Here are the statistics that will give you an idea of how the market is doing in your area.

The stats are the percentages of the houses that are in escrow compared to the total

number of houses in the market per area.

Here are the numbers for the week ending 9/13/08.
The following is considered the rule of thumb:

Buyers market if: Less than 25% of the houses in inventory are in Escrow

Sellers market if: 25% or more of the houses in inventory are in Escrow

Class 1= Single Family Homes Only as of 9/13/08:

Zone % of listings in escrow Active # of Listings

1 South County 25.8% 687

2 Santa Teresa 30.7% 115

3 Evergreen 27.3% 429

4 East Valley 29.4% 731

5 North Valley 36.8% 253

6 Milpitas 35.7% 126

8 Santa Clara 28.3% 210

9 Downtown 29.0% 313

10 Willow Glen 19.1% 250

11 South San Jose 31.3% 396

12 Blossom 34.2% 239

13 Almaden 18.5% 110

14 Cambrian 34.5% 175

15 Campbell 24.3% 174

16 Los Gatos 17.6% 168

17 Saratoga 18.6% 131

18 Cupertino 29.7% 109

19 Sunnyvale 41.3% 122

Read the rest of this entry »

Has the Housing Market Hit Bottom??!! Did you know most home buyers miss the market turn by 6 months?! Don’t miss out on your opportunity to buy with record low rates and record low prices….. and ton’s of inventory to choose from!!!!!

The signs are there. Ignoring them will cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

Watch and find out how!

“Hindsight is only a decision viewed through the lens of experience”

-By Brian Rodgers

This quote is so true for me. I’ve heard, and even said, that hindsight is 20/20, but it’s really a skewed vision based on what previous decisions we’ve made to get us to that moment of reflection.

Have you had a “defining moment” or vision of clarity, or even a little bit of doubt lately? Comment below and tell me YOUR story.

Did You Know That You Need A Job, A Good Credit Rating and Promise To Pay The Lender Back Before You Can Get A Loan?

You must have heard about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Because it’s important to me that you get the ‘ Straight Talk” I thought I would take a minute and interpret for you exactly what it means and how it will impact you personally.

First a little history.

A couple of months ago the federal government took action to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For starters, the Federal Reserve opened the discount window to allow the two government sponsored enterprises to borrow lots of money, at 2.5% to cover there mounting losses.

The Fed committed to making sure that these two companies who hold or guarantee 5.2 trillion dollars worth of mortgages didn’t go belly up.

So here’s what’s going on now:

Freddie and Fannie have lost 3.1 billion dollars between April and June, and about 14 billion dollars year to date. Now the guys at the top of both companies are getting kicked out, and there have been some revelations of poor management as well as the possibility of cooked books.

So the Fed is stepping in, and putting the companies into conservatorship. Sort of like Chapter 11 reorganization. They’re going to buy around 100 billion dollars worth of Fannie and Freddie mortgage backed securities.

This is a big deal, because not only does it show the government’s commitment to keeping these companies afloat, but also because it can have a positive effect on rates.

What we can expect is more of what we’ve seen in the past year. Lenders have gotten away from the very loose underwriting guidelines of the last several years.

Borrowers will really have to have their ducks in a row with good documentation, and credit issues dealt with in advance.

So here’s the bottom line- Mortgages are going to continue to be available with good rates, but lenders are going to be very strict in they’re underwriting.

So the next time you’re in a conversation with a family member, friend, or neighbor and you know that they have a job, a good credit rating and will keep their commitment to pay back their loan and they mention that they need help getting a loan to fit their needs do these three things.

1.    Take out your cell phone.
2.    Look up my number.
3.    Call me immediately and we can talk about how you can introduce them to me.

I hope this information has been helpful to you, and I’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

Thank you,

Clay Edwards

Bank of Commerce / Mortgage

408-629-2529 Office

Many of you may have seen the article in today’s Mercury News Real Estate section addressing the take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and how that’s affecting interest rates. I am including a clip from it here just in case you missed it:

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac takeover causes mortgage rates to tumble

ONE-DAY DECLINE IN COST OF A MORTGAGE ‘INCREDIBLE’; HOUSING PESSIMISM WANES

By Steve Johnson
Mercury News

Article Launched: 09/09/2008 07:38:22 AM PDT

The federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sent mortgage rates tumbling in California, raising hopes that the state’s severely ailing housing market will get a boost.

After the federal action Sunday, consumers with outstanding credit Monday were offered rates as low as 5.375 percent on 30-year fixed mortgages, said Cathy Warshawsky, president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. That was down nearly a full percentage point “” a difference that would amount to more than a $200 decrease in monthly payments on a $400,000 loan.

“It’s been absolutely incredible,” Warshawsky said. “None of us expected this to happen. That ought to give people some serious hope.”

As always, I’m curious what you think. Will the lower rate motivate people to buy in the final 3.5 months of the year? And does the soon-to-expire upper limit of $729,750 on conforming loans play into that decision?

I’d appreciate it if you could contact me and let me know how these developments make you feel about the housing market so I can better serve you and my current and future clients.

Please be aware that I am watching this very closely on a daily basis and will be blogging it about it regularly so be sure to subscribe to my blog. The link is on the right or above.

Thanks!

Gov’t may soon take over troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation’s mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.

Some of the details of the intervention, which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, the companies’ chief regulator, met Friday afternoon with the top executives from the mortgage companies and informed them of the government’s plan to put the troubled companies into a conservatorship.

The news, first reported on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site, came after stock markets closed. In after-hours trading Fannie Mae’s shares plunged $1.54, or 22 percent, to $5.50. Freddie Mac’s shares fell $1.06, or almost 21 percent, to $4.04. Common stock in the companies will be worth little to nothing after the government’s actions.

The news also followed a report Friday by the Mortgage Bankers Association that more than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage, a record 9 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June.

That confirmed what investors saw in Fannie and Freddie’s recent financial results: trouble in the mortgage market has shifted to homeowners who had solid credit but took out exotic loans with little or no proof of their income and assets.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost a combined $3.1 billion between April and June. Half of their credit losses came from these types of risky loans with ballooning monthly payments.

While both companies said they had enough resources to withstand the losses, many investors believe their financial cushions could wither away as defaults and foreclosures mount.

Many in Washington and on Wall Street hadn’t expected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to intervene unless the companies had trouble issuing debt to fund their operations.

This summer, Congress passed a plan to provide unlimited government loans to Fannie and Freddie and to purchase stock in the two companies if needed.

Critics say the open-ended nature of the rescue package could expose taxpayers to billions of dollars of potential losses.

Supporters, however, argue the Bush administration had little choice but to support Fannie and Freddie, which together hold or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages — almost half the nation’s total.