The $625,500 limit applies to all HECMs made in the continental United States, as well as high-cost areas, such as Hawaii, Alaska, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

To see the full Mortgage Letter Click HERE.

For more information about Reverse Mortgage please feel free to call or email one of our Reverse Mortgage Specialists Tracy Kline, Dennis Harter or Francie Forchini or check us out online!

To learn more about the Sequoia Pacific Mortgage Team check out our Website!

Tracy Kline and Ken Odgen Supporting the New Senior Center

More About the Senior Center:

The senior center is far exceeded by the energy and active contribution of the many individuals, young and old alike, who have taken what was a mere figment of a concept to the stage of an active and full-blown process that will result in a new facility geared to seniors. A place where they can meet and pass on their knowledge, experience and skills to help others, as well as themselves, continue to grow in all aspects of their lives.

During the spring 2002 a group of interested seniors approached the City of Santa Rosa to discuss mutually beneficial interests in replacing the current Santa Rosa Senior Center with a new facility that would provide adequate and modern facilities designed to meet the current and future needs of the senior population living within our geographical area.

Since our early beginnings the City has unanimously supported our Mission by modifying the General Plan to include a specific location at the Finley Center at the corner of Stony Point/Marlow Roads and College Avenue on which the new center will be built. Additionally, they have agreed to accept this new building, paid for by community donations, as a gift from Seniors, Inc. and to provide ongoing staffing and maintenance of the facility.

At this time, Seniors, Inc. is actively raising funds to complete the final phase (phase three) of the new Senior Wing at Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa. The required figure is $1.1 million to complete the interior of the 25,000-square-foot addition. Previous funding for Phase 1 & 2 came from private donations, park development fees, and corporate sponsors.

In December of 2004, Santa Rosa’s City Council Resolution Number 26146 passed and Seniors, Inc. signed an agreement with Simons & Brecht to act as the design and construction management firm for the new senior wing project. Prior to the passage of the Resolution, Mr. Larry Simons, a well known local architect, committed to donate $500,000 from the Larry & Gudrun Simons Fund to Seniors, Inc. to fund the creation needed to complete the senior wing addition to the Finley Center and to fund the retention of a construction management firm.

To show your support for the new senior center contact Seniors Inc.

This years event was a great success! 70 people joined us for a fun filled night of great food, wine and fantastic entertainment! A big thank you to all who showed up and supported this great cause. Thanks to the young people who gave us such great entertainment, Thank you also to those generous people and businesses who donated to our silent auction, and a final BIG Thanks You to the volunteers who made the entire event happen!

This event could not have even gotten off the ground without those people who went over and beyond to donate their time and energy. The SRGC Staff, The Optional Gymnastic Team, The Interact Club and a few hard working Rotarians including Tracy Kline, Kris Lepore, Darcie Fellow and Casey Williams…plus the many rotarians that came out in support of this great event! You ALL were amazing and I am forever thankful for your generosity in time, sweat and contributions! The event successes and credit goes to you!

One more big round of thank you’s to our entertainment…….

SRGC Optional Team, Montgomery Cheer and Dance Team, SREC Rec. Cheer Team, Alina Goodrum, Leigh McAllister, Irene Gomez, Luke Woodruf and Jenna Bates!!!

These young adults were absolutely amazing! The amount of talent inside each one of them is mind blowing! We are very thankful to them for sharing it with us! The night was truly about “Showcasing The Youth In Our Community.”

The final number, of the amount of money raised is roughly $4,500! What a great event for some amazing kids! 

Learn more about the Sequoia Pacific Mortgage Team check out our Website!

 She had a larger than expected turn out also – three new members, one of which is the past president of the Geyserville Chamber, the other a former agent with Barkela-Bozzano (and now has a store in Healdsburg)and the other the editor of Healdsburg Patch (that’s a facebookpage.)

Her talk was full of great information and was well received – Antionette (who supplied the flowers) is our client who purchased a home last year with a reverse. It was great to have her speak a little bit about that and how it helped her and also to have Nancy and Beth talk about what it’s like to work with Francie!  Everyone thought our office was great and liked the location.

For more information about Francie Forchini or any of our Team check us out at Sequoiapacificmortgage.com 

Francie Presenting to the SKIRT ladies!

THe SKIRT ladies enjoying each others company!

CoreLogic® Home Price Index Shows Second
Consecutive Month-Over-Month Increase

Home Prices Down 7.4 Percent

Home prices in the U.S. increased by 0.8 percent in May 2011 compared to April 2011, the second consecutive month-over-month increase. On a year-over-year basis, home prices declined by 7.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 after declining by 6.7 percent* in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 and by 0.8* percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

Highlights as of May 2011

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: New York (+4.4 percent), Vermont (+3.9 percent), North Dakota (+3.8 percent), Hawaii (+2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (+0.5 percent).
• Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-16.4 percent), Michigan (-12.9 percent), Arizona (-12.1 percent), Illinois (-11.8 percent) and Nevada (-11.6 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: West Virginia (+10.1 percent), Hawaii (+9.0 percent), North Dakota (+8.6 percent), Vermont (+6.3 percent) and New York (+6.1 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Nevada (-9.8 percent), Idaho (-7.9 percent), Arizona (-7.0 percent), South Dakota (-6.1 percent) and Minnesota (-5.0 percent).
• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to May 2011) was -32.7 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -21.2 percent.
• Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 91* are showing year-over-year declines in May, unchanged from April.

“Two consecutive months of month-over-month growth and continued relative strength in the non-distressed market segment are positive seasonal signs in the housing market. Slowly declining shadow inventory and stabilized negative equity levels are also positive signs.” said Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic. “Nonetheless, the fragile economic recovery is still critical to the long-term recovery in the housing market.”

*April data was revised. Revisions with public records data are standard, and to ensure accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates the newly released public data to provide updated results.

New visitors: Register here to download the full May HPI data report.

Returning visitors: Click here to download the full May HPI data report.

Most Current, Most Comprehensive HPI Data

CoreLogic HPI monthly updates offer the quickest HPI collateral valuation information in the industry—complete HPI datasets five weeks after month’s end—and leverage the full authority of CoreLogic’s industry-leading real estate databases, covering 6,521 Zip codes, 609 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), and 1,126 counties in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

HPI for the Country’s Largest Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs):

Source: CoreLogic

For more information please feel free to call one of our loan officers here at Sequoia Pacific Mortgage Company 707-575-3220

•                 This forecast indicates that the construction industry inSonomaCountyis beginning to show some indicators of recovery, including increasing employment, and will help lead the county economy out of the recession.

• Improving demographic trends will bode well for housing demand. The population has been increasing and is expected to continue to increase. The population of those aged 25 to 39, the prime home buying years, is stable for the first time in decades.

• SonomaCountystill has a large share of homes in the foreclosure processes, and distress sales and bank auctions will challenge pricing. Existing-home prices are expected to begin rising in 2012 and at a faster pace than that of the nation.

Here’s the link:

Construction Iindustry Insider 2011

It’s the most optimistic in literally years, with technology, construction, and tourism slated to lead the economy out of the recession. Wine will be growing, too.

It’s a good read; here’s the link:

local_economic_report_2011_spring

Tax tips: Reverse mortgage deductions

 Moreover, a new Gallup Poll shows that more than half (53%) of Americans who were polled recently who are not currently retired do not believe that they can afford to retire in their so-called golden years. This 53% number is up from 20% in 2002, just nine years ago.

 Furthermore, those who say that they will retire before Age 65 has dropped from 47% of those polled in 1995 to 28% of those polled this year. Do you see a confirmed trend here?

 On the political front, our government told the Iraqi government last week that if Iraq wants U.S. troops to remain in Iraq beyond the Dec 31, 2011 pull-out deadline, as is clearly stipulated by the current Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraqi governments, then Baghdad must inform the U.S. quickly to ask for an extension. What is actually going on, according to George Friedman of the Stratfor Intelligence Report, is that the U.S. government is urging the Iraqi government to change its mind right now and allow U.S. troops to continue to be deployed in Iraq past our announced pull-out date. The U.S. government is concerned that completing the withdrawal of U.S. troops this December would increase instability in the Middle East, with the Shiite uprising in Bahrain and the Saudi Sunni intervention along with events in Yemen and Libya. The U.S. government has made a pledge to the American People to withdraw forces from Iraq, but the conditions that were expected to be in place after 8 years of American military fighting presence are not in place. A coherent Iraqi government and a coherent Iraqi military has yet to occur.

 The unintended consequence of American foreign policies in the Middle East under President G.W. Bush and under President Obama has been to strengthen Iran’s religious ruling party’s influence and Iran’s military power in the region. Neither Iraq nor Saudi Arabia could stand up to Iran at this time. Israel is the only power in the Middle East that could.

 And why is the price of oil surging? One reason could be because of rising geopolitical risk in the oil-producing regions of The Middle East should Sunni religious fervents control more oil producing fields. Another reason is because of relatively unrestricted capitalistic greed in free markets around the globe in the form of oil speculation. These short-term traders are pushing up the price to make a quick buck or pound or euro or ruble or peso or rupee or yuan. Do no harm is not their motto.

This article was written by Robert Fields. If you have questions for Robert or would like to comment further contact him at Robert@sequoiapacificmortgage.com or 707-575-3220 ext. 205

For more information about Commercial or Income Property Loans contact Dennis Harter at 707-575-3220