Rates are still hovering right around their record lows. If you can qualify, and your property appraises out, you can get a rate in the 3’s to low 4’s depending on your loan size and the term. Money is cheap, but is still relatively hard to qualify for in terms of documentation required!
Underwriting guidelines continue to contract, and seem to take the heaviest toll on self-employeds – for whom two years’ tax returns and YTD P& L’s are the norm. Investors don’t want to take any chances on any file, lest they be forced to “buy back” the loan at a later date…which is happening right now with hundreds of thousands of loans that went into default. Oftentimes these defaults aren’t the fault of the original mortgage lender, but are due to loss of income or other related effects from the economy, but banks as well as Fannie and Freddie are enforcing their “buy back” provisions in the contracts they have with mortgage bankers. This is why so many mortgage banks are out of business – the tremendous liability they face to buy back defaulted loans.
Battle of the Paddle
We rode our bikes down to Doheny State Beach a few Sundays ago, before the onset of rainy weather. We often jump on our bikes for a little “road riding” on weekends. Last month we rode down to San Onofre State Beach to check out the sharks we’d read about at Trail One. Alas we saw none!
This trip we planned to witness day two of the Battle of the Paddle, the largest SUP (Stand Up Paddle) competition in the world. In case you haven’t heard of this, the sport involves standing up on a large surf-type board--while using a paddle to move forward. Lots of people are doing it in harbors and in the ocean for exercise, to surf, or just to “get around.”
We hoped to watch our friend Jerry Meador. He is an old friend of mine from high school. I literally hadn’t seen him for about 40 years, YIKES!
Jerry was competing in a couple of different events, and we watched the “relay” event which was really fun. Each team had four members --with at least one woman. They had to paddle out through the surf, rounding two buoys, ride waves and/or paddle back in, and run up the sand to a spot on the beach where their teammate waited to take off next. They all had to paddle the route twice, and there were some pretty funny crashes, near misses, etc. since there were competitors both coming in and heading out at the same time --after the start of the race.
The waves got bigger in the middle of the event with some pretty nice sets coming in. Some paddlers handled the waves well and others…well, wiped out! It definitely separated the surfers from the non-surfers, albeit on super large SUP boards.
I learned there are all different kinds of SUP boards…some are more like regular long surfboards. I also found out that people of all ages can do this.
The oldest participant, who won for his age class, was on my friend Jerry’s team and is 72. They also had a team member who is a pro surfer—Leah Dawson—who is ranked as one of the top female long boarders in the world. She was fun to meet…friendly and down-to-earth. When I met her I asked her where she was from, and she replied, “Heaven. I live in Hawaii…” with a big smile on her face! Jerry had sort of arranged for a ringer on his team since his daughter Kassia is also a pro surfer.
Steve and I can’t wait to try it next, in the Harbor where there are no waves!
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