Southern California Real Estate Video Blog with Scott Himelstein

The Porter Ranch Market Is Still Warm Despite Recent Cooling

There are many great San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 818-720-9922 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Conditions here in LA County have been quite interesting lately. Going back to the beginning of the year, we had only 2,361 properties for sale on our local MLS. For the month of October, we have well over 3,700 homes for sale. What does this big shift in inventory mean?

For one, it means buyers have more options. Before, sellers were competing with 3-5 homes - now, they are competing with 10-15 homes at a time. We've also seen a jump in days on market: from 31 days to 48 days. This can be attributed to buyers having more homes to choose from and taking their time. It helps that interest rates are still at historic lows, at just below 4.5%.

The good news for Porter Ranch and the surrounding area is that we've seen a 10% gain, and distressed property sales have fallen from 17% to under 10% since this time just a year ago. Most of the sales we're seeing now are under normal circumstances.

The market was red-hot at the beginning of the year - now, we're seeing stable conditions. The market is growing at a normal pace, rather than falling after a great start to the year. The chances are, if you price your home right, you'll get it sold in under 30 days, which is certainly ideal for sellers.

Here at the Scott Himelstein Group, we've managed to get homes sold in under 20 days on average. So, if you're interested in buying or selling in the LA County area, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd love to make your real estate transaction as beneficial as possible!

How we helped Sean with his real estate needs by our quick response

"I’ve known Scott for a long time so it was really cool to have him help me out with my transaction. I don’t know if Scott actually sleeps, he was just so responsive at all hours of the day or night and I never had to wait more than 2 seconds for him to get back to us. We ended up with a condo that we’re very happy with and he did everything that he could so it was just an awesome experience!"

-Sean Feeney, Home Buyer

Are you missing out on the benefits of conventional financing?

Recently, we spoke of FHA financing. Today, we shift our attention to conventional financing and the benefits of it over FHA financing. Many people are unaware they can secure conventional financing for as little as 5% down. What are the other benefits?

Credit score doesn't need to be excellent: You can secure conventional financing with a credit score around 680!
FHA requires a monthly premium: With an FHA loan you have to put 3.5% down. However, it requires you to pay 1.75% up front for a mortgage premium at closing, which makes your down payment 5.25%. Typically, buyers finance that mortgage premium into their loan - with conventional financing you don't have to worry about this up front fee.
FHA monthly PMI is almost double that of conventional financing: Combine that with the the mortgage premium you have to pay and you can really start to see fees add up.
95% of condo and town home buildings are not FHA approved. Putting 5% down on a conventional loan allows you to purchase with a low down payment instead of having to put down the much higher 20% down payment.

As you can see, conventional financing allows buyers to be more flexible and affords them more opportunities that would not otherwise exist. It's a great program - especially if you're interested in a condominium.

Do you have questions about the differences between conventional and FHA financing? Don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We are proud to be your number one Porter Ranch area real estate resource!