California Luxury Home Values Set New Highs in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco

Luxury home values set new records in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco in second quarter of 2004. According to the Prestige Home Index California luxury real estate has grown at double digit appreciation.

Here are the facts:

• Los Angeles luxury home values up 17.5% ($256k) to $1.72 million over last year.
• San Diego luxury home values up 18.8% ($273K) to $1.73 million over last year.
• San Francisco luxury home values up 16.4% ($357K) to $2.54 million over last year.

Although now we may see a cooling off of these home values as the inventory begins to build and if mortgage rates climb. Keep an eye on the amount of homes for sale as you may begin seeing some properties not selling at current prices.

The Prestige Home Index is produced by First Republic Bank.

Thanks for Reading.

Jessie J. Beaudoin

California Mortgage Rates Down Slightly

California mortgages have remained under the magic 6% for some time now. The treasury yield on Friday was 4.22% and today so far its down to 4.19%, which may lead to slightly lower mortgage rates tomorrow.

This reaction in the treasury market appears to be due to weak July personal income report. According to the report, personal income edge up just .01% well below forecasts of .5% and less than June's .2% gain.

If you have a mortgage loan in process currently, I would suggest to lock-in your loans because this week there is a lot of data coming out that can affect mortgage rates both way... better to be safe than sorry.

As for real estate new... nothing worth noting today with the exception of the new home construction in California that has slowed slightly but is still 10% above last year. Well need to keep our eye on this in the coming month with the new-permits to see if California new home builders are getting concerned and slowing their building.

Thanks for Reading.
Jessie J. Beaudoin

CalPERS Home Loans Offers Cash Rebate with SMARTMOVE Program

CalPERS members using a CalPERS home loan to buy a home can now get a cash back rebate for using its new SMARTMOVE progam. Homebuyers will receive a cash-back rebate up to $5,000. Learn more about this CalPERS program.

On that note, here are the current mortgage rates for the Conventional CalPERS home loans under $333,700

• Conventional 30 Yr. Fixed CalPERS Loans - 5.875% / 6.038% APR
• Conventional 15 Yr. Fixed CalPERS Loans - 5.250% / 5.515% APR

Here are the Jumbo Loans available from CalPERS for loans up to: $1,334,804:

• CalPERS Jumbo Loans 30 Yr. Fixed - 6.125% / 6.279% APR
• CalPERS Jumbo Loans 15 Yr. Fixed - 5.375% / 5.621% APR

Learn more about buying a home or mortgage refinancing using your CalPERS Home Loans.

Thanks for Reading.

Jessie J. Beaudoin

National Housing Bubble?

Housing Bubble. There has been a lot of talk about this lately. A great read is this CNN article about the bubble. The argument seems to be it there is one... is it going to be a national decline? You may have your own opinion but I will give you somethings to think about.

• 6 of 10 all national real estate transaction are in California
• California has 4 of the 5 top real estate markets nationally
• 20% of the national GDP comes from an 80 mile radius around Los Angeles
• 60% of US banks assets are tied up in home financing
• 2/3 of the economy is driven by consumer spending...

If there is a housing bubble in California... rest assured everyone is going to feel it.

Thanks for Reading.

Jessie J. Beaudoin

Orange County Real Estate Slowing Down

Orange County, California - One of the hottest real estate markets in the country where the median home price is over $600,000 is showing signs that it may be cooling off... but not dead.

Here are some interest stats regarding Orange County real estate according to DataQuick.

• Home sales were down about 17 percent in Orange County from July 2003 to July 2004
• Down 13.3 percent from June 2004 to July 2004.
• versus 2003 when Orange County home sales were up 6.1 percent from June to July 2003 summer typically being the busiest time.
• Overall home prices were up 36.4 percent from May 2003 to May 2004, compared with 22.7 percent from July 2003 to July 2004.

The California Association of REALTORS has these stats to offer:

• inventory of existing, detached homes has grown from 1.4 months in April to 7.5 months in July. October 1998 was the last time it reached 7.5 months. This monthly supply refers to the number of months it would take to sell the housing supply at the current sales pace.
• Sales of existing, detached homes are down 35.7 percent from July 2003 to 2004, and have dropped 7.7 percent this year through July but interestingly price appreciation has ranged from 30 percent to 40 percent for the Orange County market for much of the year.
• The deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, Robert Kleinhenz, stated that year-to-year sales numbers have been on a declining trend since the start of the year in Orange County, "probably because it's very much a supply-constrained market. It was that supply constraint that drove price appreciation in the last few months."

Also the number of homes for sale in Orange County has approximately doubled in the last three months. As the inventory builds home buyers don't feel the pressure to make immediate offers which slows the market down. Additionally I believe that the recent increase in mortgage rates may also have slowed things down slightly but the general consensus is that its not going to crash.

Search the current inventory of Orange County real estate including Orange County foreclosures. Curious about your homes current value? Get a free Orange County home value estimate.

Thanks for Reading.

Jessie J. Beaudoin

Las Vegas Real Estate Cooling Off

I have many clients that have been talking to me about buying real estate in Las Vegas as an investment. I have been telling them that it will be cooling off in the very near future... Here is an article that I have forwarded to all of my clients who were interested and I thought you may find it interesting as well. It basically states that the inventory of homes for same has doubled in the last 6 months.

Thanks for Reading.
Jessie J. Beaudoin

New Home Sales Drop 1.7% in the West in July

New home sales have dropped 1.7% to 290,000 in the West including California. New home sales are calculated on the date they receive a sign deposit for the property to be built, while existing home sales are calculated on closed escrow transactions. Last month existing home sales also dropped slightly. Again, most industry insiders attribute the drop to higher mortgage rates. Nationally new home sales fell more than 6.4%.

Inventories of available new homes based on the current sales pace have ballooned to a 4.2 months supply, the highest inventory level since Fedruary 2003.

California mortgage rates have edged up since last week causing new home loan applications to fall slightly according to a mortgage banking trade group. Mortgage refinance activity has also slowed down by 6.3% according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

As mortgage rates on the first mortgage climb we are seening an increase into home equity line of credit loans. Our HELOC is a 3.99% APR equity line of credit based on the prime rate minus .51% for the life of the loan. Get all the details regarding this home equity line of credit.

Thanks for Reading!
Jessie J. Beaudoin

Existing Home Sales decline 6.6% in July

According to the NAR existing home sales in the west declined 6.6% in July over the previous months but its still 9.9% higher than the previous years home sales. As I mentioned before the slow down in existing sales may be due to the higher mortgage rates from the last few months. My guess is the in the following months you should see a slight increase in home sales due the currrent the lower mortgage rates.

Nationally existing home sales declined 2.9%. The national median existing-home price was $191,300 in July, up 8.7 percent from July 2003 when the median price was $176,000.
Housing inventory levels at the end of July were unchanged from June at 2.4 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace.

California mortgage rates have remained stable over the last few days and should hopefully stay at current levels. Mortgage refinance activity still strong as well as demand for home equity lines of credit.

Thanks for Reading.
Jessie

California Real Estate Prices Continue to Climb

Again California real estate values continue to surge. The median home price for a detached home in California in the second quarter of 2004 is $461,730, rising over 25.3 percent over the previous year and setting a new record. The information is reported by the California Association of Realtors.

In case you are curious... here are the the 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during the second quarter of 2004. I have also included links to search real estate listing within each of the cities: Beverly Hills, $1,410,000; Malibu, $1,400,000; Los Altos, $1,350,000; Manhattan Beach, $1,299,000; Laguna Beach, $1,250,000; Palos Verdes Estates, $1,200,000; Saratoga, $1,175,000; San Marino, $1,120,000; Burlingame, $1,097,500; and Newport Beach, $1,075,000.

On another note according to Dataquick the total number Southern California real estate sales soften by 5% from the previous months sales... possibly due to higher mortgage rates from the few months before. In all there was 32,988 homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange County versus 34,371 the month before. Search current MLS listings in these counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange County.

Interestingly the most expensive counties Orange County and Ventura save real estate sales decline by 16.9% and 16.1% but the least expensive county San Bernardino posted a record of 4,335 home sales which was up 9%.

Lastly it apprears the the most recent information indicates that real estate prices on closed transactions may have decreased an average of 1% from the previous month.

Again... thanks for reading!

Jessie

California Mortgage Rates & Refinance Activity

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association mortgage refinance activity has increased over 21% due to the lowest mortgage rates in four months. If the DOW continues to climb and the 30 year bond decreases in price the yield increases, which will cause mortgage rates to rise.

Due to the inverse relationship between mortgage rates and home prices you should see a slight increase in the month over month home sale prices in the upcoming month.

On that note if you are a member of CalPERS, LRS or JRS you may want to take advantage of the low CalPERS mortgage rates currently available.

Thanks for reading.
Jessie J. Beaudoin

California Real Estate Center

Hello Everyone.

Since I spend my days on the phone discussing mortgage rates and real estate trends in California, I thought it would be useful to share these thoughts with everyone. In case you are wondering who I am and why you may be interested in reading my blog, let me share a little about me.

My name is Jessie J. Beaudoin and I have been in real estate in southern California for the last 12 years. I am a mortgage broker and REALTOR who has helped thousands of individuals buy a home and refinance their mortgages.

I look forward to brining your useful, timely information and commentaries about our local real estate market as well as thoughts regarding where interest rates will go.

Thank You,
Jessie