Higher home prices offset lower interest rates to reduce housing affordability in California during the fourth quarter of 2012, the California Association of Realtors reported Monday.
The percentage of home buyers who could afford a median-priced existing single-family home in California decreased to 48 percent at the end of 2012, down from 55 percent in the last quarter of 2011, according to CAR's Traditional Housing Affordability Index.
The Index is considered the most fundamental measure of housing well-being for home buyers in the state.
Home buyers needed to earn at least $66,940 a year to qualify for the purchase of a $353,190 statewide median-priced single-family home in the fourth quarter of 2012, CAR said.
The monthly payment, including taxes and insurance on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan would be $1,670, assuming a 20 percent down payment and an effective composite interest rate of 3.49 percent, according to CAR. The effective composite interest rate in the third-quarter of 2012 was 3.72 percent vs. 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.
-- City News Service
Kibbles n' bits, Kibbles n' bits! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdNnjFwGFOM
Better the landlord gets the tax write off. Duhhh. Lot better when you retire to have a bunch of rent receipts then a payed off house. Duhhh.
RELEASE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS, GET $$ In an attempt to save money, the Department of Homeland Security is releasing some undocumented immigrants from immigration jails ahead of the automatic budget cuts slated to take effect this Friday. The “low priority” detainees are being released here in the U.S., even though they face the prospect of deportation. The average daily cost of detaining an immigrant is $122 to $164 per detainee, according to the ACLU. That equals $3,360 to $4,920 a month per illegal. They could easily make their house payments and then some. Wonder why the U.S. is in debt and broke? 4 more years.....
No. That was tongue in cheek. What I was really trying to bring forth was the waste in government. The sequester may be good in the long run. The deficit cannot continue. If the waste was eliminated, like promised 4 years ago, the housing would be much stronger then it is. If the illegals were shipped out to their own countries or incarcerated and made to pick those strawberries you hear about we would not need green cards and the produce would not go up in price because we now have free jailed labor. Matter of fact we could use all persons in jail to do the farm work instead of free room and board that cost us, the taxpayer $3,360 to $4,920 a MONTH. Of course I make cents, soooo it will be ignored by Obama and the administration as they raise our taxes. Much easier to do. 4 more years......
Just got to thinking again about the housing. If the government bought housing for illegals and put 10 of them in one house they would have over $50,000 a month to invest instead of having them in jail and not gaining anything. (a rent receipt) As the house appreciated in price the government could sell the house and either ship the illegals out to their own country on the chartered aircraft we charter twice a week or have them pick the produce so many are worried will go up in price. This is a win, win, proposition!!! (tongue in cheek)
Now because of sequestration the Feds can't afford to bus immigration holds across into Mexico?? heh. I guess the Feds can't afford the bus fuel at today's gas prices. heh. These excuses are really getting hilarious. Obama will do anything not to be forced to 'eat his peas'. heh. Part of what caused the last economic meltdown is that banks were giving $600,000 sub-prime loans to illegal gardeners and janitors with no proof of income required. heh. The bankers knew full well that these people would never be able to pay their loans once the interest rates adjusted to the higher levels. The Register did a big investigative report on this, re: Washington Mutual Bank before it collapsed and got sold off. Ilegals got to live somewhere too! Either they live 20 to a household and bring blight to your local neighborhood or the banks have to provide them with 'liar loans'. They've turned American society into a clown circus void of enforced rules and regulations that made us 'civilized'. This is why the world laughs at us.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100500858 Funny thing is, only in the city of Washington DC can the average person afford the average car. Who knew all those government desk jobs were at the top of the employment food chain.
Bill, if they didn't run a deficit our GDP today would be @ minus 6%. The truth would be apparent. So now they've placed us between a rock and a hard place. They have to continue deficit spending so that the economy doesn't crash. Our Federal debt will be at $20T by the end of Obama's term. What happens when the interests rates are FORCED higher to historical norms of 6%-7%? It means that over a third of our budget goes to paying the interest to service the debt. How do you think that will work out? And there is NO WAY that they could raise the taxes high enough to compensate. That would kill the economy from the other end. So they have placed us into a fiscal dilemma that MUST END in financial disaster - one way or the other. There is now NO SAFE ROAD to travel. Whichever road they take sends us off the fiscal cliff. This is NOT CONJECTURE. It is simply mathematics that an 8th grader could do given the truthful and accurate variables.
Obama has proven to be a flim-flam man. Watching him operate is the equivalent of watching that old classic movie "The Flim-Flam Man" starring George C. Scott in real time.
If you do it depreciates as you drive it out the door by at least 10%. Get a 2 yr. old car. It usually has a year left on the warranty also.
America has turned communist. In the old Soviet Union the government jobs were the best jobs to have too. More truth.
I blame the schools for not teaching the common sense we as adults already know. Instead of teaching all students geometry I would rather see common sense 101 taught.
If you folks want to play it.....knock yourselves out.
Great foresight. I have been telling my son that for many months. Told him not to try to pay down his 3 3/4% mortgage because as soon as the fed stops buying bonds the chances of inflation taking hold is enormous. The savings rates will go much higher as well as mortgages and the 3 3/4% mortgage he has will look like it is free money.
Bo will not do that. He has nothing to prove now that he can't be elected again. He just has to concentrate on class warfare and the breaking of the American spirit by increasing debt & taxes.
jb says months ago.... "If Patch refuses to moderate the numerous comments spewed each day by justus, they will start losing readers. I am one of them ".. He is a liar. A useless twit!!!!