Qualifying for a mortgage could get a bit easier

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San Diego is in peak home-buying season, and the prices keep rising.

That can make it much harder for people to qualify for a mortgage. They have to show they can make the monthly payment — plus all of their current debt, including student loans, car payments and credit cards.

But starting this weekend, Fannie Mae will start backing mortgages with a 50 percent debt-to-income ratio, up from the current 45 percent. That can be big with a county median now $543,500, up about 10 percent from last year.

“If you want to buy a home and that home you wanted was a little bit beyond your capacity last month, it may be a little bit within your capacity this month,” said Mark Goldman, a loan officer and real estate lecturer at San Diego State University

Credit: ABC Channel 10 News
By: Jonathan Horn
Posted: 6:04 AM, Jul 28, 2017
Updated: 8:06 AM, Jul 28, 2017
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New Site Calculates Monthly Home Payments

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Article Originally Posted on ABC 10
By: Jonathan Horn

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – If you rent in San Diego, what you pay your landlord could be high enough to double as a mortgage payment.

Now, a new real estate website shows you just how far your monthly payment would go.

Zillow’s new website, Realestate.com, looks at all sorts of things that go into a monthly payment, such as your property tax estimate and homeowners insurance.

However, as San Diegans continue to look for homes, the question is: how accurate is it really?

At first, loan officer Mark Goldman was skeptical.

“Estimated should be bold, and underlined, and flashing,” said Goldman, of C-2 Financial.

He calculates complex mortgage payments every day using his trusted Excel spreadsheet. It includes property taxes, HOA fees, mortgage insurance and closing costs.

Realestate.com does the same with all those costs. It lets renters see how far their monthly landlord check could go to paying down a mortgage.

“I always ask the borrower what is a monthly payment for them, and a lot of times it’s unrealistic,” said Goldman.

That’s because your monthly payment goes up or down depending on how much cash you have for a down payment.

In a statement, Zillow Group says the website isn’t risky by emphasizing monthly payment. That’s because all homes start with a 30-year-fixed mortgage rate, so unlike a car loan, the payment can’t be lowered by extending the time to pay it back.

Goldman plugged in 10 percent for a $550,000 condo in North Park and adjusted the interest rate to 4.25 percent.

It would cost about $3,800 a month total.

Goldman plugged the same numbers into his Excel spreadsheet, and the result was very close.

“Based on this sample of one, I think this is a pretty reasonable estimate,” Goldman said.

Goldman said the website can’t tell all, but it does empower first-time homebuyers, and that’s a good start.

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How will Trump’s tax reform impact San Diegans?

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Article by: Grecia Aguilar
Credit: ABC Channel 10 New San Diego

President Trump’s outline on tax reform could have a big impact on homeowners.
Owning a home comes at a hefty price living in San Diego
“Here in San Diego, with the median house price at $550,000,” said Mark Goldman, lecturer of real estate at San Diego State.
But homeowners get multiple benefits come tax time.
Namely, they can write off the interest they pay on their mortgages and also deduct their property tax.
President Trump’s tax reform proposal may eliminate the property tax deduction.
“Will it impact a family making $70,000 to $100,000 a year? Yes it will,” said Goldman.
He said President Trump’s plan also calls for doubling the standard deduction.
So, a married couple wouldn’t pay any taxes on the first $24,000 income they earn.
For individuals, it starts at $12,600.
That may render the mortgage interest tax write-off moot for some homeowners, because they could get more back by taking that standard deduction.
But Goldman said he doesn’t see that making home buying less attractive.
“Will it change property values? Will it change the activity in the market? Will it make my house go down in value? I don’t believe it will,” he said.
With peak home-buying season about to pick up, Goldman said it’s still a good time to buy a house.

“The market is very active right now, I don’t think that this proposal will reduce values so if you’re thinking of getting into the home-buying market this summer, get to it,” he said.

Read complete article on Channel 10 News website

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San Diego median home price hits $515,000 in March — highest point in a decade

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By: Phillip Molnar

The San Diego County median home price reached $515,000 in March, its highest point in a decade and a 7.7 percent increase in a year, real estate tracker CoreLogic reported Tuesday.

“Home prices are going up faster than household incomes,” said Mark Goldman, finance and real estate lecturer at San Diego State University. “However, there is a shortage of units on the market. You have a lot of buyers chasing very few properties.”

Read full article on San Diego Union Tribune

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U.S. Home Prices Surpass Pre-Recession Peak Amid Healthy Sales

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U.S. home prices have fully recovered from their steep plunge during the housing bust and Great Recession, according to a private measure.

The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index, released Tuesday, is slightly above the peak it set in July 2006, after rising 5.5 percent in September from a year earlier. The milestone comes after more than four years of steady gains.

Still, prices have not fully recovered in many cities and other gauges show that home prices remain below their peaks.

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San Diego Housing Crisis Drives Some To Relocate, Others To Invest

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Behind the numbers is a major housing supply problem.

“Some of the estimates are approximately 35,000 units short in San Diego County,” said Mark Goldman, a real estate instructor at San Diego State University.

“Our population is expanding, our housing supply is already too small and the growth in our housing supply is not fast enough,” Goldman said. “We’re getting further behind every year.”

Low-income and middle-class families are being hit hardest, and impacts of the housing deficit could become increasingly visible as more people are forced to double up, Goldman said.

“More people are seeking fewer units, so the obvious solution is there’s going to be more people per room,” Goldman said. “There’s just not that many places for people to live and have a home.”

Goldman said people in the upper-income bracket are the ones buying homes and sustaining the competitive market, for now.

“People who are buying those homes have incomes that are keeping pace with the rate of increase, more or less,” Goldman said. “So that’s a good thing because that reduces the possibility of another housing crash.”

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San Diego County home prices up 6.2%

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By Phillip Molnar | 1:34 p.m. May 31, 2016

Southern California home prices continued to outpace the national average, and many major cities, said the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released Tuesday.

Prices nationally, adjusted for seasonal variation, rose 5.2 percent in the 12 months ended in March, with the Pacific Northwest and West seeing the biggest gains.

San Diego County’s median home price increased 6.2 percent , lower than the 6.4 percent increase in February and 6.9 percent in January. Los Angeles and Orange counties were up 6.5 percent, down from 6.8 percent in February and 6.9 percent in January.

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Mark Goldman, finance and real estate lecturer at San Diego State University, said a slower rate of appreciation is a good thing. He said price increases of 3.5 percent to 5 percent are more sustainable.

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Home Prices Skyrocketing, Driving Rent Prices Up in San Diego County

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It’s becoming more difficult to buy a home in San Diego County. NBC 7’s Megan Tevrizian tells us why the market is booming and what is means for first-time home buyers.

Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Home-Prices-and-Rent-Going-Up-in-San-Diego-County/377520251#ixzz47cCKAtzO
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