My summery of bank own sales

You have to remember： Bank calls all the shots.

Some terms might be deleted and some terms might be added. You have to review them carefully.

Banks will do both BPOs and appraisale to have a clear idea of how much the propertie really worth.

No low ball offers!

Somecases, bank would pay some escrow and closing fees. But not always.

No TDS, and not all disclosures are provided.

As-is!

What you need to do to get a bank own properties:

• Pre-approval with bank or from lender you planning to use.
• Vefification of funds. Don't wait for the bank request it. Include it anyway.
• Be aggressive with time contingencies. 10 days for inspection is preferred. 7 days is becoming the norm.
• Speed things up...order inspections upon verbal acceptance.

Don't submit low offers, change lender or terms, don't enter seller names on any documents, don't ask for credit or repairs.

这周贷款利率下降到历史低点

最近大家都说贷款的利率下来了，看来Fed 和 Treasure bail out Wall streets 之后，不得不对实体经济下手了，主要就是把housing 的问题想办法解决一下，要不然congress 也不答应。怎么做呢，Fed 说要买500B的Fannie和Freddie的mortgage backed security 和100B两F的债券， rumor 说treasure 要买两Ｆ的债券把３０年固定的利率压到４.５％。最近的利率大跌，基本创下了２０００年来的最低点。前两天confirming 30 yr fixed hit 4.5%, jumbo confirming 30yr fixed hit 5.25%.

这对新购买者来说是好消息。但对现房主来说是亦喜亦悲，主要是这个jumbo confirming 的要求，对 san diego 来说是贷款最高不得高于54.6万。如果80%的loan to value ratio (LTV), 这是说对68.4万以上买入的房主，都需要把 LTV 降到80%一下才能申请的贷款，这就意味着得往里再砸钱。

对新购买者而言，现在很多很不错的房子都在68.4万以下，可以放心贷款。

估计现在到Obama 上台初期，利率只会降不会升了。Fed 的几百B还是可以撑一段的，但长远来看超级通胀的风险始终是存在的。

Adjustble rate mortgage reset schedule

这篇是我对市场上即将要reset利率的房子的数据分析。 因为很难用中文说明白，所以用英文写了。

From the chart, we can see that subprime ARM is getting smaller in percentage in 09 and 10. But there are still significant Prim and Alt-A ARMs. With the hope that "Santa" Obama will give U.S. home owners some big help on reducing mortgage rate, we should see a lot of these ARMs to get refinanced in the coming year. It will be a good news for the housing market.

It is almost concensus that there will be a pickup in transaction volume in next spring, but it might not be able to translate to a pickup in home price. However, for people who need a house to live in, with potentially low interest rate and low home price, next spring is not a bad time to buy.

Click to see bigger image:

Mortgage Rates Take a Big Dip This Week

这个星期rate大降。 很多人纷纷去做refin. 搞得圣地亚哥中国人的最大一家贷款公司的人个个都接电话接到手软！@@

The rate came in at an average of 5.53 percent, down from 5.97 percent the previous week and 5.96 percent a year ago; while 15-year fixed mortgages settled at 5.33 percent compared to 5.74 percent last week and 5.65 percent in the year-earlier period.

Borrowing costs for short-term loans also were lower, with one-year adjustable-rate mortgages dipping to 5.02 percent from 5.18 percent a week ago and 5.46 percent a year ago.

Five-year hybrid ARMs, meanwhile, fell to 5.77 percent from 5.86 percent last week and 5.75 percent during the same period of last year.

Good news?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/03/news/economy/treasury_mortgage_rates/

This is gonna be huge if 4.5% really happens. Back in 2003 the best rate couldn't even compare not mention for jumbo loan!

Is that means the market going to stable? Let's wait and see.