San Diego real estate blog - Peter Toner

This Saturday May 10th, marks the First Annual San Diego Home Expo 2008, being held by San Diego Association of Realtors and San Diego County’s Building Industry Association. The San Diego Home Expo’s goal is to inform the consumer on important things they should know about buying a home, selling a home, as well as [...]

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This has been a rather busy week in the office!! We have had multiple phone calls and emails from our clients wanting to view homes and our agents have been running around like mad! Its been a few days since our last post and this morning we found a pleasant surprise in our “inbox”…. We [...]

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We blogged already about the new FHA loan limits ~ Before you get too excited to use an FHA loan, be sure to check and see if the condo community of interest has been HUD approved!
We can do the research for you to find out if a condo has made the approved list. [...]

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The Bush camp announced more news of government assistance to homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments. HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and its new product FHASecure is the government’s latest attempt to relieve some of the pain being felt by those homeowners that have had their mortgage rates adjust from their original teaser rates. The [...]

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A new plan of attack for Market Relief is being discussed on Capitol Hill. The latest proposed plan is estimated to provide $15 billion dollars in “relief”. The plan is still in its infancy and many of the details still need to be agreed upon and approved between the House and the White House. [...]

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All markets are cyclical, they are rarely stable - this video from a Southern California real estate consulting group adds explanations. Includes graphs about San Diego real estate.

Posted by Peter Toner

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A recent article on Forbes.com discusses which metro areas in the nation they consider to be the “Riskiest” buys for home purchases. They evaluated multiple sources of data regarding foreclosure statistics, employment growth, volume of sales, vacancy as well as inventory in order to determine which metro areas had the “riskiest” statistics.
Forbes “Riskiest” areas included [...]

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With all the talk about FHA, CalHFA and Conventional-Conforming loans, one can get a bit confused on all the details. To make it a bit easier to compare the three we have a list below that shows the main points of the three types of loans.  
These details are current as of today, but should you [...]

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CalHFA stands for California Housing Finance Agency and was established in 1975 as the states “affordable housing bank.” It’s focus is on assisting first time home-buyers that are within specific lower and moderate income range brackets. These loan programs can be great for the first time home-buyer allowing them to borrow up to 100% financing for their home. Currently the [...]

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The FHA loan program offers many advantages including a low 3% down payment – if you are curious just what it all means here is an example if you were to purchase a home  and take advantage of the new loan limit of $697,500 - which would allow a purchase price of $719,000.
Here is an [...]

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Children win with the new lead ordinance that was passed by the San Diego City Council this past Tuesday. Collectively agreed upon by all Council members, the ordinance applies to all homes built prior to 1979. Some of the essential elements of the new law are that it is now illegal to create a lead hazard [...]

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Nightline exposed the practice of Real Estate Agent’s “refreshing” properties in order to make them more appealing to buyers. The concept of “refreshing” is simple. A real estate agent lists a home, and hopes it will sell quickly. In some cases the home sits on the market for a while, becoming “stale” to prospective buyers. [...]

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 It’s true! HUD (the US Department of Urban and Housing Development) confirmed that San Diego is approved for an increased loan limit of $697,500 - applicable to FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and Conforming loans. Our affiliate lender Home Services Lending will be ready to start writing loans by March 17th. They also will have the ability [...]

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We often hear from our clients such things as ~  “I think I’ll just wait and see what happens” or “Isn’t it a buyer’s market” or “Let’s wait and see if the price goes down anymore” ~  All are credible reasons to wait in today’s real estate market. But what happens when you sit on [...]

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The turmoil facing the lending industry has caused a lot of concern and alarm amongst consumers. With all of “these” lenders going bankrupt, many are unsure of what lending companies to turn to for their mortgage needs.
Even within our own company we are seeing changes. Our affiliate lender First Capital was recently acquired by HomeServices [...]

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