Bond Yield: Down to 3.41% @ 1:49 pm
Fed keeps Funds Rate unchanged.
Wells Fargo joins Bank of America and Chase in curbing fees.
Bond Yield: Up to 3.45% @ 8:45 am
Five tips about FHA loans. Keep in mind, we do these.
Chase and Bank of America revising fees on debit cards, for the better.
No more shopping for regulation by banks?
Wondering how top bank execs can even possibly relate to Main Street?
Bond Yield: Down to 3.44% @ 2:11 pm
Suggested Reading:
Someone will be buying subprime mortgage bonds? Wow…
Oakland City Council to address parking fee complaints in meeting tonight.
The Fed staying OUT of the headlines is a GOOD thing.
Bond Yield: Up to 3.48% at 9:55 a.m.
Suggested Reading:
No kidding? “Tight credit is impeding growth.”
FDIC would rather borrow from healthy banks than from Treasury.
SF Chronicle columnist Benny Cass discusses Reverse Mortgages.
Census data tells some of the local story for homeowners in 2008.
Good morning everyone,
Starting a new feature today where I’ll mention whether the bond market yield has moved up or down and I will recommend some articles I’ve checked out this morning. Hopefully it will be informative. And there may be other updates later in the day.
Bond Yield: Down to 3.44% at 10:00 a.m.
Suggested Reading:
Obama administration is taking steps to shore up the Federal Housing Administration program.
U.S. Leading Economic Index Increased 0.6% in August.
Berkeley’s downtown plans stalled.
Bay Area real estate makes a come back.
Keep in mind, mortgage rates usually go up and down with the bond yield. 
Bay Area Finance: Week 3, September 2009
I would like to state unequivocally that I support the proposed federal law that will allow a bankruptcy judge to re-write the mortgage for a homeowner who files bankruptcy. Opposition to this has reasonable arguments too, but as someone on the front lines I want to make clear why I think it is an important “stick” to have in the arsenal. Time after time, when I speak to people who are “in the modification process” they tell me they are waiting months, that the lenders are losing their documentation (forcing them to start over in many instances), that they cannot get anyone to call them back, have little assistance as it is, and have little hope that they will truly see any relief from this process whatsoever. And why? Because banks have too little incentive to do the modification. It’s on their side burner, not their front burner. One of the arguments against the legislation is that homeowners should not have to file bankruptcy to get their loans modified. Agreed, but it ain’t workin’. Another, much more anemic argument states that the government is somehow “holding their (the banks’) feet to the fire” by publishing which banks are doing the most modifications and which banks aren’t. That’s plain crap. It’s not like you have a choice who you’re trying to modify with. The publicizing of this list DOES NOTHING for homeowners, in my opinion. That’s why I support this legislation as a sizeable stick that can be used to whack the banks into line. Do banks want bankruptcy judges involved? No way! These judges won’t be kind to the banks who have earned our scorn over and over again. Will they get off of their butts and ramp up modifications if this hammer can come down on them? I believe they will, and I also believe they won’t unless the big hammer is brandished. So I say pass it— and swing that hammer around in plain sight a bit so everyone can see. Banks, I say, get off your butts.
See here for a great interview of FDIC chairperson Sheila Bair.
To contact me about financing your dream-home click here.
Weekend Wanderer’s Events
…finding the treasures in your town and beyond.
Two for This Weekend:
Fringe Festival in San Francisco: This is the last weekend of this event bringing performers from around the world to San Francisco to demonstrate their ideas for experimental theatre. Mostly taking place at the Exit Theatre on Eddy Street, this event puts on over 250 shows in twelve days, and most shows are around $10 or less. It’s just a couple block walk from the Powell Street BART station too; easy schmeezy. Check it out here.
Opera in the Park in San Francisco: Verdi’s Il Trovatore will be simulcast live in the Giants’ baseball stadium AT&T Park on Saturday night FOR FREE. I attended this last year on a night in San Francisco that was actually warm. It was fantastic, and both the viewing of the show on the big screen above center field and the sound were top notch. Part of the San Francisco Opera’s campaign to reach out to the community and invite EVERYONE to enjoy opera it’s a fun event that I will be attending once again this year. Check it out here.
Help Your Fellow Living Beings:
Food Banks in the Bay Area: I was reminded in a unique way to think of this when I recently called a number to get the address for a Salvation Army location in Oakland. The phone answering system addressed me and immediately gave directions of whom to speak with if you need help with getting food or with paying a utility bill. That voice reverberated in my head several times that day and other days afterwards. I imagined how it must feel to make that call, especially with little ones or elderly ones looking to me for those answers. As Dr. King once said, “You don’t have to know quantum physics to serve.” Help your fellow living beings here.
Two Weekends from Now:
Dragon Boat Racing at Treasure Island: As they state on their website: Come down for “…another great weekend of good, hard racing, excellent entertainment and food, and great times on and off the water.” Twenty paddlers, a drummer and a steering person rev it up on each boat as they practice this sport that traces its origins to around two thousand years ago in southern China. “Power, speed, synchronization, and endurance” are the elements of a winning boat. Check it out here for next weekend.
Pic of the Week… from my own camera.
It’s just a few hours away…
Bay Area Finance: Week 2, September 2009
This week’s story of absurdity begins with a battle with a prominent lender over whether the Up Front Mortgage Insurance Premium (UFMIP) in an FHA purchase may or may not be paid through the “seller credit”— an amount allowed to be up to 6% of the purchase price given back to the buyer to be used towards non-recurring closing costs. Our prominent lender’s underwriter said that the seller credit could not be used to pay this insurance premium. But since we had done it before, we argued that it must be allowed by FHA’s insurance guidelines, and that we would find the guideline supporting our point. For me personally, it took me over an hour of searching www.hud.gov, and ultimately after calling in to them to employ some assistance I was finally able to obtain the answer. “It’s in handbook 4155.1”, the HUD person said, after we clicked through a series of pages on the hud.gov website to reach a spot where I could enter that code. “How would I find this information on my own?”, I asked. She replied that their system is different, that she didn’t use the hud.gov site and wouldn’t know how, other than by calling in, I would have been able to obtain that code to type-in to find the answer. Well, after typing in the code, it points you toward a 341-page document. The answer that confirms that it’s okay to use a seller credit to pay the UFMIP is on page 37— coded 4155.1 2.A.3.b. So, THAT’S all it takes to obtain a credible answer from HUD when we need to make our counter-argument against an underwriter’s mistake. “Does it really have to be this crazy?,” I asked her.
See here for the 341-page 4155.1 HUD document that secured our argument, page 37 specifically.
To contact me about financing your dream-home click here.
Weekend Wanderer’s Events
…finding the treasures in your town and beyond.
Two for This Weekend:
San Francisco Symphony Free Concert: Friday at noon, in Justin Herman Plaza across from the Ferry Building you can check out the San Francisco Symphony tuning up and laying it down outdoors for the peeps— for free. Seems like a great spot to enjoy your lunch if you work downtown in the financial district, or if you’re just looking for a fun spot to go Friday. Take the ferry, take BART, or drive across the newly repaired Bay Bridge. Check it out here for more info.
Brews on the Bay in San Francisco: On the historic SS Jeremiah O’Brien, which is a World War II Liberty Ship in pristine condition, this Saturday and Sunday afternoon you can board the ship and sample great beers brewed up by seven of the Bay Area’s artisan breweries. 40 separate hand-crafted beers will be available, as well as live music and food benefitting the historic ship. Looks like a great chance to try some local concoctions for a great cause. See here for more info.
Help Your Fellow Living Beings:
Project Open Hand in San Francisco: in 1985, a retiree-grandmother in San Francisco saw a friend die of AIDS and came to recognize how there were no social services providing meals to people who were too weak from the disease to manage feeding themselves. She worked out some time to use the kitchen of a local church and began her foundation serving seven clients. Now, almost 30 years later, the mission continues where serving meals is accompanied by nutrition education and grocery delivery as well. It’s a great cause to help out if you can. Check them out here if it moves you.
Two Weekends from Now:
Pete Seeger in San Francisco: This super-classic performer is bringing his brand of sing-along activism to the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco next Friday night, September 18th. Songs such as Turn! Turn! Turn!, Where have all the flowers gone?, This Land Is Your Land, and more will have you joining his world-wide choir. He’s in his nineties now, folks, and still strumming the tunes for us all. See here for more info.
Pic of the Week… from my own camera.
A Big Sur Gem from Last Weekend
Bay Area Finance: Week 1, September 2009
Today seems like a good day to remind everyone that the deadline for the Federal Housing Tax Credit is now less than three months away. Your home purchase must close by November 30th of this year to qualify. So, if you’re on the fence about purchasing a new home, and you haven’t owned a home in the last three years, now could be a great time for you to buy AND take advantage of a tax credit of 10%, up to $8,000. Indeed, this is just one part of the many-faceted approach to shoring-up the financial system over the past couple of years. While a lot of action was taken to keep many of the alleged “culprits of the meltdown” in place, we can say that there has been, without question, a reformation in the world of real estate finance. In fact, just within the last two weeks we’ve seen for the first time in about two years some news of lenders actually loosening some guidelines on qualifying debt ratios for home loan applications that receive an automated underwriting approval. Frankly, folks, in our business, this is music to our ears. We’ve had such a long stretch where the guidelines for loan underwriting seemed to exclude applicants on unreasonable grounds and where the time-frame for closing could be twice as long as usual with many bumps along the way. So to see the industry actually reach a “cruising altitude” where we can maybe let go of the armrests and unbuckle the seatbelt for a moment or two is more than welcome.
See here for some more info on how we’re shoring up the system.
To contact me about financing your dream-home click here.
Weekend Wanderer’s Events
…finding the treasures in your town and beyond.
Two for This Weekend:
Sausalito Art Festival: On this weekend of avoiding the Bay Bridge (the closure of which begins tonight at 8:00 pm, by the way) here is a GREAT option for which you’ll need no Bay Bridge to attend. My recommendation for East Bay folks is to take BART into the city and take the ferry over to Sausalito. No driving, no parking, no bridge, open-air boat ride, good times! Enjoy the beautiful town of Sausalito and see some world-renowned art displayed for sale. See here for more info.
“Art-Tech” in San Francisco: I can’t say it better than they did in their website: “art.tech is a festival of art, performance, sound, workshops, demos, and lectures featuring cutting-edge artistic experiments created with and related to technology. This vibrant showcase of local, national, and international artists working at and across boundaries celebrates technological experimentation, open source methodologies, collaboration, accessibility, and interactivity.” It’s this weekend. See here for more info.
Help Your Fellow Living Beings:
Client Check-In Caller for Meals on Wheels: This one enables you to exercise your altruistic inner-self by joining the group that delivers meals to homebound seniors and others who can’t leave home to take care of the basic provisions of food and beverages for themselves. But instead of delivering meals, this assignment is to just call the folks up on the phone, have a chat, and see how they’re doing. Seems like a more than worthy mission. Check it out here if you want to help.
Two Weekends from Now:
Five Religions in Conversation in San Francisco: For those of you who find it confounding how so much conflict arises between different religions who all profess so many similar tenets, here is a chance to explore the nuances of five of them all at once. Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism will all be represented, and the discussion is sure to highlight some of the bridges the religious people of the world may probably be grateful to recognize. Looks quite interesting. See here for more info.
Pic of the Week… from my own camera.
It’s my birthday today, ya’ll. And I’m Big Sur or bust this coming Saturday.