C.A.R. blog

There are two questions on everyone’s minds surrounding the new HARP or HARP Phase II:

1. Will it work this time?
2. Do I qualify???

To the first question, it's widely known the original Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) rolled out in 2009 to help struggling homeowners refinance their home wasn’t a huge success. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) estimates it helped 894,000 homeowners refinance in the almost three years since its inception.

However, the game changers for HARP Phase II are the elimination of the 125 percent LTV cap requirement in the original HARP and FHFA waiving some stringent requirements (a.k.a. warranties and representations) (more...)

Looking back at 2011 so far…

2011 was supposed to ratchet up steady, if not, robust growth in the US Economy. Instead, we were tripped up by several economic and geo political events that have left many speechless and if there was one word to describe it, it would be “WOW!” To quote C.A.R. Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young in her Forecast presentation at the California REALTOR® EXPO 2011:

“Wow what a year it’s been – and in fact, it’s been full of wild cards: (more...)

All of the headlines, the problems with U.S. Treasuries, the debt crisis here and abroad are adding another layer of uncertainty to an already uncertain marketplace right now. The main question for housing in particular is where mortgage rates are headed.

Ok, we’ve heard it several times, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. Treasury and Fannie and Freddie (GSEs). (more...)

Summer's heating up. Which means that there are a lot of people in the market looking to buy a home. Many of those prospective buyers have a ton of questions. Including, is finance in the driver’s seat in the real estate transaction?

Yes! Wouldn’t you agree?

Now that has pretty much always been the case, but in the years leading up to the financial crisis we might have thought differently. Actually, unless you have all cash to purchase that home, you’re pretty much a slave to your documentation. Here are a few pointers from the field that may help you qualify and hopefully buy that home. (more...)

I know I might be beating this subject like a dead horse, but I ran some pretty interesting statistics I wanted to share with all of you C.A.R. blog followers.

If you read my 3-part series (see below for links) on the GSEs, you know that getting rid of Fannie and Freddie would result in some pretty dire consequences for the housing market across the US and California. The statistics when looking further into this analysis are astounding.

In 2010, there were 494,900 single-family detached home sales in California. Of those, 92 percent were Conforming loans – Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA loans based on C.A.R. estimates. (more...)