"AN EPIC DAY IN U.S. HISTORY!" Maybe, but I dunno if I'd call it "epic".

I had to give myself the day today to digest what just transpired and to reflect on the significance of this event.  After watching a quarter of a million people gather in the streets of Chicago and people around the country and the world celebrating the election of this country’s first African American president, I began to realize the magnitude of the hope it has inspired.
 

I was also thinking about this:  it was only 44 years ago that the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.  It’s passage overcame a 54 day filibuster led by Richard Russell the Georgian democrat and the “Southern Bloc” of former confederate state senators.

We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states.

Wow.  What a long way we’ve come.

This election doesn’t solve the world’s problems.  But for many, it’s a reason to hope.

A Brief History of Denver

Until the late 19^th century, the area that is now Denver was unsettled. People came and went on their way to somewhere else, mainly the mountains and nothing permanent was built in the area.

Then, in 1858, Green Russell and Sam Bates found gold in Little Dry Creek, now Englewood and the crowds came flocking. The Pike's Peak Gold Rush began. It’s estimated that within a couple of years, there were over 100,000 people staying in the area looking for gold.

The same year as Bates’ and Russell’s find, Montana City was founded on the bank of the South Platte River. As the search for gold moved on, the city failed and became merely a small settlement. In the year following, St. Charles and Auraria were settled, followed by Highland shortly after.

It wasn’t until the arrival of General William Larimer that things changed. He claimed the area across the river from St. Charles and coerced the residents to surrender their claims and move across the river. As the area grew, Larimer renamed it Denver City after James Denver, the Kansas Governor of the time.

Early Denver was still mainly made up of miners and supporting businesses. As fears about the city fading away grew, a large find in the mountains west of the city kept miners in the area and increased demands to support them, which Denver did.

The young city grew slowly until 1863, when a fire wiped out most of the central areas. Where many cities would have picked up and moved on, Denver stayed put. Despite regular floods and being out of the way, the city rebuilt and grew once more.

The city notables knew that the city was only guaranteed to survive if the river could be tamed and if Denver got a railroad. When the railroad hit Cheyenne, a hundred miles to the north, rather than be disappointed, the residents of Denver cobbled together the funds to build their own railway to meet it. The Denver Pacific was born. It was only once the railroad was complete in 1870 that the city could breathe a sigh of relief. The arrival of the railroad was a lifeline for the city and ensure its continued survival.

The discovery of silver in the mountains made Denver’s fortune once more. Buildings were constructed, businesses created and the city had boom times again. Despite the failure of the silver mines, the city had enough economic strength to survive and thrive, which it did.

Since the 20^th century, the city has diversified and built a solid economic and social base from which to grow and prosper. Mining and manufacturing still provided much of the employment and riches of the area, but more specialist trades soon joined them.

The modern city is an active one that enjoys much freedom, an enviable climate and lush wild lands on three sides.

"Sometimes discount broker means discount service"

Last week, I took Jane Bryant Quinn at Newsweek to task over her column about cutting real estate commissions.  (You can read My Response to Newsweek below).  This week,  Newsweek published a letter from a recent home seller that pretty much sums up my position.   Here it is...

Selling Your House

Having just sold our home, I have to respond to "Cutting the Commissions" (July 18). We went with a discount broker to save money. What we got was a real-estate agent who basically just entered our information into the Multiple Listing Service. She got our lot dimensions and square footage wrong, used poor photos of our home in newspaper ads, had no open houses, gave nonspecific, if any, feedback from showings and offered absolutely no personal service. I should mention this was not for a low-end sale ($350,000). So sellers beware: sometimes "discount broker" means "discount service."
Sheila Tarter—Belleville, Ill.

Any questions?

Lance Armstrong & Real Estate

Like everyone around the world, we're toasting Lance Armstrong's amazing accomplishment in winning his 7th (and final) Tour de France.  And you may be wondering what the real estate angle is here.  And of course there is one...

The Lake Austin home that Lance had built and lived in from 1995 to 2000 is now on the market for $3.5 million.  Lance named the 4,950 square foot home Casa de Linda in honor of his mom.

Read all about it here.  (Did you even doubt that I could find a real estate connection to the Tour de France???)

Thanks For Visiting, LA Times!

There's an article about blogging in Sunday's LA Times real estate section, and they were kind enough to include us!  Check out the article here...and if you're visiting us for the first time after reading the article, welcome to the conversation!

Come On Over...Just Please Don't Light Up

  Consider this...an entire house and furnishings done in origami!  I was going to write something clever about affordable, fold-it-yourself housing until I realized that you'd still have to buy the land....

JUST ANNOUNCED: NEW CONFORMING LOAN LIMITS FOR 2012

For most of 2012 we have operated with temporarily increased conforming loan
limits, $580,000 here is Sacramento. As we near the end of the year, the question we’ve all asked is what will the 2009 limits be?

Yesterday, the announcement came. On January 1, 2011, most of the country will return to the 2007/2010 limit of $417,000. However for High Cost areas of the country, the new maximum loan amount will be

“calculated as 1.15 times the median house price for the highest priced county in the property’s metropolitan or micropolitan area or the median house price for the property’s county if it is in a rural county. “

In Sacramento that translates to $474,950 for a single family home, higher for 2-4 units of course. If you’re not in Sacramento and wish to check your area, click here for the list of High Cost areas and their loan limits.

DENVER MORTGAGE RATES CONTINUE TO FALL

Denver mortgage rates continue their descent, briefly reaching 4.75% last week for a 30 year fixed rate.  This is certainly the time to lock in a delicious long term rate!

You will pay one “point” (an amount equal to one percent of the loan amount) to keep your rate under 5% now, but this is a better bargain that it’s ever been.  Normally, for each point paid, your rate will drop about one quarter of one percent.  In this market, that point will get you under 5%; the “no points” rate will be in the 5.5% to 5.75? range.

Also, just know that banks are charging higher rates for everything from lower credit scores to “cash out” refinances, so these low rates are available only to the top tier borrower who just wants to replace her existing loan with a 30 year fixed rate.

Call me for help on your refinance!

VA 100% FINANCING: NEW 2009 VA LOAN LIMITS

The new 2009 VA loan limits have been announced. Here is a link to those new limits by County.  Although somewhat lower than the temporary 2008 limits, they still offer much needed help in high costs areas.

VA Maximum Loan Limits

People sometimes ask if VA does Jumbo Loans.  Ummm…sort of.   As I wrote in a previous post, VA technically has no maximum loan limit.  What it does have is a maximum amount that it will guarantee; generally 25% of $417k.  However, in the high costs counties, that amount may be higher.

If you wish to buy a home beyond those limits, you must effectively make up the VA guarantee difference with a down payment.  For more explanation on that, read my previous post above or this one, or click this link to calculate that down payment for the home you are considering.

And give me a call when it’s time to get ready.  I can get you pre approved with either VA or CalVet if you are buying in California!

FHA SECURE BITES (THE DUST)

Not that it ever proved itself viable to begin with, requiring as it did the voluntary participation of the troubled homeowner’s current lender, but HUD just announced that FHASecure is finished as of December 31st.  Kaput.

FHA stills does (and did long before FHASecure was announced in Sept of ‘07) 100%+ combined loan to value (CLTV) refinances, assuming of course that you can convince your current lender to assume that 100%+ risk by subordinating the balance of any current financing to the new FHA 1st loan.   That’s proven to be a grandiose assumption.

The main difference between the two programs is that while FHASecure required that you be in default, regular 100%+ FHA refinances require that you not be in default.   Go figure.  If that all sounds really stupid, like maybe the right hand didn’t know that the left hand had already spilled the beer, then I’m not alone.  To make FHASecure an even bigger joke, banks now imposed minimum Fico scores of 580 to 620 for all FHA loans, something impossible to maintain when you have defaulted on your mortgage.

Anyway, we can at least strike FHASecure from the list of pseudo solutions to the foreclosure mess.  The sooner we blow out all the legislative smoke, the sooner we can find and try to rekindle the spark of stability in housing.

I know I sound grumpy , but Merry Christmas anyway!