeks ago, but it's worth a trip back in time. New appraisal guidelines are making it harder than ever to get financing for a home purchase. These days, anti-reform and anti-regulation stances are less popular than ever, but reform for reform's sake can backfire.

In our sphere, we've heard innumerable stories of local appraisals being done by out-of-area appraisers. (Mill Valley house, Sacramento appraiser. San Francisco condo, Morgan Hill appraiser.) We talk often about the importance of working with a Realtor who really understands a local market. Well, that wisdom gets severely compromised when an out-of-area appraiser can step in and blow up a transaction.

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Are regulators protecting us from ourselves or are they preventing the market from recovering?

The Biggest Investment That Isn't

Apropos of today's earlier post, we were thinking about the conventional wisdom that one's home is usually one's largest investment. In light of the number of people walking away from their "largest investment," it's worth asking...if a person buys a home with zero down and an interest-only loan (as was the case for more than a few buyers during the boom time), is it really an investment at all? The only thing the buyer is risking is his credit score. There's no judgement or political statement implied by the previous sentence. Just an observation meant to spark debate.

Clean Bill of Health

In possibly the least shocking news story of the year, Marin was recently ranked as as California's healthiest county. It's a very nice sustainably harvested feather in our organic hats. Laugh all you want, but these are the things that help real estate values. We plan to celebrate with a Double Double and a side of fries.

It's Heeeeere!

We've been saying it for a few months. SF and Marin ran, but they couldn't hide. How long will it last, maybe not as long as feared. Read today's Chron article for details.

Put On Notice

The Dow cracked 9000 today. Ford turned a quarterly profit. Home resales were up 3.6%. All good news, right? Yes. But...

The broader economy my be starting to recover, but there are some troubling signs that our local real estate market may still have a way to go.

Specifically, Marin and San Francisco, which have had lower foreclosure rates than almost all other counties in the state, may not be immune much longer. An article in today's Chronicle indicates that Notices of Default (the firstpart of the foreclosure process) are up 30%-40% in San Francisco and Marin. This is a distressing sign.