that crashing sound you may have heard starting yesterday afternoon and

swelling to a crescendo this morning was the sound of the fed funds rate, ie

interest rate at which banks lend to each other bouncing off the floor!  from

1% then to ’0 t0 .25%’  now.  what the heck does that mean?   it meant mortgage

brokers looking at conforming loans (under $625,000) now at 4.5%!  and

hitting the phones, emails, texts, snailmail and yelling out the window that these

rates are the lowest since well, 2003 actually.  coupled with the fact that prices

are at a similar level in a lot of places,  and with decent credit you can buy a

house or condo with  3% down which certainly excited the real estate community

as they caught up with the news.  though in talking to clients and buyers as i

happen to be one of the excited ones, the reaction was decidedly mixed. the

logic is hard to argue with but since when do you get logically excited eh? 

buying a home is a very touch feely emotional thing and i can back that up

with 18 years of doing it both as an agent and a buyer.  it’ s much easier to buy

 when it’s a hot market and everyone is telling everyone how great everything

is and eveyone is making money everywhere.  the problem is that’s when you 

get beat up by the seller or priced out of the market.  it’s cold windy logically

right times to buy when you get the deals that last a lifetime.  now how do i

make that exciting i wonder?

well, as i’m headlining with cliche’s i might as well keep them rolling!  it’s always darkest before the storm and man o man it’s dark out there.  speaking to headlines you gotta love the chronicle this sunday ‘slowdown finally catches up with san francisco real estate’.  thanks a lot fellas! as if its not tough enough getting folks to come by my open houses in the pouring rain!  what with the big boys running the big real estate companies moaning about the lack of multiple offers on million dollar homes and biz not coming back until mid 2009 and people waiting for a ‘sign’ that we’ve hit bottom it’s a wonder we don’t just start clear cutting buildings in the city and plant corn for bio fuels! they were accurate as usual though, as the problems revolve around loans and loans in the million to 2 million dollar price range.  with the fha limit dropping into the low $600,000′s after the first you’ll need $400,000 to close a million dollar property, and that tends to thin out the buying herd!  especially considering the condition of people’s savings and investment accounts being down down down.  reading between the lines like i always try an do you start to catch the glimmer of a turnaround in the corner of your eye(you knew something like this was coming now didn’t you?) see you only know you’ve found the bottom of the real estate market when your chasing prices back up! seen this happen in the mid 90′s  and again earlier in this decade.  if we’re not at the bottom then we’re close, as recessions are generally a 10 month event and we’re heading into 13 months now officially.  the word in the financial world is conforming rates in the 4.5% range after the first, niiiiice, and that could even light up the refi market once again!  lot of pent up demand too as people have been putting off buying for all the above reasons and rents have been steamin up for about a year now, setting the stage for  those first time buyers to get motivated!  Feds are pouring money into the financial institutions and the politicians are pressing hard for them to loan it to homeowners.  stars are peaking through the cloud cover if you ask me!