Mortgage Blog

The sales were lower for July than June. I think it is understandable because of the summer holidays. The sale price is still 6.2% higher, compared to the same month of 2016.

On the current market, 33% of the buyers are first time buyers. Still 60% of all the buyers has a down payment of 6% or less. Still it is hard for some to get the minimum down payment. 19% of the buyers are cash buyers.

Foreclosure inventory still at the 10 year low, which is still a good sign.  And the interest rate is still at 2017 lows.

Last week, I tried to contact with one of clients about the refinance. He purchased the property about 6 months ago with the rate of 4.25%, and I think it is a good idea to lower the monthly payment. But he chose not to, and the reason was that "the interest rate is not 1% lower than the original rate". And I explained to him that the 1% rule does not apply any more. Normally this worked when the loan amount was very small a few decades ago, and also when the buyers paid the closing cost. Anyway, the numbers (the money they will save) speaks.

It was "cool" in the city. I went to San Francisco yesterday, and it was only around 65 degrees in the afternoon. I felt cold when we dined out. The good thing was that I tried "Blue Bottle" coffee, which I planned to have for some time. I heard it for quite some time. I think their marketing was good. But still it is hard to compete with starbucks(for the market), though they can survive.

Read an interest article this weekend. Starbucks opened more stores in the city, and Peet's coffee business is even better than before. The main reason was that starbucks "educated" people to drink coffees, so there are more and more people like coffee now.