Where To Go With South County Real Estate

I have taken some time off from blogging to try to figure out where and what I wanted to do with this website blog. I have decided to change direction and spend some time over the next few weeks, updating what is really going on in the local real estate market.

For instance, today I received an email from a local area lendor sharing a survey that was completed this past July, 2007 as to what the primary reasons are for borrowers to fall behind on their home loan payments. Approximately 80% of the respondents to this survey were borrowers who were facing foreclosure. Of these borrowers, the most common reasons they were facing financial difficulties were:

Curtailment of income - 58.3%
Illness/Medical reasons - 13.2%
Divorce - 8.4%
Unable to sell/investment property - 6.1%
Low regard for home ownership - 5.5%
Death - 3.6%
Payment adjustments - 1.4%
Other - 3.5%

I am sure most of you knew the top two or three reasons, but what surprised me was the low regard for home ownership. People will never cease to amaze me!

Here are some fast facts FYI:

The median home price as of August 2007 in California was $588,970.

First time buyer affordability index for the second quarter of 2007 was 24%


Mortgage rates for the week ending 10/4/07:

30 year fixed: 6.37% fees/points: 0.5%

15 year fixed: 6.03% fees/points: 0.5%

1 year adjustable: 5.58% fees/points: 0.7%

More later...