San Diego Housing Market February 2016, Home Buying Tips in a Low-Inventory Market

This low housing inventory environment is not projected to go away any time soon. According to the latest report from San Diego Association of Realtors, in San Diego County, inventory levels were down 18.8 percent in February 2016. The property type that lost the least inventory was the Single-Family Homes segment, where it decreased 16.2 percent. That amounts to 2.2 months supply for Single-Family Homes and 1.6 months supply for Condos – Townhomes.

Pending Sales in San Diego County were up 10.0 percent overall. Days on Market decreased 21.6% overall. Desperate home Buyers are snatching up homes when they are listed. It is not uncommon to receive 10-20 offers in 10 days on one property when it is marketed correctly. In some cases all are over the asking price.

The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $250,001 to $500,000 range at 34 days; the price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $1,250,001 Or More range at 62 days.

The overall Median Sales Price was up 5.9% $468,000.

New Foreclosure Listings in February increased 1.2 percent to 526 properties. Inventory of San Diego Foreclosure Properties are continuing to steadily decline.

Interest rates are still well below their long-term averages. Mortgage rates continue to astound below 4.0%.

While it is still a great time to buy a home in San Diego, with inventory levels remaining lower, there simply aren’t as many homes to choose from on the market today. Home buyers need to work with a great buyer’s agent directly to get active listings from the local MLS. You cannot search all the homes on MLS on 3rd party real estate websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com (only a licensed realtor who is a member of local MLS can search all the homes on MLS). With such tight inventory, you do not want to miss any homes on the MLS. Also, it is a good idea to ask your agent to search some off-market listings (Cancelled Listings, Expired Listings, etc).

If you’re thinking about buying a home in 2016, give us a call 619-663-7139. Our trained agents specialize in the San Diego real estate market and are prepared to find the right home and get the best price.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KELLER WILLIAMS SAN DIEGO - THE MY HOME TEAM

Mark Kunce CA BRE #01458113

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Keller Williams San Diego Metro - The My Home Team. San Diego Real Estate Agent. Keller Williams Real Estate Agent. Keller Williams Cultural Icon. San Diego REALTOR®.

Preparing your home for Chinese homebuyers, investors

China surpassed Canada as the foreign country that spends the most on residential properties in the U.S.; Chinese buyers comprise 16 percent of international home buyers. One-third of Chinese purchases were concentrated in California for the year ended in March, according to the National Association of Realtors, trailed by Washington state, with 8% of purchases, and New York, at 7%. What do these Chinese buyers look for when shopping for a house? What type of house do they prefer? The Chinese are attracted by many of the same qualities as local buyers: good schools, good location and a good value. Feng Shui is the second-most important consideration, according to the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) survey. 81 percent of Chinese-Americans surveyed who are also home owners said that Feng Shui factored into their most recent home purchase. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice involves making energetic and physical adjustments to a space in order to create balance and flow. Home seller can use Feng Shui to assist in selling your homes or investment property, you can maximize your chances of appealing to the greater audience to get the best selling price possible. Below are some examples of deal-breakers that go against Feng Shui and the reasoning behind those principles:

Good Feng Shui

• Uncut crystals in the bedroom provide stability
• Bamboo lifts energy upward
• Displaying ancestor's possessions and sharing their stories
• Undulating terrain-a dragon site
• Wind chimes
• Uncluttered spaces
• South-facing windows
• Stoneware pots strengthen ties to Mother Earth
• Silver elements in the bedroom connect to other lifetimes and invite angels' protection
• Stones integrated with the landscape
• South-facing bed, kitchen and dining room on east side of house, living room in the center, and the study on the north
• Water features

Bad Feng Shui

• Commercial buildings or hospitals next to a temple or church
• Buildings towering over those around it
• Glass front doors
• Fast-flowing streams
• Hills deprived of topsoil or foliage
• Facing a hill blocks good fortune.
• T-intersections invite evil spirits to enter
• Yards sloping down to the road-chi flows away
• Lobby stairway leading directly to the front door
• Clutter in any form
• Front door aligned with a back door
• Pie-shaped lots brings bad luck-triangles are unlucky shapes
• Sharp corners

Mark Kunce Keller Williams Realty San Diego Metro - The My Home Team CA BRE# 01458113

San Diego Housing Market Update September 2015

San Diego Housing Market is steady throughout San Diego County.

For the 12-month period spanning October 2014 through September 2015, Pending Sales in San Diego County were up 10.4 percent overall.

The Median Sales Price was up 4.5 percent to $527,500 for Detached homes and 3.6 percent to $347,000 for Attached homes. The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $500,001 to $750,000 range at 37 days; the price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $1,250,001 or more range at 65 days.

Closed Sales decreased 4.9 percent for Detached homes but increased 4.1 percent for Attached homes. Don’t be surprised to hear that San Diego Home sales.

Market-wide, inventory levels were down 30.6 percent. The property type that lost the least inventory was the Single-Family Homes segment, where it decreased 21.4 percent. That amounts to 2.7 months supply for Single-Family Homes and 2.1 months supply for Condos – Townhomes.

Don’t be surprised if you hear “San Diego County Home sales are down” or “San Diego’s Housing Market has slowed down” during the next few months. We will be in a typical seasonal drop-off with lower inventory than last year.

It is a great time for sellers who have a Single-Family Home with un-permitted additions. With a lack of inventory, buyers will make some compromise and not be so particular.

For buyers, it might be tougher to find a perfect Home to purchase. Buyers needs to work with a great buyer's agent who will search some off-market listings (Cancelled Listings, Expired Listings, etc). Great news is that the one thing we were anticipating in September, an increase in interest rates, did not happen. It most likely will though before year’s end.

Mark Kunce

Keller Williams San Diego Metro - The My Home Team

100% Financing Home Loan in San Diego, Home Ownership Made Easier

For some borrowers, saving up 3% for a down payment is still a hurdle they can’t quite clear due to the rising rent (44.6% up from 2005, according to the San Diego County Apartment Association reports. CBRE projects rents to increase by more than 3 percent in each of the next three years, until slowing to 2.4 percent annually in 2020.)

However, we have teamed up with a Bank that has a new program… 100% Financing Home Loan in San Diego (Zero-percent down mortgage).

This program is to help low- and moderate-income borrowers become homeowners by helping to overcome one of the “most significant barriers” to home ownership, the down payment.

It allows qualifying borrowers to finance up to 100 percent of a home’s value, with the bank contributing up to $4,500 toward certain closing costs.

Under this 100% Financing Home Loan program there are no private mortgage insurance, or PMI, requirements with a home mortgage, which can easily add $150 or more each month to the typical home loan payment.

To qualify for the program, certain eligibility requirements must be met. Those eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to (1) the property must either be located in a low-to-moderate income census tract (https://www.ffiec.gov/geocode/), or (2) the applicants on the loan cannot have an income greater than 80% of the HUD median income for the area. A lender credit not to exceed $4,500 will be applied at the time of closing, after final underwriting and product eligibility has been confirmed. (3) Minimum credit score of 620.

Other benefits of the program:

• Borrowers can move into a new residence with as little as $500 of their own funds. Seller funds and cash gifts can be used to pay remaining closing costs and so-called “prepaids” — expenses such as taxes and insurance that must be paid at closing before they are technically due.
• The program offers flexible fixed-rate mortgage terms, with 30-, 25-, 20-, 15- and 10-year options available.
• No income limits apply when the property is located in a Low or Moderate income census tract.

In some cases, borrowers participating in the program will pay a monthly mortgage payment that is as much as or less than what they currently pay as renters. And that’s an important point: This program will be helping people who’ve already proven their ability to make that monthly payment.
Contact us for details and complete eligibility requirements.

Mark Kunce

Keller Williams San Diego -The My Home Team

Easing of mortgage lending standards: Housing Bubble or No Bubble

Fannie Mae's third quarter 2015 Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey™ reveals that more lenders report easing of mortgage lending standards across all loan types. Great news for home buyers.

For example, recently Chase Bank eased the lending requirements for its jumbo mortgages, which tend to be loans in excess of $417,000 in many markets and $625,500 in more expensive areas. A potential buyer now only needs a credit score of 680 and a 15% down payment to qualify for a maximum loan amount of $3 million for a primary-residence home. Borrowers used to need a 740 score and put 20% down. By easing its standards, the bank is hoping to gain more customers.

California is by far the biggest lending state when it comes to jumbo mortgages—both in dollar amount and number of loans. More than half of Bank of America’s jumbo lending is originated and closed in California, and dollar volume from January through August 2015 was up 20% over a year ago.

Fannie Mae announced its new HomeReady mortgage that will replace MyCommunityMortgage, Fannie’s previous affordable lending product. The latest product is designed to help creditworthy borrowers with lower and moderate incomes access an affordable, sustainable mortgage.

Easier credit may sound like a recipe for an automatic rerun of the housing crisis. Some critics express concern over a new housing bubble. But it’s still a far cry from the heady pre-crisis days where lenders would often waive downpayments entirely and not bother checking borrowers’ claims regarding their credit-worthiness. Unlike the catastrophic housing bubble seen at the start of this century, home price frothiness today is not being fueled by free and easy mortgage credit.

Are you concerned over a new hosing bubble? Should Mortgage Lending Standards Ease?

(Real Story) Home Selling Tips: How to fight a low appraisal

We had one property in contract, and appraisal came $80,000 in lower than purchase price. Buyer who is a Real Estate agent insisted that our seller should reconsider the sale price based on the appraisal because all other buyers will run into the exact same situation.

Not so fast!

A low home appraisal can kill the sale of a home. Our story is a bit extreme but it may happen to you. So here are home selling tips to help you fight a low appraisal.

1. Check for mistakes
You and your real estate agent need to take time to read the appraisal report. Make sure the appraiser made no mistakes that might have led to a lower valuation. Make sure facts about the home are correct, including the number of rooms and bathrooms. Also look for omissions, such as a recent addition or significant improvement that should have increased the value of the home. And make sure the comparable-sales data is fair and accurate.

2. Look at homes in the same neighborhood
The homes used in the appraisal should be in the very same neighborhood as yours, especially if some of the surrounding neighborhoods are less desirable than yours.

3. Check into the school district
This can be a significant value changer for many neighborhoods. Homes in significantly better school districts are more desirable and generally priced higher than their counterparts in sub-par districts. Be sure all homes in the appraisal share the very same school district. This can make all the difference.

4. Ask the appraiser to reconsider
Once you have copies of all your comps and any other supporting documentation, you can present all that to the appraiser and ask them to reconsider their determination. This is usually done via the bank or mortgage company that originally ordered the appraisal.

5. Ask for a second appraiser
If the appraiser refuses to reconsider his determination, and you and your agent feel there is supporting evidence that would significantly alter the outcome of the appraisal value, you can send a demand letter to the bank or mortgage company to send out for a second appraisal.

6. Order a brand-new appraisal
Finally, if all else fails, you or your real estate agent can order your own appraisal. There is a cost for that and you would have to pay for it out-of-pocket. There is no guarantee that it will come in at a better value, but if you and your team feel confident that the value should be higher, than it may be worth the expense. You can also try to have the cost split between the seller and buyer — as it benefits both.

7. Meet in the middle
If buyer agrees that appraisal value is not reflecting property improvements etc., you can meet in the middle or somewhere in between. For example, if purchase price was $500,000 and appraisal came $480,000, you can lower the purchase sale to $490,000 then buyer needs to make up the difference in cash.

As for our case, buyer/agent was determined to purchase property closer to appraised value, which was $80,000 lower, and will not go along with a dispute of the appraisal. In fact we thought this could have been appraisal fraud because the buyer could flip this property without much of their money put into it.
So we discussed the situation to our seller, here is what we did…

8. Move on to new buyer
If you and your real estate agent are confident of your property value, and market value is not declining, cancel the contract and just move on.

Our team and sellers had confidence in the property valuation, especially after performing so many Broker Price Opinions (the estimated value of a property as determined by a real estate agent) for Bank owned properties and short sales for the lenders. So, we canceled the contract, withdrew the property from market for short time, re-listed property, sold for more than asking price. The appraisal came in at the purchase price. These two appraisal difference are whopping more than $90,000!!!

As always the seller should work with experienced realtor to handle these situations.

Video "Real Estate Investment: A Wide Gap"

http://www.sdmyhome.com/investor.html

San  Diego Realtor Mark Kunce talks about Real Estate Investment.

Keller Williams names Mark Kunce 2013 Cultural Icon for Southern CA

Mark Kunce of San Diego My Home Team, Keller Williams San Diego Metro was recently named as the 2013 Cultural Icon for his contributions to KW Cares and many other local and national charities. More commonly known as the WI4C2TS Award, it is given to the agent who best exemplifies the Keller Williams culture. The Cultural Icon Award is presented to an elite group of Associates who best live up to the Keller Williams Realty "WI4C2TS" philosophy.

KW Cares is a 501(c) (3) public charity created to support Keller Williams Realty associates and their families with hardship as a result of a sudden emergency. Hardship is defined as a difficult circumstance that a person or family cannot handle without outside help.

The charity is the heart of Keller Williams Realty culture in action – finding and serving the higher purpose of business through charitable giving in the Market Centers and communities where Keller Williams associates live and work.

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The Top 11 Reasons a Seller Should List During the Holidays

11. By selling now, you may have an opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when many more houses are on the market for less money! This will allow you to sell high and buy low!

10. You can sell now for more money and we will provide for a delayed closing or extended occupancy until early next year!

9. Even though your house will be on the market, you still have the option to restrict showings during the six or seven days around the Holidays!

8. January is traditionally the month for employees to begin new jobs. Since transferees cannot wait until spring to buy, you need to be on the market during the Holidays to capture that market!

7. Some people must buy before the end of the year for tax reasons!

6. Buyers have more time to look for a home during the holidays than they do during a working week!

5. Buyers are more emotional during the Holidays, so they are more likely to pay your price!

4. Houses show better when decorated for the Holidays!

3. Since the supply of listings will dramatically increase in January, there will be less demand for your particular home! Less demand means less money for you!

2. Serious buyers have fewer houses to choose from during the Holidays and less competition means more
money for you! 


And the Number One reason why a Seller should list during the Holidays…
1. People who look for homes during the Holidays are more serious buyers


If you are looking to sell your home, please contact San Diego My Home Team.

6 Tax Facts Home Sellers Should Know