Looking to buy a home or condo? Want to make it as easy and hassle free as possible? Want to help position yourself to be in a stronger position than other buyers?

There are two simple things people in the market to buy real estate can do to help make the whole process easier. The first is to get pre-qualified with a lender. Don't delay on this one! The lending market is undergoing dramatic changes, procrastinating can cost you the home of your dreams.

Many buyers start thinking, start looking, and when they feel that they're near to making a decision to purchase their home, then they contact a lender. This is ass-backwards - especially for first-time  buyers. Get pre-qualified first.

Pre-qualification gives the buyer the information they need about what they can afford. It takes the guess work and wishing out of the equation. In other words, it brings the whole process of purchasing a home into CPR - concrete physical reality - where it needs to be.

Getting pre-qualified, means having the ability to make a firm offer when finding the right home.

The other thing buyers can do to make finding a home a smoother ride is highlighted in this post from Elizabeth Weintraub:

How MLS Works - My neighbor, across the street, told me I did not need to send her MLS listings because she could access them online. For a moment, I wondered if maybe she was a licensed as a real estate agent or maybe as an appraiser. But no, turns out she thought she could find online listings through the Sacramento Bee.

Getting on an MLS Listing Alert service will save a buyer many hours of time, lots of confusion, and will help provide the opportunity to get there first with their offer. Listing Alerts are individual emails directly from the MLS datbase that are sent when new listings come on the market matching a buyer's criteria. Why spend hours searching through Craigslist or other sites. Each Listing Alert email has a link allowing the buyer to halt the process with a single click.

These are the two pieces of advice we constantly stress to buyers.  

Weekly Figures from Contra Costa & Alameda MLS for San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton

The typical end-of-year housing market trend continues for San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate. Active Listings on the Contra Costa County & Alemeda MLS for San Ramon, Dublin, and Pleasanton, CA continue to decline while Sales Pending remain stable. (Active Listings=blue; Pending Sales=green, Sales Closed=purple)

Most serious sellers will be waiting until after the Holidays to put their homes back on the MLS.

Buyers will have fewer homes to choose from over the next couple of weeks in San Ramon Dublin and Pleasanton, CA. Buyers that need to get into homes may find themselves in a weaker negotiating position with fewer homes in competition.

We expect this trend will continue in the San Ramon, Dublin, and Pleasanton housing markets for the next couple of weeks until we get through the Holidays and sellers start returning their homes to the MLS.

If you would like a more in-depth analysis of the market condition and trends, please contact us. There is no obligation on your part and we promise not to nag, hassle or otherwise pester you.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions. 

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

San Ramon – Dublin – Pleasanton – Danville, CA

The Associated Press reports - The worst of the housing slump might be over, although some pain is likely to linger, an adviser to President Bush suggested Tuesday. In terms of the crumbling housing market, "most of the action has already played out," Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters.

Rex Nutting from Market Watch gives us the recent national stats:

• Construction on new homes rebounded in November, rising 6.7% after a whopping 14% drop in October, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Starts fell 8.1% in the West to the lowest level in five years.
• Building permits, considered a leading indicator of the economy and of the housing market, fell 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.506 million, the 10th straight decline in permits, from October's 1.553 million pace.
• Building permits are down 31.3% in the past year and are down 14.1% in the first 11 months of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

When asked to rate the importance of factors that might affect their decision to purchase a specific home, 80 percent said price was the most significant factor. Other considerations included:

• Potential for the new home to appreciate in value, 71 percent
• The prospect of selling their current home at a fair price, 70 percent
• The level of mortgage interest rates, 69 percent
• Personal life changes 60 percent

From Inman News

Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, expects the 30-year mortgage rate to hover around 6.5 percent for the remainder of the year, but climb to 6.8 percent by the end of 2008. Duncan is "optimistic about a rebound" in the housing market next year, citing still-low long-term interest rates, robust capital expenditures, and rising equity prices, among other factors.

Meanwhile, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® expects existing-home sales to slip to just above 6.4 million in 2007 from an estimated 6.47 million this year. But a pullback in construction will spark an 8.7-percent decline in new-home sales to 975,000 from 1.07 million over the same time span.

The President has signed into law a bill making mortgage insurance premiums tax-deductible.

• Mortgage insurance premiums will be 100% deductible for households whose adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less.
• The law is effective for the 2007 tax year on purchase and refinance loans closed on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

Every week we update the local real estate market stats for the communities of San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

Weekly MLS Numbers for Dublin, CA.

The weekly numbers are in from the Contra Costa MLS for Dublin, CA. Isn't this an interesting graph, especially when compared to what's happening right next door in San Ramon.

Dublin continues to show a steady decline in active listings (blue line) since August. No sharp drop like this past week in San Ramon. Couple this with a slight rebound in the pending sales (green line) and you have what appears to be an improving market for sellers.

Most likely this reflects how the average price of a home in Dublin versus that in San Ramon is affecting rate of sales. Our advice to buyers in this market remains the same - if you're serious about buying a house, act now. Interest rates remain at historical good levels and appreciation in this market will most likely out perform other nearby communities as the number of new arrivals in Dublin continues to increase.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

San Ramon, CA Weekly Housing  Stats

Here is the latest graph showing the trend for the San Ramon real estate market. The blue line shows the active listings. The green line shows sales pending in San Ramon.

As you can see, active listings on the MLS in San Ramon have shown a steep decline in the last week while sales pending inched up a bit. This is not unexpected at this time of year as many listings are expiring and people are wanting to wait for the New Year to relist.

While this reflects an improvement for sellers, any other time of year this would be better news for San Ramon home sellers. 

You can see that despite the holidays and time of year, buyers remain active and steady. The purple line reflects closed transactions on the San Ramon MLS - steady.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.