There are many reasons people choose to rent homes rather than to buy them. They may be trying out an area, intending to live in an area for a short period of time. Or they may not have the down payment necessary to purchase a home and home prices may simply be too high. Those…
If you’re itching to get on the bandwagon of home ownership, and your income is substantial enough to carry a mortgage and the related expenses like real estate taxes, insurance and maintenance, you may be thinking of going shopping. One stumbling block may be a paucity of cash on hand. With the median home in…
Prior to the Great Depression, mortgages were primarily short term and had to be refinanced when their terms expired. Foreclosure was common and something had to be done. The federal government took note and the fixed rate mortgage was born. The fixed rate long term mortgages introduced were self-amortizing, that is, by the time their…
You may have heard the term as it is now floating around in the ether. Bitcoin. What is it? I looked the term up on the Internet and CNN provided the following definition: “Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made…
The old model for city planning called for separated zones for residential, commercial and industrial areas. The idea was that people would live in quiet, leafy residential areas and commute to work, avoiding the noise and pollution of commercial and industrial districts. This seemed like a good idea at the time but no more. Today,…
Who wouldn’t love a spanking brand new house? Demand is there, but supply has been a challenge. We’ve been reporting consistently in this column about the lack of inventory in San Diego and elsewhere. And at last, we can see some brand new product coming on the market. This is good news to weary home…
We’re all so real estate savvy these days. Like so many things that have become easier with the advent of web marketing, buying a home is as easy as pie. We can shop to our heart’s content at two in the morning, and get all kinds of data on recent sales, the best neighborhoods, all…
As I’ve reported in this space in previous articles, the real estate market has been enjoying record price increases and steady growth. In fact, San Diego prices have recently climbed higher than in the prior pre bubble peak. This naturally gives us pause, and we wonder whether we are entering bubble territory once again, and…
As we know only too well, real estate and insurance go hand in hand. You wouldn’t want to leave your most significant asset unprotected and if you have a mortgage, you are required to hold adequate insurance on your home. To get the skinny, I sat down with Ryan Hartwigsen, of Allstate Insurance, 4080 Centre…
Though same-sex marriage is now the law of the land, true parity in many areas is not. When it comes to the purchase of a home, LGBT couples need to be mindful of these and plan accordingly when seeking or closing on a home. First and foremost, we need to be cognizant of the current…
