San Jose California Real Estate
If they say that owning a home is the American dream, then owning a home in San Jose, California must be the American fantasy. If this is a fantasy that you have never dreamed possible for you and your family, you might be very surprised. Just imagine an average of 257 sunny days every year with no snow to shovel or plow, ever. Surrounded by beauty and entertainment with a seemingly endless number of sporting events, theaters and museums, San Jose, California is a gem in the Silicon Valley.
If the real estate market has you scared to jump in, rest assured that this is the time to take the leap. Home prices are on the rise with the median home price in San Jose going at roughly $582,000.00 which is up 0.4%. Interest rates, on the other hand, are at there lowest. Depending on the type of loan you are looking for, the prices to own a home in San Jose are comparable, if not lower, than rental prices in the area.
Assuming the median house price with a 10% down payment, if you are looking for a 30 year fixed mortgage, you can find rates anywhere between 5.125% and 6%. That would put your payment between $2852.00 and $3140.00. If you want to save yourself a lot of interest in the long run, you can try out a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. Those rates can run from 4.625% to 6.375%. The payments run a bit higher, between $4041.00 and $4537.00, but then again the loan is paid off in half the time. Then there are the adjustable rates mortgages that are currently running from 4.25% and 6.5% for a 5/1 ARM. This choice would put your payments between $2577 and $3311.
The state of California offers a variety of assistance programs, not only for those purchasing a home, but to current homeowners that may find themselves in trouble. Cal30 will allow buyers to borrow up to 95% of the loan to value, or even 102% of combined loan to value. The SMART loan or the CalHFC Community Stabilization Home Loan programs offer help in purchasing lender owned homes at low interest rates with a 100% loan to value.
If coming up with down payment money or closing cost money is an issue, California has the Affordable Housing Partnership Program that can offer deferred loans to can be used toward your down payment and closing costs and the California Homebuyers Down Payment Assistance can offer a deferred loan of up to 3% of either the home price or home appraisal, whichever is less. You can even use the Section 8 rental assistance program funds toward home ownership. Should you find yourself out of work involuntarily while you own your home, there is the Home Openers program that offers mortgage assistance. This is not even mentioning the government incentives for purchasing a home. There has never been a better time to buy.
If you want to sell now, after what happened in the 2008 real estate market, you may have cold feet as well. Rest assured the home values on the rise, and with so many incentives for not only first home buyers, but all home buyers should stimulate the market and get your properties sold. It is not just the home buyer incentives that should inspire people to purchase homes in San Jose, California, but the employment market. New jobs are up 1.1% recently and projected to go up 24.7% in the next year which makes San Jose a prime place to relocate to for the many out of work people all over the country.
It is finding a down side to purchasing or selling a home in San Jose California that is the hard thing to do. Home values are up, interest rates are low, incentive programs are everywhere and the job market is going up also. With the difficulties of the economy in the last few years, it is comforting to know that there is one place where things are on the rise. You will be able to find work, you will be able to afford a home and you will live in one of the most beautiful states with indisputably some of the best weather in the country. Now where is the downside to that?