Many of you ask me how much monthly $$$ will I have to pay per $100,000 loan. There is no one answer because it depends on your Fico score , your income and your down payment. In general, you’ll have to pay $608-$680 for every $100,000. To be safe, just think, I will pay about $630 for every $100,000 loan. To make is simple if you buy a house for $1,000,000 and put 20% down payment, your loan $800,000 will cost you $630X8=$5,040 mortgage payment.

You have to take into consideration Taxes (about 1.25% yearly on the assessed price) and insurance, maybe $80-100 a month and minus tax break from Uncle Sam about 30% from the interest part of the payment which for the first 10 years of the loan could be $5040-30%=$3528+1141(taxes and insurance)=$4669 monthly payment (including taxes and insurance).

These are not precise numbers; these are only estimates to give you a sense of the expense.

To determine where home prices are expected to rise most in the next couple of years,  Forbes.com   looked at projections for housing starts from the National Association of Home Builders and job-growth projections from Moody’s Economy.com.

Forbes identified cities that are likely to be vibrant markets because jobs are increasing and the housing market wasn’t overbuilt during the boom.”The logic is pretty straightforward,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “People will spend as much on housing as their income will allow them. House prices are very closely tied to household income over the long run when you look at business cycles.

According to Forbes, these are the 10 cities where home prices are most likely to rise:  Albuquerque, Charlotte, N.C.  San Antonio, Texas, Portland, Austin, Texas, Salt Lake City, Utah,  Colorado Springs, Colorado. Minneapolis, Atlanta, Oklahoma City

Source: Forbes.com, Matt Woolsey (08/25/2008)

This sounds great if you were to move there and buy your own home. However, if you are planing to invest in Real Estate in one of these attractive cities with hope for appreciation and good return on investment , by renting your property,  you should check who will live at your property. Can they afford to pay the rent? will they look after your property or trash it? If you have to vacate them and remodel the place every time you have a bad tenant you’ll end up loosing money.

Find a good property manager and be a part of decision making. If the applicants have judgments against them don’t rent your place to them, they will likely live in your place for free, and it will cost you a lot of aggravation and loss on income. It takes at least 2 months to evict the tenants, fix the place and rent it again. During that time you have to keep paying the mortgage, the insurance and taxes. Sometimes you have to hire a lawyer for about $200/hour.  As with every investment, it has it’s risks.

In California the Real Estate Broker is responsible for pre qualifying the buyers, finding a suitable house/property that will fit the needs and budget of the buyer, negotiate the best price and terms, write the contract which is the purchase agreement, coordinate with the lender to get the best loan, inspect and check the property with professional inspectors, follow up and make sure all needed work be completed as per the contract, pay attention to every detail and educate the buyers through the process, walk through the check the property before releasing the down payment funds, check the closing statement and follow up with the home warranty and advice for many years to come. For Sellers, the Broker has to help decide on a marketable price, help prepare the house like a bride for her wedding day, do all property inspections, help the seller fill up all the disclosures, market the house and advertise in all possible ways, hold open house every weekend until the house sells, show it whenever needed, help maintain the house clean and tidy, choose the best suitable buyer, negotiate the best price and terms, check the lender and follow-up with every step of the sale process, and the contract and help deliver the house clean and ready to the next owners.

There are many other roles a broker has that are not written, like staging, moving furniture around, decorate with fresh flower arrangements, and be a real friend.

With the new situation of the mortgage companies and banks that are going under, like Indibank this week and who knows who is next on the list, there is a feeling of uncertainty. Buyers are afraid to remove loan contingency because their lender might change terms at the last moment or even go under, leaving the buyers with no loan, risking their deposit check of 3% of the sale price, which is a considerable amount of money in our area. Until about 1985 the contract enabled the buyer to have loan contingency up to the final approval of the loan or the funding day. It is still the case in other states like Texas and Louisiana but not in the bay area. Here, the seller gets mad and asks the buyer what rights he has to expect the seller to hold his property off the market while he waits for his loan to get approved without jeopardizing his deposit check. Maybe it’s time to change this condition and give the anxious buyer some peace of mind.

The Real estate market is more balanced these days. There are more negotiations and less bidding wars. Some extraordinary homes still sell with multiple bids but most homes are being sold after a few weeks on the market and tight negotiations. Sellers still insist on their prices and buyers are more cautious. Many buyers wait to see what will happen with the banking industry, but others still buy homes especially in the preferred areas with the good schools.

Sunnyvale CA is one of the largest Cities in the Silicon Valley, next to San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Mountain View and Los Altos. About 140,000 people enjoy the stability, the clean air, clean environment, abundance of parks and recreation facilities, beautiful community center and senior citizen center, great schools and fantastic Police & Fire department who shows up in less than 5 minutes when called.

The elementary schools in Sunnyvale attend 3 school districts according to geographic boundaries. Sunnyvale has 4 elementary schools that belong to the Cupertino School District

You can click on the link and view the location. Montclaire, West valley, Stocklmeir and Nimitz

Cupertino Union School District elementary Attendance Boundaries

The kids from the Northern neighborhoods, North of Fremont Ave attend Sunnyvale School District

Some of the schools are as good almost as prestigious as Cupertino schools. Cherry Chase Elementary

and Cumberland Elementary

are very desirable. Columbia middle school is known for the high math achievers. A high percentage of kids who attend Columbia middle finish Algebra before they get to high school. The school received grant from Juniper, a high tech company nearby.

The kids on the East side neighborhoods of Sunnyvale, East of Wolfe Road attend Santa Clara School District in Sunnyvale. Laurelwood Elementary is one of the best elementary schools in that area. The day care before and after school hours enables working parents to leave their kids at school after hours or early in the morning , knowing that they are in good hands.

In a meeting with Larry Stone the Santa Clara County assessor he explained that home prices are determined by the designated school for that property. There could be a considerable price difference between homes in the same street or adjacent street, just because they belong to a different school. The Real estate market is affected directly by the schools. While most of the country is affected by the mortgage market and prices are going down, Sunnyvale is holding tight. The prices are solid. Until now you can still see multiple offers and high home prices.

My client won the house, competing with 3 other buyers. The seller was so happy. The offer was:”as is”, no contingencies, 3 weeks free rent back, great price, all that for the luxury to own home in Sunnyvale. My client shopped around for the best loan. First he was going with a mortgage broker who promised him the best 30 year fixed conforming loan he could get. Then he found a B of A lender who was willing to get him 5 year arm for 5% (with 1 point). What a deal! The mortgage broker could not match that rate and my client was going to do the loan with B of A. 2 days later the original mortgage broker found a 30 year fixed  for 5.25% with a 1 point buy down. They locked that rate which disappeared that afternoon. The B of A lender could not match that loan and the buyer, being a conservative borrower preferred the 30 year fixed.

A diligent broker has to be on top of things, check the rates a few times a day and be in touch with many lenders.