Multilevel…Make no mistake about it! This home has lots of stairs, including what I call the “Stairway to heaven”, which is equivalent to two flights of stairs. But…once you’re at the top of these stairs, you will be pleasantly surprised! The home is GORGEOUS and so well appointed.

A great entertainment house! A fabulous corporate retreat! A beautiful family home!

The home needs some TLC, but otherwise appears to be in good shape. Great set up for 2 family use. 1st level: 3 BR, 1 BA, familyroom with fireplace insert; 2nd level: great-room, huge riverrock fireplace, master BR with luxury bath, kitchen, hallway bath; 3rd level: large kids’ loft, may not be counted as part of the sq. footage as it’s accessed by latter. The home was extensively remodeled in about 2003.

*Chambers Landing Recreation Association; Pool, tennis, private beach.

*Chamberlands  Beach and Mountain Club; Driveway snow removal, shuttle to beach.

*Homewood Mountain Resort…5 minutes away.

Rates will increase by .125% officially April 1, 2012 – some lenders are implementing now most will do so by Mid-March
- How will these effect borrowers? The fee will raise their rate by .125% or approximately ½ point on each loan.
- How will this effect a seller? Borrowers will not have as much purchase power.
- This is a mandate by Congress to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to raise their fees all loans

What is a g-fee?
The guarantee fee or “g-fee” is an amount charged by mortgage-backed securities providers, like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to help protect against credit-related losses in the overall mortgage portfolio. In other words it acts like insurance and helps lower overall risk allowing lenders to offer lower rates.
Congress reached a last-minute deal to fund the payroll tax cut extension in December 2011, flip side they are funding it by mandating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (government sponsored entities) to increase their guarantee fees “g-fees” by at least 10 basis points on the rate! Congress says ultimately it will fund 36 billion of the cost of the payroll tax extension. Of course this will be on the back of borrowers.

Who will it affect?
The change will impact all new borrowers who will have loans that will be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans. This is the majority of the loans currently taking place. It on loans of 417,000 (loan size) across the nation and High Balance loans/Conforming Jumbo loans the size is dependent per county (NV county 477,250 and Placer $474,950).

How will it affect rate, payment and interest over life of loan?
It will vary by the investor (lender), the day or the hour…or whatever they decided.
Example:
Loan size of $417,000 loan size
.125% increase in rate (remember it could be more!)
½ point to pay down rate is $2085.00 approximately!
Payment Increase: 29.00 a month or $10,500 over life of loan.
Interest Increase (at just .125%) over life of loan: $10,860
Total cost of .125% in rate increase $21,364.00

When will it start?
It begins officially April 1, 2012. As both a bank and a broker our team is seeing the increase already starting in some rate sheets. RPM as a bank will most likely implement the fee in mid March.
We recommend getting in contract and locking your loan or beginning your refinance as soon as possible.
Please call Katie Rice or Victoria Conway at 530-582-9992, or krice@rpm-mtg.com or www.RiceConwayTeam.com

Making sense of the story
In a forbearance program, a lender agrees not to foreclose on a property and gives the borrower several months’ grace from or reduction in monthly mortgage payments. The programs work best for temporary setbacks, like job loss, health problems, or natural disasters.

There are drawbacks to the forbearances though. The most-significant drawback is a larger total debt from the smaller payments. The unpaid balance continues to increase during this time.

The new temporary mortgage payment is often set to 31 percent of the household income; in some cases lenders agree to accept no payments. Fannie Mae’s extended unemployment program, first offered in the fall of 2010, limits any nonpayment or other forbearance plans to one year, with the second six months requiring approval by both Fannie Mae and the lender.

However, even with the program in place, the lender could still report a mortgage as delinquent, which could adversely affect the borrower’s credit score.

Because some agreements add onerous term and conditions, homeowners should also consult with a housing counselor certified by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.
Read the full story

In other news …

The Wall Street Journal
Sales stir hope for housing market
Existing-home sales increased 5 percent in December from a month earlier, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61 million units, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® said Friday.
Read the full story

The Mercury News
Fed: Interest rates should stay low until late 2014
The Federal Reserve said it’s unlikely to raise its benchmark interest rate before late 2014, extending its time frame by at least a year and a half.
Read the full story

The Wall Street Journal
Housing inventory ends year down 22 percent
There were fewer houses for sale at the end of 2011 than in any of the previous four years, a positive sign for the housing sector.
Read the full story

The Los Angeles Times
Consumer group tentatively supports $25-billion mortgage deal
The Center for Responsible Lending has called a proposed $25-billion settlement over faulty foreclosure practices between attorneys general, federal agencies, and the mortgage industry “an important step in addressing foreclosure abuses.”
Read the full story

The Wall Street Journal
Places for home builders to dig in
Amid a flurry of housing news this week, including President Obama’s latest mortgage-refinance proposal, comes an interesting piece of real-estate analysis in the building sector. Metrostudy has analyzed the strongest markets for home builders, which include: San Diego; Southern California; Texas’ Rio Grande Valley; St. George, Utah; and Orlando.
Read the full story

The Orange County Register
Calif. house price drop 7th biggest in U.S.
California house prices had the seventh-biggest price drop among U.S. states in November, falling 5.9 percent from year-ago levels, according to data firm CoreLogic
Read the full story

CNNMoney
New home construction gathers momentum
The Census Bureau reported that housing starts fell to 657,000 on an annual basis, down 4.1 percent compared with November.
Read the full story

The Wall Street Journal
The “new American home” continues shrinking
The nation’s average home size, which peaked at 2,500 square feet in 2007, is expected to shrink to 2,152 square feet by 2015, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Read the full story

Talking Points
The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ (C.A.R.) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* fell from a revised 108.7 in November to 91.6 in December, based on signed contracts. The index was up from the revised 82.5 recorded in December 2010, marking the eighth consecutive month that pending sales rose from the previous year. The decline follows a normal seasonal drop that usually occurs in November and December.

Pending home sales are forward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing information on the future direction of the market.

C.A.R. also reported that sales of distressed properties increased in December, as lenders pushed to close REOs and short sales to move them off their balance sheets before the end of the year.

The total share of all distressed property types sold statewide rose to 47.3 percent in December, up from November’s 44.9 percent but down from 48.3 percent in December 2010.

Of the distressed properties sold statewide in December, 22.2 percent were short sales, up from the previous month’s share of 21 percent and up from last December’s share of 19.6 percent.

The share of REO sales rose in December to 24.6 percent, up from November’s 23.5 percent, but down from the 28.3 percent recorded in December 2010.

To read the full report view the PDF File of Beyond_the_Headlines__January_2012

With most lenders requiring borrowers to put down at least 20 percent as a down payment –unless using an FHA or VA loan, or purchasing mortgage insurance – the best holiday gift some people might receive would be help with a down payment on a house.
Making sense of the story

• According to a survey by Trulia, the biggest barrier to buying a home these days is saving for the down payment. The survey, conducted over the summer, found that 51 percent of renters said coming up with money for the down payment was preventing them from buying, while 35 percent identified qualifying for a mortgage as the stumbling block.
• Under federal tax law, each individual is permitted to give money or valuables worth up to $13,000 to a single recipient in a calendar year. A married couple could jointly bestow up to $26,000 a year per recipient.
•  According to one financial planner, there also is the option of lending a relative or close friend the money for the down payment, or the closing costs, then forgiving the loan in a future year. The recipient would have to pay interest on the loan until it was forgiven, at which point it would become a gift.
• Another way to help with the down payment is to pay other expenses, such as tuition, thereby freeing up money to make a home purchase. Gifts for educational or medical expenses are not subject to taxes, as long as they are paid directly to the educational or medical institution.
• However, prior to giving the money, gift-givers should consider their own financial picture, and they should make sure the recipient is responsible and not behind on other payments that could be subject to debt collection.

Read the full story
http://nyti.ms/rOeBF4

The Los Angeles Times
California and Nevada join forces in mortgage probe

An alliance by California and Nevada to jointly investigate misconduct and fraud in the mortgage
business further divides efforts by the nation’s attorneys general to bring the home-lending
industry to account for improper foreclosure practices.

Read the full story
http://lat.ms/sIInO7

The San Francisco Chronicle
2012 mortgage delinquencies seen dropping sharply

Mortgage delinquency rates – the ratio of borrowers 60 or more days behind on their payments – will likely tick up to about 6 percent through the first three months of 2012, TransUnion said in its annual delinquency forecast issued Wednesday.

Read the full story
http://bit.ly/rSkc0d

Yahoo! Finance
House prices are finally nearing a bottom

After falling nearly 35 percent from their 2007 peak, nationwide house prices are finally approaching “normal” levels on two key valuation measures: The “price-to-rent ratio,” which measures house prices relative to what the houses might rent for, and the “price-to-incomeratio,”
which measures house prices relative to average incomes.

Read the full story
http://yhoo.it/twjKRY

The Mercury News
Second homes for retirement have pros and cons

Financial experts say buying your retirement home five to 10 years before you stop working could be beneficial. However, people in this age group should be aware of the risks of tying up money and perhaps losing flexibility with a second home purchase.

Read the full story
http://bit.ly/vcmwig

The Wall Street Journal
A home-insurance trap

Homeowner policies have important differences that can affect whether claims are paid, according to a study scheduled to be published early next year in the University of Chicago Law Review. The problem is that those differences are poorly understood.

Read the full story
http://on.wsj.com/tAL1Zy

CNNMoney
Fannie Mae, banks halt foreclosures for the holidays

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and several large mortgage lenders have pledged not to foreclose on delinquent borrowers during the Christmas season.

Read the full story
http://cnnmon.ie/vfAWlz

The Wall Street Journal
Housing inventories fall to new four-year low in October

The number of homes listed for sale fell for the fifth straight month in October, hitting the lowest level in more than four years.

Read the full story
http://on.wsj.com/teMQ7N

CNNMoney
New-home sales edge higher

The Census Bureau reported an annual sales rate of 307,000 new homes last month, up 1.3 percent from a downwardly revised rate of 303,000 homes in September.

Read the full story
http://cnnmon.ie/tXeXFt

What you should know about the market

• Homeowners can reduce their energy bills by lowering the thermostat setting on their water heater. Most manufacturers set water heater thermostats at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, but most households don’t need water hotter than 120 degrees. Households with water heaters older than 12 years should consider replacing it with a new unit for energy savings and reduced utility bills.
• To help lower the cost of heating a home this winter, homeowners can weatherstrip their homes. According to the U.S. Dept. of Energy, there are many kinds of weatherstripping products on the market. Since each product is designed to work in a different area of the home, homeowners should read product packaging carefully to determine if it is best suited for windows or doors, as well as indoor or outdoor use.
• Another tip for “winterizing” a home is to get a furnace or heating system inspection, which most professionals recommend homeowners do at least once a year. An inspection of the working parts can ensure that the house has heat when needed and can prevent costly repairs in the future.