To continue on the thread of “why isn’ this city as green from the air as Chicago or Minneapolis?”……check out PlantSF. They are a San Francisco based group that is helping transform our city of concrete. One of the problems with all that concrete is that rain goes straight down the sewer and straight out into the ocean. The idea is…let that water seep in, give it a chance to filter into the ground. Check out the website and see if you can get involved in your neck of the woods.
Staying in the city this weekend? Here are some tips:
Who we kidding? Staycations suck.
Don’t forget! Starts at 8 pm tonight.
Featured in this month’s Met Home…this Marin Eichler is amazing….get a copy now!
Recently there was a great session on KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny on the state of the real estate marketing. Here are some highlights:
- Tons of activity in the 200-300K range. People are running into situations where there are 40 bids, mostly by investors.
- First time home buyers are having trouble winning because the investors have all cash offers
- The mid range and 750 and above is still slower but picking up
- Economic indicators are mixed, prices going up but defaults on loans are going up as well
- Many prime loans are entering foreclosure now as well
- Uncertain how much inventory banks have. They may be trickling their “Toxic assets” on to the marketplace but there may still be a lot on their books. Banks may want to sit it out rather than take the loss on paper.
- Many real estate agents report knowing of houses that are bank owned but are not for sale.
Listen online or download the podcast: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R908070900
Has the Housing Market Hit Bottom?
The median price of houses in the Bay Area has begun to rise in recent months, but real estate watchers also expect to see new waves of foreclosures on the horizon. We take stock of the real estate market. Is it a good time to buy? Does renting make more sense in this economy? What is the long term prognosis for real estate in Northern California?
Host: Dave Iverson
Guests:
Carolyn Said, staff writer covering mortgages and the real estate market for The San Francisco Chronicle
Jim Wasserman, senior business writer for The Sacramento Bee
Rick Turley, president of the regional division of Coldwell Banker
If you run your own business it can be very difficult to get a refinance right now even if you make a lot of money. A recent article in the Chronicle tells the story of two Bay Area professionals who with 300K in combined income could not get a refinance. Also, be aware that if you have two loans, and you refinance one, the other will have to provide a subordination. Due to processing backlog, this can take eight weeks or more. So make sure you work with somebody who can freeze your rate and get extensions for you at no cost.
One way around the self-employment is have regular payroll through a service like ADP and just get a regular paycheck like your employees do. You might have to do a C Corp or LLC formation to make this work.
(Undocumented income makes it hard to get a loan - Thursday, July 9, 2009, Sfgate.com)
