Bay Area Leads the U.S. for Middle-Class Income Growth

• San Francisco posted America’s largest five-year income gain for middle-class households, with earnings up by more than 30 percent.
• Of the 20 U.S. cities with the fastest-rising incomes, Fremont workers earn the largest annual salaries: more than $122,000.
• Over the past two decades, the number of Oakland households who take home between $75,000 and $100,000 has nearly doubled.

It’s the second time this month that Bay Area professionals have been noted for their earning powers. Two weeks ago, Bloomberg’s annual list of America’s wealthiest places named Atherton as the country’s most affluent community, with an annual household income of more than $450,000. Other Bay Area communities that rank among the country’s 50 richest can be found in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties.


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California Posts Another Big Housing Inventory Gain in January

• Active home listings in California rose for the 10th straight month in January, up by almost 30 percent year over year.
• California home sales dropped by nearly 13 percent from January 2018 to the lowest level in more than a decade.
• Annual single-family home price appreciation registered less than 5 percent in California, the nine-county Bay Area, and the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

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What Is PMI? Private Mortgage Insurance, Explained

If you need a mortgage to buy a house but lack the funds to make a 20% down payment, you might end up paying an added fee called private mortgage insurance, or PMI.


So what exactly is PMI? In the same way homeowners insurance protects you in case of problems in your home, PMI protects your lender in case you default on your loan.


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Mortgage Rates Hit a 12-Month Low as Signs of Economic Slowdown Dog the Housing Market

Rates for home loans fell to the lowest in a year as inflation cooled and investors braced for a slowing global economy.


The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.37% in the February 14 week, mortgage guarantor Freddie Mac said Thursday. That was down from 4.41% in the prior week. The 15-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.81%, down three basis points. The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.88%, down from 3.91%.


Those rates don’t include fees associated with obtaining mortgage loans.


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Housing Affordability Improves in California’s Most Expensive Counties

• Twenty-eight percent of California households could afford the median-priced home in the fourth quarter, down slightly from the same time in 2017.
• California’s four million-dollar housing markets — San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, and Santa Clara counties — all saw affordability improve year over year.
• The number of households in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and Los Angeles County decreased slightly from the fourth quarter of 2017 to a respective 30 percent and 24 percent.

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Compass’ January 2019 Real Estate Update

The pace of sales slowed in January from one year earlier in most Bay Area regions in which Compass (reflecting the company formerly known as Pacific Union) operates, except for Marin County and the East Bay. The latter region was the only one in the Bay Area that saw homes sell for premiums in the first month of 2019.


MARIN COUNTY

Marin County‘s $1,150,000 median sales price was down 6.1 percent from January 2018. Homes sold in an average of 60 days, 15 days faster than recorded at the same time last year.


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California Homeowners Again Rank as the Nation’s Most Equity-Rich

According to the survey there were more than 14.5 million equity-rich properties as of the final quarter of 2018, representing 25.6 percent of homes with a mortgage.


In the second and third quarters, California had the highest number of equity-rich homeowners in the U.S., at 43.6 percent. Homeowners in the San Jose metropolitan area remain the most equity-rich, with 72.0 percent classified as such. San Francisco ranks No. 2 for equity riches, at 60.7 percent, followed by Los Angeles at 48.5 percent.


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High-Tech Kitchens Gain More Traction in Home-Remodeling Projects

• About nine in 10 homeowners who have recently remodeled their kitchens added new appliances, mostly refrigerators and dishwashers.
• The popularity of wireless-controlled appliances in kitchen-improvement projects has nearly doubled over the past year.
• Upgrading a kitchen with hardwood floors has been on a declining trend since 2017.

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January 2019 U.S. Jobs Report

January Marked the 100th Straight Month of U.S. Job Growth


Today’s national employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics outpaced expectations, with 304,000 jobs added in January. Over the last 12 months, the U.S. economy has added 2.81 million jobs.


However, while the shutdown did impact some numbers and created a delay in reporting from some industries that will lead to large revisions in February’s employment report, January’s robust increase should be received with optimism that U.S. economic growth is sustainable.


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