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The Pending Home Sales Indicator Offers Opportunity for Buyers

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Pending home sales is a great indicator for the strength and growth of real estate. “Pending” home sales are based on the number of escrows opened.

Escrows can be opened one of two ways:

  1. When a traditional sales contract is dually executed by both buyer and seller, or
  2. When a bank approves a short sale.

The index rose 5.1% nationwide in March (but is still 11.4% below March 2010)

The western region of the index (which includes San Diego) rose 3.1% (but is still 4.1% below last year – mainly due to the tax credit).

The hardline negotiators at Lyons Realty suggest that it is a good idea to create your own tax credit by requesting a credit from the seller in your offer.

Bill Lyons, founder and broker of Lyons Realty in La Jolla, CA said “Affordable prices, job creation and low mortgage rates have created very favorable climate for San Diego home buyers. The Pending Homes Sales Index is another indicator reflecting opportunities for today’s buyers”

Existing detached home sales in March for San Diego county were up 43% (but only .4% change from last year – mainly due to a seasonal jump coming out of the holidays).

It is important to note that Coronado and La Jolla were down 28% and 21% respectively while areas like Downtown and Mission Hills were up 29% and  37%.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said “…existing-home sales should rise around 5 to 10 percent this year with sales growth of lower priced homes likely to outperform high-end homes. That means the price trend will reflect more homes sold in the lower price ranges”

All and all these stats are great news for San Diego home purchasers and we look forward to working with you toward the American dream!

Filed Under: Real Estate News Tagged With: , , ,

Buying in Coronado

March 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

If you’re buying a luxury home in Coronado and you’re going to use financing everybody knows that you want to use a direct lender/mortgage banker that is selling to Suntrust, GMAC, and US Bank. Alternatively, if you can handle the long underwriting turn-times you can go directly to Union Bank (UBOC) or ING.

Suntrust, GMAC, US Bank, Union Bank and ING really have cornered the jumbo and super-jumbo markets, so much so, brokers and other banks can’t even compete.

Ask your mortgage banker or loan officer if they sell to Suntrust, GMAC and US Bank. Specifically ask if they are approved as a wholesale broker or a corespondent. You want to use a direct lender that is selling to Suntrust, GMAC, US Bank on a corespondent level not a broker. Broker’s don’t have control in this market and your transaction could end up blowing up last minute.

Obviously this holds true for any jumbo loan in other areas of San Diego such as La Jolla or Rancho Santa Fe, not just Coronado.

If you have superb credit (740+FICO) and a loan amount below $2million you are going to want to get an approval from a banker that is going to sell the loan to Suntrust. If you have so-so credit (650+FICO) you are going to want to get an approval from a banker that is going to sell the loan to US Bank. If you keep your loan below $3Million and are OK with a 5/1 or 7/1 ARM and can put 50% down you are going to want to get approved through ING.

If you have bad credit (650 or less) you are going to want to get an approval from Financial Matchup – they will lend up to $1million (sometimes more on an exception basis) on less than 500 FICO scores with 50% down.

I’m sure loan officers that work for brokers or other non-competitive banks are going to want to throw tomatos at me for revealing this insider information but I believe an educated buyer is an empowered buyer and empowered buyers is who Lyons Realty likes to represent.

Filed Under: Mortgage Tagged With: , , ,