What is it
The London Interbank Offered Rate is a daily reference rate based on the interest rates at which banks offer to lend unsecured funds to other banks in the London wholesale money market. Most variable mortgages and short term loans are based on this rate. If it goes up your ARM follows.
What it means to you
The LIBOR rates have almost doubled, reflecting the fact that banks percieved so much risk. They didnt know whether the bank they loaned to would be there next week. Now we are watching some encouraging trends, bare beginnings but still positive. Key short-term lending rates fell again Tuesday. Libor, for three-month dollar-denominated loans fell to 4.63% from 4.72% while one-month rate declined to 4.46% from 4.56%. It has to mean that banks are begining to see a little less risk and that is the first step towards loosening credit.
More Good News- California Foreclosures are Down Again
California: Notices of default filings, the first step of a foreclosure process -- fell 61.8 percent in September compared to August and fell 36.4 percent compared to the same month last year, reports data company ForeclosureRadar.com.( via MarketWatch)
The Feds Plan begins to Kick In
No doubt, there is much work in front of us and we are certainly victims to headline events, but maybe we are seeing the early signs of stabilazation. Keep your fingers crossed.
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Howard Bell
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals.
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Most of the country is having quite a lot of trouble, but San Francisco has held up. We have a strong diversified work environment and we balanced the budget. All of these things and a good strong tech industry has helped keep us above the fray. One good indicator of home prices is the County Assessors office.
The Assessor Recorder is the department that determines the property tax base. Phil Tang's office has received 1673 requests for lower property taxes based on reduced property values. 810 of those requests did get a lower appraisal by about $137,000. Thats an 11.5% drop in the value of those homes.
Most of the reductions came in the newer developments in SOMA, Potrero, parts of the Mission and Mission Bay. The Schiller index gives us an 12% drop in home prices for San Francisco, corroborating the city Assessor Recorders numbers.
In this environment I have to say that an 11-12% drop in values is somewhat of a relief. Lets hope that San Francisco can keep those losses to low and recoverable numbers.
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Howard Bell
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.
http://yourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry. Your source for property management tips, policies and market trends.
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This is a very good project that has been fully supported by the Russian Hill Neighbors Association, a nonprofit neighborhood organization established in 1981 to encourage friendly association among Russian Hill neighbors and merchants and to respond to neighborhood concerns.
Greening the Broadway Tunnel-West was a $660k DPW project. The City awarded us $325k, but the funds were retracted because of major budget cuts. Some of that money has now been restored.
Greening: ($299k) -- planting twenty-eight trees up the sides of Broadway (just outside of and rising with the tunnel retaining walls), four planter trees on the pedestrian bridge, and fourteen trees in the median strip.
Cable Car Square on Hyde Street ($174k) -- A pedestrian pathway will lead from the SE corner of Broadway and Larkin (starting at Helen Wills Park) to an attractive square at the Hyde Street Cable Car stop. The pathway and square would be demarcated by special paving.
Traditional Ornamental Street Lamps ($187k) -- will help demarcate Broadway as an historic, grand boulevard.
Russina Hill is a beautiful and active neighborhood and I wanted to let readers know these floks exist....besides, the tunnel is really ugly, isnt it?
Donations can be made through PayPal or sent to RHN at the following address:
Judy Junghans,
Treasurer RUSSIAN HILL NEIGHBORS
1819 Polk St. #221
San Francisco, CA 94109
Voice 415-267-0575
Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals.
Your Property Path Amazon Store
http://astore.amazon.com/yourpropertypath20-20
Hand picked from amazons huge selection
Everything after this week is old history. Still, it hasnt been all that bad for us.
Dataquick reports that bay area regional home sales had a slight uptick. No doubt due to bargain hunters picking up seemingly deep discounts of 30% or more. The nine-county region saw a total of 7,232 new and resale houses and condos sold last month, down 4.7 percent from 7,586 in July but just 0.9 percent lower than the 7,299 sales a year ago.
An "average" August sees just over 10,000. sales. The bay area median price of a home has dropped almost 32% since last year. The hardest hit being Contra Costa (down42%), Solano (down almost 36%) and Sonoma (down 31%).
San Francisco Home Prices
Dataquick reports that home prices are down almost 12%, from a median of $822,000 to $725,000. Given whats happening to the outer regions, we are not doing that bad. More than anything the credit crunch and the difficulty in getting jumbo loans to finance higher priced homes seems to be the culprit. The biggest reason for the relative health of San Francisco home markets is got to be the reverse commute that is bringing well paid jobs onto San Francisco.
Google, Apple, Ebay and Genetech all offer free round trip commuter buses to bring people than normally would likely live in the South Bay to san Francisco. They are populating the city with good jobs, seemingly untouched by the financial services crises. I cant see Google really hurt by all of this. San Francisco cant escape completely because we are the financial center of the west. We will certainly see job loss but the tech sector can hold us up. In fact, our credit rating as a city just went up! So, keep your fingers crossed...we just might escape this....
Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals.
Your Property Path Amazon Store
http://astore.amazon.com/yourpropertypath20-20
Hand picked from amazons huge selection
Still Solvent After all These Years
Mayor Gavin Newsom today welcomed Moody’s upgraded bond rating for the City and County of San Francisco. According to its most recent ratings, Moody’s upgraded the City’s general obligation bond rating to Aa2 from Aa3 and revised the rating outlook to Stable from Positive. Moody’s also upgraded the City’s various general fund obligations to A1 from A2.
"We are proud that Moody’s has upgraded the City and County of San Francisco’s bond rating," said Mayor Newsom. "This rating is a statement about the strong, fiscal health of San Francisco, but we must remain steadfast in our commitment to financial prudence and sound managerial practices, in order to continue our terrific progress."
According to Moody’s, "Among San Francisco's strengths were an above-average resident socioeconomic profile, a highly diverse and robust revenue base, an exceptionally strong balance sheet at close of fiscal year 2006-2007, and a moderate debt burden with relatively rapid, direct debt retirement.
The ratings agency's upgrade came on the heels of the Mayor’s signing of the city’s $6.5 billion city budget last week, which closed a budget shortfall of $338 million.
This means that we will be able to borrow and fund more programs at less cost. Interresting how san Francisco can do it and the state is busted. This city closed a budget shortfall, I have to hand it to all the reasons why. The mayor, proximity to Berkeley and Stanford and all those Googlers who help keep the bars and restaurants open in times like these.
Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals. Y
Your Property Path Amazon Store
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Howard is a property manager and leasing agent in San Francisco. If you are considering leasing or management services in San Francisco you can reach him at foundhoward@gmail.com
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