Helen Hoyt

Should Home Buyers Lock in Rates?
Should home buyers apply for loan lock-in rates that are at their highest level since February? Or should they bet that the federal government will find a way to lower rates?

Money magazine staffers say the wildcard is Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. The Fed has been buying up long-term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to keep rates low. But when rates started to climb in the last week, the Fed seemed to signal that it wasn't too concerned.

But now that rates have climbed to a six-month high, some observers believe that the Fed will refocus its efforts and push them down.

"It's one thing to have a Treasury yield backup when mortgage rates are still declining, but that is no longer the case. The yield on the 30-year fixed-rate is already up 20 basis points from the lows; 1-year ARMs have jumped 17 basis points. This is not what the Fed wants to see," says David Rosenberg, a former Merrill Lynch economist now at Gluskin Sheff.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Carla Fried (05/29/2009)

Learn more about 100% Financing in Portland Oregon, USDA Loans, PDC 20% Downpayment Assistance Loans and FHA on my website at http://www.PortlandCreativeReatlors.com

Decide what neighborhood you want to live in -see my Portland Neighborhood Guide!

About Rose City and Roseway

Rose City area is an awesome neighborhood. It is close to Fremont to the north- with all it's shops, cafes and restaurants, and Hollywood to the west. The houses have lots of character with hardwoods, big front porches, and quiet streets with trees and back yards! It's a really good family neighborhood- with prices in the mid-range....some smaller homes affordable in the lower price ranges- and big beautiful houses in the upper.

It is a good close-in NE neighborhood full of bungalows, capes, cottages and other older PDX homes- You can walk or bike ride anywhere you want to go- there is really good public transportation and it's a great family neighborhood. All over the area houses are being remodeled and restored- the homes mostly have hardwoods and firs, slanted ceilings upstairs, small yards- some have fireplaces and built-ins, coved ceilings and picture molding. There are lots of parks and green space. Rose City Park and Golf Course, Normandy Park and Fraser Park. There is also a good community spirit and diversity- and it is still affordable!

Here are some links for the parks

Normandale Park | Frazer Park | Rose City Golf Course

Learn more about Portland and it's neighborhoods in my free, online, in-depth Portland Neighborhood Guide! www.PortlandCreativeRealtors.com

Goose Hollow is bordered by 405 to the east, Burnside to the north, Washington Park to the west and just past 26 in kind of an windy pattern to the south (Going from east to west go along SW Cardinell Drive to SW Jackson Street to SW Vista Avenue . It borders on the NW -Alphabet District to the north, the downtown area to the east, the southwest hills to the south and the west hills or Hillside neighborhood to the west.

It's funny to think about what Portland used to be like a long time ago! Goose Hollow got it's name because in the early times of Portland , wild geese used run free throughout the wooded hollow in the Tualatin Mountains . In fact, there was something called the Goose Hollow Wars- people fighting over the geese! Now it has become one of the most densely populated areas in Portland . The neighborhood league is working hard to make it a people friendly area to live in- and has done a great job bringing it back from it's residential downturn during the 2 nd half of the 1900's. There are 6 new condo projects in the area- Neighborhood: The Allegro, the Civic Concos, The Clay Street Commons, the Jefferson, the Manhattan Tower and the Shannon
There are several different residential areas of Goose Hollow. The Uptown or Lownsdale District used to be all residential- then went through a time when it became warehouses, commercial and light industrial. It is now being reborn- has older brick apartment buildings, hotels, commercial mixed and new condo units coming in. Kings Hill is where some of the wealthiest merchants at the turn of the century lived.- full of gorgeous turn of the century architecture-and is now a designated Historic District. Goose Hollow used to have a huge pond- that's why the geese lived there- and there were many family farms situated nearby- and now is mixed commercial, industrial, residential and freeways. Gander Ridge and Vista Ridge are right at the top or west edge of Goose Hollow bowl- and are full of beautiful homes built up in the hills overlooking Portland .

The Max runs right through it- both the Red line and the Blue line- and I-405 and 26 run right through it too. They have done a lot of art décor along the Max line- kind of interesting to see

There is no park right in Goose Hollow, but Washington Park is located right on the west edge- you can hop on the Max and be there in just a couple of minutes. There is a zoo, an arboretum, trails, a Children's Museum, a Rose Garden and all kinds of cool stuff!

If you would like to learn more about Goose Hollow and other Portland Neighborhoods, go to my Porltand Neighborhood Guide which gives detailed descriptions of each Portland Neighborhood, suburb and the west countryside- letting you feel the personality and flavor of each neighborhood. There are clickable maps, links to schools, parks, trails and other unique features of each neighborhood! It is online, free, in-depth and no ads! It is just information so people can get to know the neighborhoods of Porltand better!

http://www.portlandcreativerealtors.com/main_Portland_neighborhood_guide.php

The Portland Development Commission is offering an unbelievable loan program for it's Urban Renewal areas. It's called the 20% Down-payment Assistance Program- and it is even more than it says. If you qualify....and you will qualify if you are at the median income for your family size in Portland- then the city will pay for 20% of your house-you only have to get a loan for 80%....in other words, if you buy a house for $250,000- you only have to pay for $200,000 of it- the PDC will pay the rest. And you don't have to repay it until you sell your house.....with absolutely NO INTEREST owed.

Not only that- if you want to add a bathroom, finish a basement or attic, or tackle another home improvement that the city approves, they will pay for that too- up to a certain percentage of the value of the house. And you don't have to repay that until you sell your house.

Sound too good to be true? It does to me too. But it is true. And if you are within the income range that qualifies, and buy a house in one of the targeted areas, you can benefit from it! These areas are the Lents neighborhood, which is basically from SE Powell to Flavel, and from SE 76th to SE 122nd. There is also the Interstate Corridor in North Portland which is out near the Max and north of Lombard. And the Gateway District, which is a crazily shaped area that is impossible to describe- but it is out in Gateway along the 205 Corridor. You can see the maps by going to the Portland Development Commission Website- or just contact me and I will help you find houses that are for sale in the areas.

They are out of funds right now, but are taking applications June 15, 2009 for July. But you must have an accepted offer in tow! If you want to try for this, please contact me and I'll help you through the process and help you get your offer situated for approval when the funds come in!

Click here to see more details.

http://www.portlandcreativerealtors.com/main_Portland_Developement_Commission_Down_Payment_Assistance_Program.php

Sometimes you can- it all depends on where the bank is in the foreclosure process- how badly they want to get rid of it, and how many other people want to buy the same house.

When you are in the inner city- either the west side, east side or even North Portland- there are alot of people who are trying to buy close in. So when a really good deal comes up- there are usually multiple offers! We've had some transactions just in the past 2 weeks where we made offers on houses in Portland- and there were 10 other offers on one, and 12 on another. This is not unusual! We have several Short Sales as our own listings- and anything in the City has gotten multiple offers- sometimes being bid up $30,000-$40,000! The bank takes up to four months on a Short Sale, so there is lots of time for other offers to come in.

On a Bank owned home it's a little different. The bank usually knows how much they want - and if they get that offer, they will accept it quickly. They have already been through the short sales process, and just want the house gone! Each bank is different in the way they handle it, too. Some will credit for repairs- some won't. If the house is in a hot close in area, it will probably get multiple offers, although your realtor....if they are good....can keep checking, and up your offer to keep you at the top! That's what I try to do for my clients!

The outlying areas- especially Beaverton, Aloha, Hillsboro, Oregon City, Canby, and farther out- have a harder time selling. There aren't as many people looking in those areas- so I've seen people get unbelievable deals! My last buyer just got his house for $132,000- on a quarter acre private beautiful lot-that sold for $230000 in 2007! It was a bank owned home- but no one seemed to want it! I have another buyer whose offer of $250000 on a house that started at $394000, is very close to being accepted...there are no other offers and the Short Sale is at the very end.....so the bank is getting desperate!

Sometimes, though, when the bank does their BPO- which means Broker Price Opinion-(They pay a neighborhood Specialist to do a Market Analysis on the house so they will have a good idea as to what it is worth), the BPO comes out higher than what the bank can get- some banks will go ahead and let it go at a low price- other banks hold on to it until they get close to the appraised value. You never know until you make an offer. Many times the realtor doesn't even have any idea of what the bank will take.

Banks are so overwhelmed by the number of Short Sales and Foreclosures they are dealing with, they don't even look at the offers until it gets near to the dead line for the foreclosure to take affect, Here is an example of how it goes:

We had a listing in NE Portland for $230000- we got 6 offers in January, each one higher than the last....bidding it up $300000! You would think the bank would jump on it and take the high offer! Did they? No! They said they were getting up to 5000 new short sales a week- and all they could do was get to the ones that were on the verge of forelcosure- and leave the rest until the last minute. It is like they are drowning in Short Sales- and if they don't handle the ones ready to foreclose right now- they will lose them....so they put every other house on hold until they are ready to foreclose!

So they didn't even look at any of the offers we sent in until 4 days before the auction date....which was the end of March! When they finally did look at them, they saw that a new lien had been tacked on- so they refused to look at the offers- We hustled and got the lien off within 24 hours- the day before the Auction Date- and held our breath. The bank gave an extension- and it finally closed a month later!!!

This is a typical example of how Short Sales go! If we wouldn't have been on top of it- and gotten the lien off, and gotten all the paperwork back to the bank in time- it would have just foreclosed and become a Bank Owned home or been auctioned off!