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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (1208)	12/17/2001 9:41:24 PM
From: endless	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Here are my lay person observations on certain areas in the LA market. Prices have come down slightly, there are no fire sales (at least none that I know about), there is, however, a big selection of homes on the market. Last year and the year before there was virtually nothing on the market during this time, mostly junk. Even though properties are taken off the market without a sale there are new ones coming on. There is also a big selection of homes for rent. I track $500,000 plus to a $1,000,000 on my spreadsheets for areas of our interest ( I have a lot of time on my hands...). We are looking for something around $ 550,000 - $600,000, which is still low inventory but notably better. Pretty unbelievable, hey? This is what we could comfortably afford...providing my husband stays employed... So no "diving in" here. How important is continuous employment history for loan applications? Anybody know? Are they gonna give people a break if they can't show for 2 years continuous employment but are currently employed?

To: Les H who wrote (1208)	12/18/2001 12:02:00 AM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Respond to of 306849

re: mortgage bill as % of gross monthly income, "We tell people that the benchmark is 28 percent" for buying or renting a home, said Ed Apelo, a partner at ASD Financial, a Denver mortgage lender. "I would say the average that I see approved is about 45 percent." UFB, if they pay tax of 20%, then there's only 35% left. then remove 15% installment debt service (21% of disposable income), leaves 20% of gross income to pay other bills and expenses such as food, gas, clothing, electricity, etc. oh, and save a bit for retyrement. living on 20% of gross income sounds more and more like Finland...without all the socialist benefits.