Maureen Martin's (maureenmartin) Blog

Stephanie Nisan - RealtorMaureen and I were actually introduced through a mutual friend over our love of dog rescue. I run a non-profit call The Animal Pad and an all breed animal dog rescue and Maureen became our volunteer director. Professionally, I am not a big fan of lenders and I decided, ok...

This just in: pending home sales rose in February, according to the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator of housing market activity based on contract signings. Pending home sales rose 3.5% to 109.1 in February from a downwardly revised 105.4 in January, and is now 0.7% abo...

The impact that public and private sector construction spending has on moving the lending needle is obvious, but the strength of what has been and what will be is even more relevant in times like now.With that being said, construction spending posted a modest increase in July rising 0.7% from the...

Renting is becoming increasingly more expensive in San DiegoAccording to a report recently released by Zillow, rents in April of 2015 were 4% higher than the year before. It’s the fastest increase we’ve seen in 24 months, overrunning home prices which only rose by 3%.The affordability of rent is ...

Many CA Homeowners Are Upside DownDespite a falling foreclosure rate across the U.S., many California homeowners in low-priced homes are trapped upside down even as the market continues to recover.Take San Diego for example. Even though home values rose 4.7% YTY in February, distressed sales stil...

When markets are normal, builders build. And that’s exactly what’s been going on lately. According to theCalifornia Building Industry Association, new housing starts are up year-to-date with 61,361 new single- and multi-family units.This uptick in building starts signifies a stabilized housing ma...

What’s Up With Ben Bernanke Not Being Able To Refinance His Mortgage?   Anyone who has watched the news lately will be surprised to see that Ben Bernanke, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve is unable to refinance his mortgage. While this may seem as a bad joke, it is actually the result o...

Anyone who is paying attention to the United States financial market has surely noticed that a new low in mortgage rates has just recently been reached. It has been a full 16 months since rates this low have been reached on the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage market. This is largely the resul...

Since the beginning of the housing crisis, in 2008, there have been many up and downs in the housing market. Some potential homebuyers have found it difficult to purchase a home, while others, along with real estate investors and home flippers, have taken advantage of the crisis and had great suc...

Lowest Mortgage Rates 2014 Over the course of 2014, we’ve watched a very interesting phenomenon take place in home mortgages. Despite the fact that many economists and experts predicted that mortgage rates would rise from last year’s rates, they have remained persistently low. This was a surprisi...