The median price of a single-family home in San Diego County last month was $418,500, an 18 percent increase over December 2011, the San Diego Association of Realtors announced today.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Tougher Rules for Adjustable-Rate Mortgages
New mortgage rules the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced last week will change how lenders decide if borrowers qualify for adjustable-rate mortgages.
The "ability to repay" rule, which goes into effect in January 2014, requires lenders to consider more than just the loan's initial interest rate in determining whether someone can afford the loan.
The new rules are intended to keep lenders from getting borrowers into mortgages they can't afford. Unlike regular fixed-rate mortgages that have the same rate and monthly payment throughout the life of the loan, rates on ARMs change, which can lead to larger monthly payments that make it harder for a borrower to afford the loan.
Instead of using the introductory rate in their calculations, lenders will be required to consider the loan's "fully-indexed rate." This is defined as the margin the lender has on that loan plus the index the loan is pegged to.
For instance, an ARM with a 225-basis-point (2.25-percentage-point) margin that's pegged to the one-year LIBOR, currently at 0.84%, would have a fully-indexed rate of 3.09%. The lender will have to make sure the borrower has the ability to make the loan's monthly payments at this rate, even if the initial rate they're offered is lower than that.
While many lenders already use the fully-indexed rate to approve borrowers, it isn't a standard used throughout the industry.
For borrowers, the new rule could make it harder to qualify for ARMs since all lenders will be using rates that are higher than the initial rate available on this loan. Experts say it could lead to fewer ARM originations once the rule is implemented.
courtesy of: http://www.marketwatch.com
San Diego County House Prices Up 18%, Condos Up 23% Above Dec, 2011
January 11, 2013, at 10:59 am
The December 2012 cost was also 3 percent above what it had been in November, according to SDAR statistics.
The organization reported that condominiums and townhomes had a median price of $253,000 last month, a 23 percent hike from December 2011.
Linda Lee, the president of the SDAR Board of Directors, said the figures are encouraging.
“The momentum carried into December, giving us a strong finish to 2012,” Lee said. “I firmly believe San Diego’s real estate market will continue to rebound in 2013.”
The December 2011 median price for a single-family home in December 2011 was $355,000. For multi-family housing, it was $205,000.
The number of sales of houses climbed 10 percent in December to 2,004 compared with the same month one year earlier.
Condo and townhome purchases were up 5 percent to 897.
courtesy of: http://www.swrnn.com
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
What People Who Live to 100 Have in Common
A growing number of Americans are living to age 100. Nationwide, the centenarian population has grown 65.8 percent over the past three decades, from 32,194 people who were age 100 or older in 1980 to 53,364 centenarians in 2010, according to new Census Bureau data. In contrast, the total population has increased 36.3 percent over the same time period.
Centenarians in the United States are considerably different from the overall population. Here's a look at some of the characteristics of people who live to age 100:
Female gender. It is overwhelmingly women who live to age 100. In 2010, 82.8 percent of centenarians were female. For every 100 females age 100 or older, there are only 20.7 males the same age. Females also make up 61.9 percent of those in their 80s and 72.2 percent of people in their 90s. "We know that women are more social than men. Other studies have found that staying socially connected predicts greater life expectancy," says Gary Small, a professor on aging and director of the UCLA Longevity Center in Los Angeles, who is not affiliated with the Census Bureau report. "If you are social, it may reduce stress levels because you can talk about your feelings and things that stress you out and it seems to help many people. If you need a ride to the doctor or you fall, they can take you to the hospital or help you find the best doctor."
Less diversity. Centenarians are considerably less diverse than the overall U.S. population. In 2010, some 82.5 percent of centenarians were white, versus 72.4 percent of the total population. Black or African Americans were unique in that their proportion of the centenarian population (12.2 percent) is about the same as their percentage of the total population (12.6 percent). Asians made up 2.5 percent of the centenarian population, while they make up 4.8 percent of the total population. And Hispanics represent 5.8 percent of centenarians, but 16.3 percent of the population.
Living with others. Just over a third of both female and male centenarians lived alone in their own home in 2010, but the majority of the oldest citizens live with others. "As people get older, things in life happen--like you might become a widow or you might have a disability, and because of those circumstances, living arrangements often change," says Amy Symens Smith, chief of the age and special populations branch at the Census Bureau. Centenarian females (35.2 percent) were more likely to live in a nursing home than males the same age (18.2 percent). Centenarian males are the most likely to be living with others in a household (43.5 percent), compared to just 28.5 percent of centenarian females.
City living. A large majority of the oldest U.S. citizens live in urban areas. "As age increases, the percentage living in urban areas also increases," says Smith. Some 85.7 percent of centenarians lived in urban areas in 2010, compared with 84.2 percent of those in their 90s, 81.5 percent of those in their 80s, and 76.6 percent of those in their 70s. "Living in the city, you have a lot more mental stimulation and the symphony and better doctors and hospitals and more social networking," says Small. "There are more resources, and there is better transportation."
Located in the Northeast or Midwest. States with the largest populations generally have the most centenarians. California has the largest number of centenarians (5,921), followed by New York (4,605), Florida (4,090), and Texas (2,917). Alaska has the fewest residents age 100 and older (40). Wyoming (72), Vermont (133), and Delaware (146) are also among the states with the fewest centenarians.
The Northeast and Midwest have proportions of centenarians that are higher than the national average of 1.73 per 10,000 people, while the West and South have below-average proportions of centenarians. "There's a lot of stuff going on in local areas, including access to medical care, diet, exercise, the culture, risk-taking, and more smoking," says Linda Waite, a sociology professor and director of the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago. "People in the Northeast tend to be more highly educated, and education is associated with a longer life expectancy." North Dakota is the only state with more than 3 centenarians for every 10,000 people in the state. Other states where centenarians make up a relatively large portion of the population include South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Three western states have less than one centenarian for every 10,000 people: Alaska, Utah, and Nevada.
The proportion of centenarians in the United States is smaller than that of many other developed countries. For example, for every 10,000 people, there are 1.92 centenarians in Sweden, 1.95 in the United Kingdom, and 2.70 in France. And Japan has 3.43 centenarians per 10,000 people, beating even our longest-lived state, North Dakota.
courtesy of: http://news.yahoo.com
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
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