Coronavirus

[Mori Chu]

If he gets it, will they admit it or try to cover it up?

[Flagrant Fowl]

If he gets it, will they admit it or try to cover it up?

I think we all know the answer.

He will blame Biden (Obama).

[pickle]

that house story has us really worried too. We bought a house in Chandler (don't close for another 6 weeks) but also have to sell our home in Michigan. We plan to list it in mid-April, but now we are worried with the market in complete free fall and quarantines (even voluntary) will mean people don't want to/can't move. I didn't really plan to be paying for two houses for a long time (especially when real estate taxes here in Michigan are 9k/year for a middle-class home in the 400-500k range).

Are you moving back to AZ? My mom used to live in Gilbert, and worked in Chandler. But she's moved out to Irvine now...

[pickle]

v9, I agree with most of your post, but I don't think it is fair to characterize what happened in Wuhan as being caused by panic. Panic definitely didn't help, but the core of the problem was not that.

[Indy]

that house story has us really worried too. We bought a house in Chandler (don't close for another 6 weeks) but also have to sell our home in Michigan. We plan to list it in mid-April, but now we are worried with the market in complete free fall and quarantines (even voluntary) will mean people don't want to/can't move. I didn't really plan to be paying for two houses for a long time (especially when real estate taxes here in Michigan are 9k/year for a middle-class home in the 400-500k range).

Are you moving back to AZ? My mom used to live in Gilbert, and worked in Chandler. But she's moved out to Irvine now...

Yeah, my company has some great opportunities in California but I just can't find good way to spend 2M on a house there when I know that I will also be taking care of our aging parents in the next 5-10 years. So we are moving back to Chandler this summer... at least that is the plan.

[Nodack]

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... mic-office
Former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton defended President Trump’s 2018 decision to shutter the National Security Council’s (NSC) office overseeing responses to pandemics.

Trump fired back when asked about the closure. “I don’t know anything about it. I mean, you say we did that, I don’t know anything about it. Disbanding, no, I don’t know anything about it.”


Perfect...

[Mori Chu]

https://www.theonion.com/health-experts ... 1842314132

[Mori Chu]

I like that Trump quote from the other day about how he doesn't take any responsibility. The buck stops ... somewhere else. What leadership.

[Superbone]

That's what a leader does... buck all responsibility.

[Nodack]

We had an open house on my parents house today. Lots of people, 4 offers, 2 got into bidding war and they sold it for 10k above asking price taken as is. I feel like they won the lotto. Prices have been high and they got a price at what I believe is the top. They need to find a new place pronto. I am trying to convince them to rent a couple of months and see if the market tanks. Maybe they can get a real bargain if the bottom falls out.

[pickle]

Not chasing the market high sounds like sage advice.

[Mori Chu]

The Fed just announced they are changing interest rates to zero. That is ridiculous. Our economy is going to crash so unbelievably hard...

[Nodack]

They are talking about zero interest rates too. Does that mean they pay you to take out a loan?

[Indy]

They are talking about zero interest rates too. Does that mean they pay you to take out a loan?

Those rates haven't been correlating to mortgage rates. Just in the last two weeks mortgage rates have gone up a full percentage point, sometimes more. I was looking at locking in a rate at 2.65 for a 15 year jumbo mortgage. Now that is close to 4%. I know these are 1st world problems, but still.

[Superbone]

They are talking about zero interest rates too. Does that mean they pay you to take out a loan?

Those rates haven't been correlating to mortgage rates. Just in the last two weeks mortgage rates have gone up a full percentage point, sometimes more. I was looking at locking in a rate at 2.65 for a 15 year jumbo mortgage. Now that is close to 4%. I know these are 1st world problems, but still.

Right, last week I called my last mortgage broker and I had just missed 2.85% on a 30 year the day before. He says it's gone up since then even as the fed rate has gone down.

[Indy]

They are talking about zero interest rates too. Does that mean they pay you to take out a loan?

Those rates haven't been correlating to mortgage rates. Just in the last two weeks mortgage rates have gone up a full percentage point, sometimes more. I was looking at locking in a rate at 2.65 for a 15 year jumbo mortgage. Now that is close to 4%. I know these are 1st world problems, but still.

Right, last week I called my last mortgage broker and I had just missed 2.85% on a 30 year the day before. He says it's gone up since then even as the fed rate has gone down.

Yeah, there are a ton of articles about it. Basically supply and demand. Since there are rules around closing times, they have too many people requesting refi so they have to keep raising the rates until the volume comes back to normal levels so they can hit their targets.

[Nodack]

Wow. So who is paying this 0% interest then?

[Indy]

That is the short-term interest rate only. It is similar to what we had from like 2008 to 2015 during the "Great Recession."

I read some more on it and my explanation above wasn't complete. The mortgage rates also track closer to the 10-year bond rates, since they are typically less risky than mortgage rates. So as the 10-year bond rate goes, so do the mortgage rates.

They are still expected to come down, but probably not into the 2s like we were seeing briefly a couple weeks ago. (During 2008-2015 it was an average of just over 4%)

[Nodack]

That didn’t answer my question though. Who gets the 0% or does anyone really and that number? Short term loans like a month?

I felt like we won the Lotto selling my parents house for so much so fast and considering there is a National Emergency going on. Now we have our new set of problems.

The original plan was for them to get a loan, buy a house, move out, we fix up their house, sell it and they pay off everything with a little left over. My step dad is a little stubborn and grumpy and refused to get a loan and instead wanted to sell the house and use that money to buy a house. The plan worked better than I could have hoped for in the first phase. We fixed it up as they lived there and sold it for more than asking on day one.

Phase two is going to be harder. Now my parents are in a hurry to buy their new home. They get their cash when they move out in a month. You can’t buy a house with promised money. They have to wait until they get their money to buy a house. That means they have a month to move into a new place that isn’t their new home and they just now realized it. I found a great place close to us that is the same square footage with a two car garage even and told my mother about it. She said “We aren’t paying that kind of money to rent.” I said I could get you a studio apartment for cheaper. She wanted none of that. I said “You can move in with us for a little while.” She wanted no part of that. They should move into an assisted living place with the money. They want no part of that.

Back to reality. They will have to move out and somewhere else within a month and they will be pissed off at us for awhile for putting them through this. With the virus thing shutting down the world it is only going to make this more difficult. My plan is to find them a comfortable place like we mentioned close by for a few months and see where the market goes. From my perspective with the entire world going under quarantine for at least a month, maybe two or more, that is going to have serious repercussions on our global economy including housing in our area. If they can hole up for awhile, they may be able to find a great deal on a nice house close to is in a couple of months that will more than pay for rent at a rental for a few months.

[Indy]

Short term loans are banks to banks, basically.