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The feds cutting interest rates can mean only one thing: mortgage lenders are jumping at the opportunity to persuade you to refinance your loan!

There’s just one catch: if you happen to be a responsible and conscientious borrower who locked in a jumbo loan at a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, your rates are probably better than what is being offered right now on the market.

At least, that’s what I’ve found: our jumbo loan 30 year fixed rate is 6.0% and as of today, most of the interest rates for jumbo loans hover in the low 6% but generally above 6.0%. I’ve seen some as high as over 7%! It is the non-jumbo 30 year fixed rate mortgages that have the attractive high 5% rates.

Unless you’ve lived in California for decades or traded “up” a house using the equity of your first house during the housing boom, you’re likely to be paying a jumbo mortgage, which is a loan exceeding $417,000.

Well, the time has come. Gas prices are hitting and exceeding $4 a gallon, and even the ARCO stations that are cheaper than others are going to $4 or more per gallon of unleaded plus.

This morning on the radio I heard that Governor Arnold is trying to borrow against the lottery sales for the budget deficit. What happened to him? I thought he was going to fix the state, or at least not put it in a worse situation.

Then I heard that the politicians are calling for higher taxes instead - and proposing to increase it 1% more. Hello! We already pay 8.25% in taxes. If I’m going to start paying 9.25% in taxes I’m going to make plans to move out of this state. It is ridiculous.

How does Texas survive with no sales taxes? Why can’t California do the same thing?

It’s that time of the year again… speculations abound for the coming year’s housing challenges and home prices.

Yahoo News posted Reuters’ report on a record drop in home prices nationwide, predicting that 2008 will continue to see home prices but 2009 may see a rebound. Washington Times looked at who’s to blame in the current housing debacle, comparing this cycle of housing bust with previous busts, and suggesting that “some combination of easy money, loose lending, greed and fraud” turned a housing boom into a bubble. Read the rest of this entry »

Wall Street Journal’s Informed Reader blog recently reported on a research citing that homeowners hurt the economy because homeowners are less mobile than renters and therefore are less willing to leave when local economy takes a dive. This lack of mobility exacerbates unemployment issues and hinders new development with zoning rules. While homeowners are more likely to invest in their communities and improve their neighborhoods, these benefits may not offset the drawbacks.