3% is the new Zero Down - 03/31/08 10:00 PM
Many people have been calling this for a while now but it became official on March 28th, 2008 that PMI [Private Mortgage Insurance] on Zero percent down loans is now gone. So what does this mean?.... It means that the days of buying a house with no cash at all are gone... at least for the time being. Coming up to fill the void is FHA loans which have become less restrictive and allow a purchase with just 3% down. You can learn more about FHA loans Here. PMI is generally required on loans with less than 20% down.
In other … (1 comments)

Pending sales of detached homes up 107% in March! - 03/24/08 12:23 PM
There is a definite sense that things are picking up right now in Portland. I took a look at the numbers and, Wow! Pending sales of detached homes are up 107% in March over February. Buyers are coming out of the woodworks and multiple offers are becoming common again.
Here is a Breakdown of Pending sales of Detached homes as of March 24th, 2008.
NE: Feb 79 - Mar 117SE: Feb 102 - Mar 162N: Feb 38 - Mar 61W: Feb 45 - Mar 84
Totals:Feb 264 - Mar 424 // March Projected = 547
Percent increase = 107%
… (3 comments)

Look who's on Fire - 03/19/08 12:19 PM
I was interviewed by a cool new website called http://www.portlandonfire.com/ that profiles one Portlander every day.
See the interview here
… (0 comments)

Time to get off the fence - 03/17/08 10:57 AM
A month ago when the numbers showed that Portland Metro had almost 13 months of inventory I broke it down to the close-in neighborhoods and showed that we still have a balanced market. A couple days ago news came out that inventory has Dropped back to 10.4 months and the number of closed sales are way up over January - 28% more to be exact.
A couple more surprises... Median price is up 5.5% over last February .... Interest rates are going up very rapidly ... Stated income loans are about to disappear in the next two weeks. Economists are starting … (1 comments)

The Deal with Short Sales - 03/03/08 10:54 AM
With the National market in flux and certain segments of our local market slowing, buyers are looking for ways to save money and sellers are looking for a way to get out of trouble. Those two goals sometimes intersect with something called a short sale. A short sale is where a Lender agrees to let a seller sell their home for less than what is owed on the property. That is the basic idea but the reality is more complicated and the process often times takes quite a bit longer than a traditional 30 day close.
I have spoken with quite … (2 comments)