Question of the week: What should we do before we put our property on the market? Answer: The answer to the question of the week has many variables, what type of property, what is is being used for now, where is the property located, what is the local market like, how long have you had/lived […]
Question of the week: Should we move Mom and/or Dad? Answer: As we reach, and pass, 60, more and more of our conversations with friends, clients, neighbors, and others in our generation are about our parents and their housing situation. Mom and/or Dad are aging, and their current home is too big, too far, not […]
Question of the week: Will the ROAD Act help home buying affordability? Answer: Hopefully, but… This week the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (“Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream”) passed both houses of Congress and is awaiting President Trump’s signature to become law. Note that as of this writing, Trump is withholding signature on […]
Question of the week: Did FHA allow discrimination in home loans and sales? Answer: This week’s question is in honor of Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021. It commemorates June 19, 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War and ensure the last slaves in […]
Question of the week: Are homes more affordable? Answer: Depending on your starting point, yes. Using median home price data from the California Association of Realtors for the month of April, homes in California are more affordable. The median price for a single family home in April was $914,810 statewide; up 2.9% form March’s $889,190 […]
Question of the week: Will our children be mad at us? Answer: This is question has so many possible responses due to so many factors not being in the question: How old are the kids? Did they ask to go to a concert and spend the night with other kids you don’t know? Were you […]
Question of the week: Will our homeowners insurance go up again? Answer: Probably. In 1988, California voters passed Proposition 103 that moved California’s Insurance Commissioner from an appointee of the governor to an elected position beginning with the 1990 election. Ostensibly, an elected official that was independent of the executive branch would result in a […]
Question of the week: When should we sell our home? Answer: This is a question many families are asking, regardless of their stage in life. The answer has become more complicated because of the prolonged historically low interest rates during the Covid era. Those rates fueled a tremendous spike in home prices due to the […]
Question of the week: When would we need an appraisal, other than to purchase or refinance? Answer: I was catching up with my friend Tom, who I met in the early part of this century when we started working together. Tom was my go to appraiser for all my clients in the area until May […]
Question of the week: How does your industry use artificial intelligence? Answer: Artificial intelligence (AI) is broadly defined as computer systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. The mortgage industry has used AI for decades—though the systems used were not yet labelled “artificial intelligence.” Here are some areas where the industry uses […]
