The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in California stood at 24 percent in the third quarter of 2007, unchanged from the same period a year ago, according to C.A.R.’s First-time Buyer Housing Affordability Index (FTB-HAI) released Nov. 29.
The minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home at $482,910 [...]

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Sales of new, single-family homes rose 1.7 percent in October across the country to 728,000 units, compared with 716,000 units in September. However, sales remain 23.5 percent below October 2006 levels, according to new data released jointly from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. The median sales price of [...]

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NBC 7/39 Toys for Tots Drive     December 7-8
You can make this a special holiday season for underprivileged children in San Diego by donating new, unwrapped toys for them. Simply stay in your car and drive around Broadway Circle in downtown San Diego and drop off a new, unwrapped toy to local U.S. Marines. 6:00 am [...]

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Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.10 percent for the week ending Nov. 29, down from 6.20 the prior week, and 6.14 a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey®. Rates have not been lower since they averaged 6.03 percent in October,2005.
"Interest rates for U.S. Treasury securities have been drifting lower [...]

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                    A professor at CCNY for a physiological psych class told his class about bananas.  He said the expression "going bananas" is from the effects of bananas on the brain.  Read on:        
 
Never, put your banana in the refrigerator!!!  This is interesting.  After reading this, you’ll never look at a banana in the same way again.
  [...]

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Calif. median home price - September 07: $530,830
Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region September 07: Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,667,500
Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region September 07: High Desert $271,940
Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Second Quarter 07: 24 percent
(Source: C.A.R.)  
Mortgage rates - week ending 11/15: 30-yr. fixed: 6.24%; Fees/points: [...]

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The House of Representatives has approved a controversial bill intended to help combat predatory lending practices, widely considered a central cause of the nation’s credit crunch and rising foreclosure rates. HR 3915, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007, calls for the establishment of a national licensing program for all mortgage loan originators, [...]

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Builder confidence for new, single-family homes remains unchanged this month, reflecting continued efforts within the industry to move inventories against a backdrop of consumer skepticism, according to the most recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo HMI survey for November. The HMI remained flat at 18, while the index gauging sales expectations for the [...]

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Father O’Malley answers the phone.  "Hello, is this Father O’Malley?"
"It is!"
"This is the Tax Dept. Can you help us?"
"I can!"
"Do you know a Ted Houlihan?"
"I do!"
"Is he a member of your congregation?"
"He is!"
"Did he donate $10,000 to the church?"
"He will."

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More borrowers who refinanced during the third quarter replaced their 15-year fixed-rate mortgages with traditional 30-year, fixed-rate loans, and 85 percent of borrowers with a one-year adjustable rate mortgage loan who refinanced selected fixed-rate loans, according to a recent report from Freddie Mac.
"Mortgage rates on 30-year, fixed-rate conventional conforming loans became more favorable during the [...]

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