Interest Rates below 4% - and Post-Holiday Updates

Interest rates are once again at record lows. Rates on most loan products are below 4% with NO POINTS and for shorter term loans (5-yr fixed) below 3%. For loans over $417,000 and up to $625,000 rates are slightly higher-- unless you are willing to use FHA financing.

FHA rates are even lower although they command a hefty monthly mortgage insurance premium. There are some exceptions to this rule though: for 15 year fixed loans below 80% loan-to value there is no MI – and loan amounts go up to $729,000. To give you an idea of interest rates a $700,000 loan amount at 80% LTV would command a rate of 3.25% with no monthly mortgage insurance and NO points, with a substantial credit to closing costs.

It's a great time to buy with prices so low!

Fall and Winter News

The last quarter of the year was amazingly busy for me with my eldest son’s wedding, coupled with near-record low rates and lots of business (good news), then Thanksgiving followed by two hospitalizations for my mother in December (bad news), and holiday activities.

First things first: the wedding was beautiful and wondrous. Photos can be viewed at http://greenweddingshoes.com/diy-bohemian-picnic-wedding-mary-grace-drew /

This was the first time I was together with my three children and all the extended family at one time in years. Pictured below are Kenny, MaryGrace, Drew and Katie. A great time was had by all!

After Thanksgiving my mother was ill, but has recovered after two times in hospital, the second for an entire week which was pretty stressful. She was home before Christmas and spent the holiday with me. She is recovering and we expect to have her with us for many years to come. The upside was I was able to spend a lot of quality time with my beautiful loving sister Katie. Here is mom at her Birthday dinner:

Steve and I celebrated New Year’s Eve with close friends at a dinner dance at the Balboa Yacht Club and danced all night – practically! They do put on a fabulous party.

Steve is still actively biking and I’m practicing my dance moves in jazz class and Zumba. Steve continues to commute to Dallas for his position as VP of Marketing and Sales of Museum Tower, and has obtained an apartment there, so I’ll be visiting him more often. The Tower has topped out and sales activity is brisk – for those of you in need of a high-rise downtown condo in the $800 PSF range! The property is located next door to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture garden in the Arts District. The performing arts venues and the Symphony Hall are just down the block.

Steve and I still enjoy sunsets from our own balcony --and also from Sunset’s Bar and Grill on the Beach below us in Capo Beach. If you haven’t visited it yet, put it on your list. http://sunsetsbar.com The owners have opened a new Sunset’s across from the pier in San Clemente, and word is out that they have taken over ownership of The Renaissance-Dana Point which is a big positive.

Next on our agenda is a week-end trip to Santa Barbara for Steve’s birthday, and then our big splurge, a diving trip to the Cayman Islands at the end of March. We can’t wait!

First of Summer Update

Rates are moving south again! We’ve officially hit the lows of the 2011 on poor economic and employment reports. If you’ve been putting off a refinance, don’t wait. And, it is better than ever for home buyers with home values at a five-year low.

3% down, no Mortgage Insurance

Fannie Mae has a program for home buyers called Homepath, offering minimum down payments of 3% with no mortgage insurance, and no appraisal! This is for a new primary residence only, but they also allow 15% down for a rental property purchase. The program only applies to homes owned by Fannie Mae. Find out more at www.homepath.com

Reverse Mortgage News

Reverse loans aren’t only for refinancing…they are becoming a more popular way for seniors to buy a “retirement” home or new primary residence. I actually closed a reverse mortgage purchase loan for a client a few years ago, and I was told it was the first in California.

Depending on the buyers’ ages (and they must be 62) these loans will provide anywhere from 60% to 75% of the purchase price in a reverse loan. The buyer must provide the balance of purchase price in cash, typically from the sale of their existing residence. Assuming they own their home outright, or have a low-balance mortgage, this frees up cash for investment/liquidity, and eliminates the need to “qualify” for the payments associated with a new mortgage.
Best of all, the rates are as low as 4% fixed.

Bezerkeley

I visited my son Kenny in early May in Berkeley. He was there to present a paper at a conference in the School of Architecture. We had only a few days together, but we had a great time, and glorious weather. I’d forgotten how beautiful the UC Berkeley campus is, with the creek running through it, rolling lawns, huge old trees, and expansive views down to the Bay and beyond, to the skyline of downtown San Francisco.

Our first stop Sunday was the outdoor deck of the Paragon Café at the Claremont Resort for an afternoon cocktail and a view of San Francisco in the distance. Afterwards, we took a stroll at the Cesar Chavez State Park on the Bay. During our time Monday, Kenny preferred to hang out in coffee houses, studying and talking to students.



We had dinner Monday evening at an old favorite, ẦCộté, a charming tapas restaurant in the Oakland Rockridge district, on College Avenue. It felt a little like old home week for me, since I had visited Berkeley so often while Katie was in school there.

This was my first sighting of Kenny since last September, when he left for Europe for his graduate program. So far, he’s been to Cottbus and Berlin, Germany; Tallinn, Estonia; Lisbon, Portugal; Wroclaw, Poland, and London in-between. He’s been in each location for at least six weeks studying architecture at various universities participating in his program. He won’t be home until this September for his brother Drew’s wedding! Best Man...

Claremont Colleges

I’ve seen my daughter Katie, who lives in Ann Arbor, a number of times this spring around her visits here to Cali, most notably on her 27th birthday in April while she was out here with her team for water polo games in San Diego and Claremont. The Claremont campuses were wonderful to visit on a warm April Sunday. You sort of feel like you’re back East on an Ivy campus. Katie’s also been out to visit for Mothers’ Day and Memorial weekend. What a treat!

Local News


Sunset’s is still our favorite local haunt in Capo Beach. As the name implies, it has great sunset views and offers music and dancing every Thursday through Sunday. Walking distance from our home, we frequent it for happy hour, or after dinner and almost always run into friends there! They are hosting a special event this Saturday with music and dancing all day, a live band starting at 6:00 p.m. and a caribbean themed buffet with mojito and sangria bar. Join us! www.sunsetsbar.com

The California Wine festival at Doheny State Beach, held the end of April, was a great time as usual. They hosted even more wineries than last year’s event, more breweries, and the food selections were fantastic! We found a new local restaurant that was serving a killer salmon ceviche…the Next Door. Steve and I visited the restaurant last week and sampled the ceviche, and bacon wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese. Yummy!

Steve continues to commute to Dallas regularly for consulting on Museum Tower, a high-rise luxury residential development. I’m planning to visit again soon, but in the meantime we have a camping trip planned to our favorite Beach campsite at El Capitan overlooking the Pacific with panoramic views. We take our kayak and bikes, and fill our days with exercise, reading, relaxing…and Steve paints. We are hoping for warm weather!

Hope your Memorial holiday weekend was wonderful! Happy June!

Rate Snaptshot - HEAT WAVE

We’re having a heat wave here in Orange County, both in terms of weather and rates!

Here goes:

Up to $417,000
30 yr fixed—4. 25%
20 yr fixed—4.0%
15 yr fixed—3.75%
5/1 Arm—3.125%
10/1 arm—3.625%

$418,000 to $729,000
30 yr fixed—4.375%
15 yr fixed—3.875%
5/1 Arm—3.375%

True Jumbo loans (over $729,000)
30 yr fixed—5.375%
5/1 arm—4.0%
10/1 arm—5.0%

All rates quoted assume a one point origination fee plus closing costs, and are subject to FICO scores, loan-to-value, loan amount, property type, and occupancy.

HEAT WAVE

Summer has finally arrived in Orange County--now that it’s almost over! The rest of the country has been sweltering for some time, while we were still wearing sweaters. Hopefully temperatures will remain warm at the beach through September. I was awakened last week by the fog horn in Dana Point Harbor which was a first for the summer months!

We’ve experienced a bigger than usual swell though, which is supposed to get even bigger. I noted it kept most of the swimmers out of the water this weekend—at least where I was watching at Doheny, Capo Beach and Table Rock in Laguna. Lifeguards were out in full force keeping most swimmers out of the water.

My daughter Katie has been visiting most of this month, and we stopped at Sunsets in Capo Beach on PCH on our way home Sunday. They have live music playing on their outdoor patio--with a front seat view of the ocean--every Sunday afternoon, which adds a lot of fun. This is my new favorite haunt for Sunday afternoons in South County. They usually host a big crowd of locals on Friday and Saturday nights though, complete with DJ and dancing-- for all ages. www.sunsetsbar.com

I spent five days mid-month at Rock Creek Lake in the Eastern High Sierra. (elevation 10,000 feet) My mother, who began visiting Rock Creek Canyon around 1949 joined me, along with my daughter and sister. Girls’ trip! We hiked, fished (yes we caught and ate trout) and played a lot of cards. One night we ventured out to dinner at the Convict Lake Restaurant outside Mammoth, and had a fabulous meal. Rock Creek is a very special place that I’ve been visiting since I was 3 or thereabouts (my mother claims I went there the first time when she was pregnant with me). This is where I learned to ride horses and fish. I’ve joined the pack station in the past for the fall horse drive which is a four-day endurance event driving stock down the Owens’ River Valley to Independence. For more information go to: www.rockcreeklake.com or www.rockcreekpackstation.com