San Diego Homeowners Are Refinancing Into Shorter-Term Loans
San Diego homes
More San Diego homeowners are refinancing into shorter-term loans, saving a bundle by taking advantage of the lowest rates in decades.
Nearly a third of borrowers refinancing fixed 30-year loans in April through June picked loans with 15- or 20-year terms, according to housing finance giant Freddie Mac. It was the highest share since 2004.
The trend has been driven by near-weekly drops in rates all summer. Average rates on fixed 15-year loans fell below 4% for the first time in mid-August, dropping to 3.92%, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago, the average 15-year rate was 4.68%.
Meanwhile, the rates on fixed 30-year loans now averaged 4.44% in mid-August, Freddie Mac found. At today’s rates, a borrower with a 30-year loan at a 6.5% rate and a $200,000 principal balance could save some $70,000 in interest over the life of a shorter 20-year loan.
Bonita real estate
San Diego Homeowners – End Up Screwed
San Diego home foreclosures
Under-water San Diego homeowners are left with two not-very-appealing choices: stop making payments, take a major credit hit and risk the lender seeking a court judgment for the balance of the loan — or keep paying and hope the house begins to appreciate, however little, again.
There are many government programs to help homeowners in trouble & I advise all distressed San Diego homeowners to seek out these programs. However, from the recent reports on the performance of these good intentioned programs … so far they have been dismal failures!
Perhaps the government needs to understand that there is nothing wrong with renting! Some of the many under-water homeowners were simply not suited to own a home!
What of the San Diego homeowners who are not under–water on their mortgages? What benefit is there for homeowners that were resourceful, hardworking and buying only what they could afford when they could afford it?
The majority are offended that they — and their children and their grandchildren — will be paying for someone else’s mortgage woes through higher taxes.
California home foreclosures
Trapped San Diego Homeowners
Bob Schwartz, San Diego California Realtor
Seems that all attention is paid to people who can’t afford to buy a home, even at the current depressed prices.
What about the large number of current San Diego homeowners with great credit, with the ability to comfortably meet a mortgage payment two or three times the one they are now paying? There are thousands, maybe millions, of homeowners who have outgrown their current homes, either physically or socially. They are held back by the drop in value of their present home. They have so much negative equity that they just can’t scrape together the huge pile of cash they would need to make a move. They sit quietly out of the market, making their monthly payments. They are the potential stimulus the economy needs to tap.
Real Estate Investing vs Gold Investing
Arizona gold nugget
Is real estate still a great investment? It’s really hard to say right now, but, if you purchased a San Diego home in the last seven years, it could have been far better to rent and invest in gold!
AS long as the Federal government spends money like a teenager at a shopping mall, Gold will hit even further records. Read more 
San Diego’s Cost Of Living
San Diego cost of living
According to the Council for Community and Economic Research, San Diego’s cost of living is 32.3 percent above the national average. Among 22 major metro areas, the only places with a higher cost of living are San Francisco (62.1 percent above the national average), Los Angeles (36.2), Washington D.C. (37.9), and Manhattan (118.0). San Diego compares poorly with other high-tech areas such as Austin, Charlotte, Orlando, and Raleigh, whose living costs are all below the national average. San Jose (Silicon Valley), at 55 percent above the national norm, is the most expensive of the tech centers.
San Diego Little Italy condos
San Diego Housing Prices 2010
San Diego home costs
The price of housing still has to fall to be affordable to the average family man like it was 50 years ago. Today you need two workers with 2 jobs each and a 40 year mortgage to afford a house. A lot can happen in that 40 years and that is why the number of foreclosures will stay around 300,000 and may even go up. Compared to the number of housing units, approx. 128,203,000, 300,000 is much less than 1 percent. Read more