Looking for something to do in Redwood City? Check out the new “365 Things to Do in Redwood City“, at RedwoodCity365.com. You can also find the FaceBook fan page here.
While I’m sure there’ll be plenty to write about, I’m always looking for suggestions and recommendations, so feel free to contribute!
But come on, where do you think you’d get better weather and beaches?
Great article in the Merc the other day – again showing the resiliency and stability of our Bay Area market. To quote the best tidbit, “The San Francisco and San Jose areas, which have mounted a strong rebound from the housing bust, also saw prices rebound by about 25 percent.”
Now if only those $2M and $3M+ homes in Edgewood Park would find some good buyers.
One of the most critical things when getting your mortgage to purchase a home is the loan contingency. Speaking from recent experience, and understanding the new reality of overly scrutinizing lenders, here are Ed’s must-know things when it comes to loan contingencies:
Don’t Take Shortcuts
Firstly, please, please, please, for the love of God, work with a mortgage lender who’s got a proven record of being able to secure a loan. This has got to be one of the most important to-do’s before you go out shopping for a home. This is as important, and may even be more important than the loan rate you lock in.
Yet, with still so many choices out there – direct lenders, mortgage brokers, etc. – you may ask yourself, how do I find a good one? The best source, I’ve found, is to get recommendations from friends, relatives, or trusted realtors.
A good lender who’s truly looking out for your best interest should ultimately be able to tell you what you can and cannot afford. A great lender will go above and beyond to get the job done.
Do Your Homework
Where are your downpayment funds going to come from? From your own savings? Cashing out some WebVan stock? A gift from your solvent parents? Whatever the source of your funds, you have GOT to make sure you let your mortgage lender know early on in the process. Any funds that are NOT coming directly from your own savings, might be subject to major scrutiny by the lender – and you may find yourself having to provide a boatload of documentation showing where the money’s coming from, or, in the case of a gift, additional scrutiny on whoever was giving you the money. And of course, as Murphy’s Law would have it, that kind of scrutiny can very well happen at the 11th hour when you least expect it, probably right before you’re supposed to close escrow.
Final Thoughts
Be realistic about your loan contingency period. Don’t put it at 14 days if you’re not 110% positive that your lender can do it. Better to be conservative and ask for more days than you think you’ll need.
Be sure your lender knows of any red flags during the contingency period. Find this out early on in the process. Continually ask your lender what the current conditions to close (CTCs) are, and are they being met.
Remove your loan contingency as close to on time as possible. No one, particularly the sellers and the sellers’ agent, get more stressed out when loan contingencies aren’t removed on time.
Starting tonight! 6pm to 8pm, at Stafford Park, on Hopkins & King. Every Wednesday from now until August 11th.
Bring a blanket or lawn chairs, some refreshments, and come check it out!
You can find the schedule of bands right here.
While I’d normally point directly to the link, the SF Examiner’s website — or particularly its real estate section — is sadly underwhelming. Kind of a bummer, because they do have good articles (and heck, I even got quoted in last week’s … but that’s for another blog post), and I always enjoy the writings of Larry Rosen (who tells it like it is, pulls no punches, and makes no apologies).
So, I’ll go old school here, and just copy-and-paste.
In last month’s Examiner (the weekend Real Estate section), they had a nice article giving props to our own Edgewood Park neighborhood (the article originally was focusing on the super nice listing at 946 Blandford). Here were the highlights:
“Underestimate Redwood City at your own peril. Assume that the city whose motto proclaims ‘climate best by government test’ lacks charming neighborhoods and you reveal yourself as an unreliable source. Redwood City, population 74,060, has a diversity of neighborhoods broad enough to please any buyer.
While many Peninsula dwellers sing the praises of Redwood City’s rural Emerald Hills district, there are plenty of locals who appreciate the charm of Edgewood Park.
One of Redwood City’s oldest neighborhoods, Edgewood Park is comprised of a few tree- and large, traditional home-lined residential streets buffered by Whipple Avenue to the south and Alameda de las Pulgas to the west.
Edgewood Park shares its name with the 467-acre preserve at the neighborhood’s western edge. The park includes five separate hiking trails and features at least 10 rare or endangered plant species, including the once-plentiful San Mateo Thornmint. Every weekend, generally from mid-March to mid-June, the Friends of Edgewood Park hold docent-led wildflower walks in the park.”
Rock on, Edgewood Park!
Good article in the Merc last week, comparing the amount of venture capital invested in startups in the region’s municipalities in 2009.
For us Redwood Citizens, this is good news, as Redwood City ranks #4, behind some pretty big “powerhouse” cities for startups.
The top 5 is as follows (along with the amount invested, in millions):
Feels like it’s been awhile, but finally some new listings have hit the market in recent weeks, that don’t require a stratospheric mortgage or cash (not a knock on some of the gorgeous multi-million dollar listings out there, but realistically, the buyer pool for homes under $2M in Edgewood Park is just a tad bigger).
And it’s quite the broad mix — new construction, total fixer-upper, old-world charm. In no particular order, here’s what’s come on lately:
320 Edgewood – $1.348M – 4br/4ba, 2910 sq ft, 5700 sq. ft. lot. More pictures on the virtual tour here.
3 Hyde St – $1.695M – 4br/3ba, 2850 sq. ft. on a 12,300 sq. ft. lot. Virtual tour here. Originally was $1.795M (sold a couple years ago for $1.425M)
964 Blandford – $1.795M – 4br/4.5ba, 2700 sq. ft. on a 10,293 sq. ft. lot. A gorgeous remodel of a 1931 home (you may recall this one had been on the market a couple years ago, but not sold, originally at $2.795M and lastly at $2.395M….my how times have changed).
150 Warwick – $1.895M – 5br/3ba, 3400 sq. ft. on a 6750 sq. ft. lot. Brand new Craftsman construction. Virtual tour here.
144 Somerset – $895,000 – 2br/1ba, 1280 sq. ft. on a 6750 sq. ft. lot. This one is my favorite — a true diamond in the rough. The home touts itself as a ‘contractor’s special’. It truly is, make no bones about it. But, a fantastic one block street, with lots of ‘old world charm’ homes on them.
30 Woodsworth (now pending) – $1.295M, 3br/2ba, 1610 sq. ft. on a 9100 sq. ft. lot. This one didn’t last too long (just 19 days on the market). A great street, in the heart of Edgewood Park. Recession, what recession?
Rhetorical question, I know.
Edgewood Road — particularly between Alameda de las Pulgas & El Camino Real — boasts some of the coolest, full-of-character, historical, and BIG homes in the neighborhood (big in home size as well as lot size). Owning a home on this slice of Edgewood Road is akin to reaching that “dee-luxe apartment, in the sky-high-high”.
But in today’s market, where are the buyers for these homes? Sure, they’re out there…somewhere.
The hard statistics to swallow for any home seller relate to how well your home is priced for THAT segment of the market, at THAT moment in time. I’m not marginalizing at all the value of these high end homes — heck, if I had $3M+, I’d love to live in one of these mansions too. But then again, a home’s true value is only what a buyer is willing (and able) to pay at that time of the market.
In 2009, in Redwood City, only 1 home sold above the $2.8M mark. It’s interesting to see how this compares with neighboring “high end” areas.
In 2009, here are how many homes sold that were OVER $3M in sale price:
So as it stands now — looking purely at black and white market stats — we have a 3 year inventory of $3M homes in Edgewood Park. Yes, there are still buyers willing to buy. They will only respond to properties that are aggressively priced and work with sellers who are flexible as to terms and conditions. An even bigger surprise this year is that even more of the buyers are all cash buyers. So, if you are a seller, price your property “to sell.” If you are a buyer, this is the opportunity to get into the high-end at the price of a lifetime.
So this is good news for our own county park, the 467-acre Edgewood Park.
A new educational center is set to open up in the fall. More info via this article in the Merc, but here’s the highlights:
After more than a decade’s worth of fundraising and countless volunteer hours spent on planning and design, the county will break ground today on the 1,200-square-foot Bill and Jean Lane Education Center, which should be completed by next fall.
The $2.3 million center will give 100,000 annual visitors to Edgewood new insight into the park. Though it only stretches 1 square mile, tucked into a pocket of forest and grassland on the fringes of an urban area, the park boasts more than 500 different plant species and 70 resident and migratory bird species.
A hike along one of Edgewood’s many trails uncovers many different ecosystems, from oak and redwood trees to rivers and serpentine grasslands, each with its own flora and fauna.
The executive director of the San Mateo County Parks Foundation said the educational center will include interactive displays, games and even computers to give people a new perspective on everything they see.
It’s safe to say that mortgage interest rates have been at historic lows since the summer of ’09, mostly around and sometimes even under 5%. Currently, they’ve been floating around the 5 & 1/8% range.
Part of the reason for these low rates has been because the Fed has been on a buying binge of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). The Fed has been buying $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities in its effort to prop up the economy but has said it will end those purchases March 31.
As I speak fairly regularly with seasoned, well-informed, and intelligent mortgage lenders and brokers, one thing they all seem to agree on is that the expectation is that, after March 31st, rates will head upwards, and will likely be in the 6% range.
Still pretty low, historically – but, a significant impact to the buying power of home buyers out there.
Just think about it, if you’re looking at a loan amount of say $700,000, this means that a 1% increase in interest rate translates to paying $450 MORE per month on the same loan. Or looked at another way, a 1% increase in rate just reduced the sale price you can afford by about $80,000.
Quoting some highlights from a recent WSJ article:
What happens when it (the Fed) stops buying hundreds of billions of dollars in financial assets?
In its monetary-policy statement, the Fed said it would “gradually slow the pace of these purchases in order to promote a smooth transition in markets.” Suddenly cutting to zero, presumably, could prove too much of a jolt.
But even a gradual pullback could have big repercussions. Zero interest rates and Fed purchases — financed by printing money — have played a massive role in reviving stocks and bonds and rekindling the economy.
Mortgage rates will likely move up, as private-market buyers will charge more than the Fed for bearing the risks of holding government-backed mortgage securities. Now, the Federal Reserve has said they would consider reopening its program to support the mortgage market if interest rates spiked or the economy showed new weakness
In its best corporate-speak, the Fed said they will “evaluate the timing and overall amounts of its purchases of securities in light of the evolving economic outlook and conditions in financial markets.” That is, if markets play along. Investors are already balking at the heavy use of printing presses. Just look at the sliding dollar.
My Yelp Reviews
Realtor, Marathon Man, "Man of a Thousand Voices".