San Francisco Real Estate - Janice Lee

Over the past year, California has seen a strong seller’s market for housing – thanks in large part to a shortage of homes on the market, strong demand by buyers and mortgage interest rates that hovered near historic lows. But as 2017 gets underway, the question is whether that seller’s market will continue, especially given a recent uptick in interest rates.

San Francisco’s luxury housing market finished off 2015 with home sales and the median sale price both climbing in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, according to a new market report by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the Bay Area’s leading luxury real estate services company.

Just Sold 2909 Jennings Over Asking All Cash $650,000! Represented Seller. This property was featured in SFGate.com. My client purchased the property for under $300,000 in San Francisco Bayview District in 2014. Negotiated a lower price after getting in contract. Is that even possible? My clients remodeled  the property and sold for a huge profit. #SF # Flipping #Investments #RealEstate # Listing #Selling Before and after 2090 Jennings.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama moved Wednesday to make it cheaper for first-time and younger buyers to take out a mortgage. Obama lowered the mortgage-insurance premium for borrowers who have a down payment of just 3.5 percent of the home’s purchase price and finance the rest of the purchase with a loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration. The reduction is expected to save the typical first-time homebuyer an average of $900 a year on the insurance, the White House said. The insurance is required because they’re financing so much of the purchase and the loans are riskier. Existing homeowners who refinance into an FHA mortgage will see similar reductions, the White House said. The White House estimated that the change will help 800,000 homeowners save on their mortgages and 250,000 new buyers save on mortgage payments over the next three years. Obama, expected to highlight the lower-cost mortgages Thursday during a visit to Arizona, has been under pressure from the housing se...

September Brings an Unseasonal Inventory Increase of 4% There was a rare late-season boost in the number of homes for sale in September: Inventory increased by 4 percent over August and newly listed homes were up 2.1 percent. According to Redfin agents, this bump is because would-be sellers took longer to find homes to buy, which delayed them putting their homes on the market. Will new inventory bring buyers to the market this fall and winter? They’ll be interested but cautious, according to Redfin agent Tom Lewis in Washington, D.C. “New inventory gets people’s attention and gets them excited, but buyers are wary and know that new listings could be gone quickly if there is a lot of interest,” he said. “Many of them are hesitant to step into a multiple-offer situation because they have lost offers on other homes. But if a home sticks around for a few days, then they’ll be more willing to bite.” Declining mortgage rates could create even more demand among buyers, ...

Sales of previously owned homes climbed in September to the highest level in a year, pointing to growing confidence in the U.S. economy as employment firms. Purchases advanced 2.4 percent to a 5.17 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington . Demand was up 1.9 percent compared with the same month last year before adjusting for seasonal patterns. Americans are returning to the real-estate market as employers have added 2 million workers to payrolls so far this year. Sales stand to get an additional boost in the final months of 2014 as the drop in mortgage rates caused by slowing growth in Europe and emerging nations makes properties more affordable for first-time buyers. The decline in borrowing costs “is encouraging for the housing market recovery,” said Brittany Baumann, an economist at Credit Agricole CIB in New York, who projected sales would rise last month. “We see upward trajectory over the next few months, but it’s go...