FRIDAY - cruising out of the rain and into the sunshine
- 6 Ways You Can Save on Your Garden Renovation
- Should borrowers wait to save 20% down or buy now?
- San Jose flood: Struggling residents get a hand from nonprofit
- San Jose: Council mulls new condos planned for Japantown
- Is California housing hot or cold? 2 reports offer polar opposite views
- Home in America: Immigrants and Housing Demand
- 10 Tile Layouts You Haven’t Thought Of
Enjoy!
Should borrowers wait to save 20% down or buy now? - While nearly 40 percent of aspiring homeowners believe they need to put down 20 percent on a home purchase, the average down payment was just 11 percent in 2016, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Mortgage insurer MGIC has created a calculator that can show consumers whether they're better off waiting and saving for a bigger down payment or buying now with less money upfront. No matter what the results of the calculator show, prospective borrowers shouldn’t buy before they are ready and need to be comfortable not only with the mortgage payment but also the other responsibilities that come with homeownership.
San Jose flood: Struggling residents get a hand from nonprofit - As of Wednesday, 39 buildings throughout the city remained so damaged from the flood that they were unfit for habitation, down from more than 1,300 back in February. San Jose spokeswoman Cheryl Wessling said most of those have a property owner who has not been in contact with the city.
San Jose: Council mulls new condos planned for Japantown - San Jose is known for being “jobs poor” — meaning it has more employed residents than jobs — earning it a reputation as a bedroom community because San Jose has a smaller population during the day than at night as people leave the city for work. The jobs-to-housing imbalance hurts city finances because housing costs more in services than it delivers in taxes. Because of the city’s shortage of jobs, Liccardo and other elected officials have opposed converting land that could be used for jobs to housing — especially amid pressure from developers looking to capitalize on Silicon Valley’s booming housing market.
Is California housing hot or cold? 2 reports offer polar opposite views - Two recent reports — from Fitch Rating, a Wall Street credit reviewer, and Arch MI, a seller of mortgage insurance — attempt to gauge the stability of regional housing markets by tracking changes in real estate metrics vs. other economic measurements. It’s certainly a chore worth doing after the real estate debacle of a decade ago.
Home in America: Immigrants and Housing Demand - This report examines the role immigrants play in local housing markets by focusing on five metropolitan areas that each reflect a different type of immigrant gateway community: San Francisco, California; Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Buffalo, New York. The report also explores the implications and opportunities for real estate and land use leaders in these regions and in other areas seeing significant growth in the foreign-born population. The intended result is a more robust understanding of the big picture in terms of immigration’s shifting—and increasingly important—impacts on the residential sector in a growing number of markets.
10 Tile Layouts You Haven’t Thought Of - Consider fish scales, hopscotch and these other patterns for an atypical arrangement for your next project. Some of my faves:
