Home refinace attempt going badly... 15 year 2.75% no points.

[jinman]

My wife's aunt and uncle sold a home in the SF Bay area for around $1 million before the bust. They moved to Texas and bought a much nicer house on 2 acres for $369k. Every year they go on a long cruise or vacation with just the interest/gain on the cash they had left over from their sale. That sale and a nice retirement nest egg has made them completely financially independent. I suspect lots of folks did the same thing, but I'd also be the folks who bought their home in the Bay Area are shedding some tears. In real estate and the stock market, timing is everything.

 

[dmccarty]

I read that ReFi applications are slowing down so the banks need to lower the costs to bring in business.

We closed on our ReFi a month or so back after having problems with the CU over the summer.

Hopefully, this is our last ReFi and/or mortgage.

Later,
Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

My wife's aunt and uncle sold a home in the SF Bay area for around $1 million before the bust. They moved to Texas and bought a much nicer house on 2 acres for $369k. Every year they go on a long cruise or vacation with just the interest/gain on the cash they had left over from their sale. That sale and a nice retirement nest egg has made them completely financially independent. I suspect lots of folks did the same thing, but I'd also be the folks who bought their home in the Bay Area are shedding some tears. In real estate and the stock market, timing is everything.

Hey... I thought the 3 most important things in Real Estate is location, location, location.

Know quite a few that cashed out and relocated... the SF Bay Area was a very good place to that.

Right now the market is very strong and in some areas all that was lost has been recouped and more...

 

[ultrarunner]

I read that ReFi applications are slowing down so the banks need to lower the costs to bring in business.

We closed on our ReFi a month or so back after having problems with the CU over the summer.

Hopefully, this is our last ReFi and/or mortgage.

Later,
Dan

I was given several excuses as to why it took so long... for all I know, they could be true.

1. Refi take a backseat to Purchase Loans because home buyers often have a critical time line.

2. The volume was overwhelming... the loan officer said it was like everyone got together over the Christmas Holidays and made refi and New Year's resolution

3. The processor assigned to my file was terminated for not processing.

To the Credit Unions credit... they did not play games with the rate lock like my existing lender tried to do.

My only reason to refi was to pay down my mortgage by a third and change from an adjustable to a fixed...

My one and only adjustable has treated me great... every adjustment it went down... just thinking what goes down can go up...

 

[clemsonfor]

Heard an NPR story yesterday or 2 weeks ago about the market and places like ATL and california are now again seeing double digit gains in housing prices!

Here we go again. To me other that a somewhat heathly stock market from newly fit and trim businesses that weatered the storm were still a bad economy, jobs are tough pay increases are not there or to the degree they were and comissions are down, so where is all this money coming from??

I still am a little guy here in the south that has a modest income and those prices out there are just unfathomable to me, i really dont understand big cities and folks who have so much money that they can buy these giant houses $500,000 and up. I mean thats crazy money to me.

 

[ultrarunner]

Lot of truth to this...

I bought my first home fresh out of college in Oakland CA for $11,500. That was in 1982 and the 700 square feet home on a 25 x 100 lot was set for condemnation hearings. At the peak of the bubble in 2007 that house was worth 260k and in 2010 it was worth 45k

Now... go 35 miles south to Silicon Valley and 500k won't buy a starter home... a family I know bought a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath 1800 square foot home in Cuppertino, home of Apple Computer in 1958 for 24k... they passed last year and that home which was all 1970's inside was in escrow for 1.3 million!

Low interest rates and a two income well paid professional family bought it and plans to spend 150k updating. Also, the public schools are some of the best in the State.

A lot of the buyers are going for the max conforming loan of 417k and paying the balance in cash... often liquidating stock which is at record highs...

Then, there is a huge group of foreign nationals from Europe, China, South America looking to buy in... most of the homes in the Napa Valley have foreighn nationals bidding on them with cash...

So the market is different because of the large cash downs...

Even in Oakland, 40% of the homes sold are all cash...

 

[clemsonfor]

I understand well paid professionls and such, which out their is way more than a well paid here... But when your "that well paid" your taxes in the republic of california are approaching 60% if not 60% by the time you count extras. So a family making $500k a year is really only making $275k take home. Well that would be assuming that someone with 500k in AGI would not have enough deductions to take them out of the highest taxbracket out there, not sure what that new tax that was passed out there and what level it kicks in???

I mean seriously these well paid people must make $400k a piece at least. I just cant honestly see how one person just of normal intelligence like most of those folks out there can be worth that much?

 

[J F]

Supply and demand.

 

[ultrarunner]

My brother is seeing clients with no kids earning combined annual income in the low 200,000

I've posted before about a 20 something couple, high school sweethearts and the first from their families to graduate college... they make 200k a year... she is an RN for the county and he is a Bay Area Police Officer... they also have the best benefits including medical coverage.

In rough numbers... each 100k borrowed for 30 years is about $420 a month.

A couple earning 200k and little other debt would have 50k for a mortgage which is about a million dollar loan...

Plus, the first years are mostly interest which should offset income taxes...

I understand well paid professionls and such, which out their is way more than a well paid here... But when your "that well paid" your taxes in the republic of california are approaching 60% if not 60% by the time you count extras. So a family making $500k a year is really only making $275k take home. Well that would be assuming that someone with 500k in AGI would not have enough deductions to take them out of the highest taxbracket out there, not sure what that new tax that was passed out there and what level it kicks in???

I mean seriously these well paid people must make $400k a piece at least. I just cant honestly see how one person just of normal intelligence like most of those folks out there can be worth that much?

 

[J F]

I think a lot of people might not quite understand all the west coast numbers, and how they are so much higher just due to cost of living. Almost all skilled jobs (and "non-skilled") pay much, much more than they would elsewhere, due to having to pay to get the workers to work...and live, etc.

The numbers aren't nearly as crazy as they may seem, to the rest of us.