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David Wilhelm
03-10-2008, 8:24 AM
The rates dropped a few points last week. 6.03 from 6.24 on a 30yr. and a 15yr dropped from 5.72 to 5.47. I've not seen what a 20 has fallen to if any. Do you think this is the lowest it will go? How long do you think these rates will stay?

Chris Padilla
03-11-2008, 11:26 AM
...and so are housing values....

Pat Germain
03-11-2008, 11:38 AM
Wanna see something scarey? Try www.zillow.com (http://www.zillow.com). You can type in your adress, or any neighborhood address, and get a good idea of the value of your home and your neighbor's homes. Shoot, there was even a nice overhead shot of my house on that web site. You can even see my truck parked out front.

The scarey part is when you look at a chart showing what your house was worth a couple of years ago compared to today. You might want to have a beer at the ready...

Nancy Laird
03-11-2008, 11:45 AM
We just got a letter yesterday from our mortgage company informing us that our interest rate on our ARM dropped a whole percentage point, to 5.875. That's only 7/8 of a point more than we had when we first bought the house 15 years ago---payment is still under $600 a month including taxes and insurance. Love it!!!!

Cliff Rohrabacher
03-11-2008, 12:51 PM
YAh but you need a FICA like 10 or 1000000000 or some such to get one.

They yelled at congress cause the banks weren't making easy money available to the high risk population.

So congress blasted the banks

Then the banks made money easily available to high risk debtors.

Then the high risk debtors proved that the bankers were right all along.

Then Congress blasted the banks for making money too easy to get.

Then money got tight & the rates got low so there's money money everywhere but not a buck to touch.

And now Congress is yelling at the banks again because it's tough to get a loan.

What was that song by the Who?
Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
But we won't get fooled again - - will we.

Greg Muller
03-11-2008, 1:05 PM
Wow, nice post Cliff!

Me and my 2 finance MBA's couldn't have said it any better!

Greg

Greg Peterson
03-11-2008, 3:19 PM
They yelled at congress cause the banks weren't making easy money available to the high risk population.

Just for clarity, who is 'they'?

Jim Becker
03-11-2008, 6:13 PM
Pat, Zillow is interesting, but they have our property pegged at about, oh...$600K below actual market, even taking some off the top due to the recent devaluation. In fact, they have it for $100K less than we paid in 1999. Their information is quite flawed...at least for this place!

John Shuk
03-11-2008, 8:40 PM
Zillow has me about right but one of our neighbors might be a bit disappointed. They paid $15 million to build their home but Zillow has it pegged at $1.79 mil. Might be a bit low.
The house other than some mahogany on the outside is completely sheathed in patinaed copper. Just think of the scrap value!

Pat Germain
03-11-2008, 9:11 PM
I expect Zillow isn't able to accurately list values for unique high-end properties. Likely it uses some kind of algorithm based on nearby and similar properties. This works pretty well in a suburban tract, but there's no way it can peg a multi-million-dollar property unless it's surrounded by similar homes or it sold recently. Sorry Zillow got your place so wrong, Jim.

Also, I'm more than a little skeptical of the values listed two years ago. According to the Zillow chart, my house was up to well over $300k. I'm quite certain it was never much over $200k.

But Zillow is fun to peruse!

glenn bradley
03-11-2008, 9:15 PM
Their posted error 'swing' is about right for predictable metro areas. My house shows up for about what I put down on it (???). If I could really get the one across the street for their price, I'd buy it tomorrow. Interesting that my old silicon valley place shows about right as does the Folsom, Ca place I sold before moving to my current home.

Matt Schell
03-11-2008, 10:05 PM
The rates were actually lower about a month ago. Me and the wife were watching them closely since we were considering remortgaging to combine our 15yr mortgage and a 20 year home equity into one 15 year mortgage and save some money on the monthly payments. We locked in at 5.0 for a 15 year but we just missed grabbing a 4.75 before they started inching back up when Bush announced the stimulus package.

Personally I think they might dive again but that is just a gut feeling.

Cliff Rohrabacher
03-12-2008, 8:14 AM
Just for clarity, who is 'they'?

The "they" in this instance would be the electorate or rather that portion of the electorate that felt like it was soooooo unfair that they couldn't get loans and live the "American dream" (woo hoo) in a home which they should have never purchased.

Greg Cole
03-12-2008, 8:54 AM
...and so are housing values....

And the USD is falling through the floor... oil goes the other way.
Guess it's time for another rate cut by the Fed.

Cliff,
Well said.

Greg

Greg Peterson
03-12-2008, 12:43 PM
Okay, just checking.

Chris Padilla
03-12-2008, 1:03 PM
And the USD is falling through the floor... oil goes the other way.
Guess it's time for another rate cut by the Fed.


Sure, lets devalue the dollar into nothing. Americans need to learn to save to spend and not borrow to spend and that is what is wrong with cheap money.

Heard of the derivatives crisis? Read and weep: http://tinyurl.com/yutwtu (http://tinyurl.com/yutwtu)

Scott Donley
03-12-2008, 1:10 PM
And the USD is falling through the floor... oil goes the other way.
Guess it's time for another rate cut by the Fed.

Cliff,
Well said.

GregPlease ! No more rate cuts ! My saving account has gone down from 5.2 to 3.2 in the last few months. I live off that as part of my income. Fed rate cuts do little for lowering mortgage rates.