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December, 2008:

End of the Year Thanks

Dec 30th, 2008
by Kathy Rain.
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“Hard Times, holding it together ain’t always easy”-from the James Taylor song 1981


 Being a Realtor is a unique profession.  Over the years, we remember going to the post office and being greeted by people commenting on how Realtors were the nouveau rich.  This year, our greeting is a comforting pat on the back as part of the struggling masses.  Like most of you, we have had to make some changes.  We started to rent our vacation condo in Maui on vrbo.com and discovered a dozen things we could do ourselves even if it took us twice as long.  We continue to find joy in every moment and happiness in just being together, finding that to all hardship, Love is the Answer.  We have seen this in our business too.
We are blessed to be in a profession that allows us to help others.  This year was a year where families struggled to make changes, to move forward in difficult situations and to come out stronger.  There is the young couple who was suddenly down to one income, a huge mortgage, a new baby, and a remaining job that became tentative.  They made a quick decision to move thousands of miles away for a new future.  She stayed back with the children as he went alone to the new job.  They spent months apart and when we got their home sold, and the family was reunited, he had to work 7 days a week as the new guy.  Her job was to find and create a home for the family in a new place.  Seeing them six months later the stress has visibly lessened.  They are joyful together, sharing the smiles of love from their children.
This year, two friends, Nancy Kinghorn formerly with Coldwell Banker and Carol Icard of North American Title Company, lost their battles with cancer.  They were in their 50’s.  They fought bravely.  At the memorial for Carol, over 300 people came to celebrate her life.  There was a “Carol’s Life” slide show playing and a microphone where people came and told stories, most very funny, of how Carol had touched them.  Michael played and sang “Tears in Heaven”, by Eric Clapton.  I can’t imagine a better memorial.  I know we will never forget either of these beautiful women.  The other day, the Realtors on the coast held our annual fundraiser auction and once again Michael was the auctioneer.  Over $7500 was raised in under 2 hours which was, miraculously, more than last year!  As a memorial to Nancy and Carol, the funds were divided between the two charities that meant the most to them, Coastside Hope and the Boys and Girls Club.  We all dug deep to show our love for our friends and help locally.
I spent two weeks in Europe on a trip with my 82 year old Mother.  Fortunately the trip was long paid for.  While out of the country, the stock market fell.  It was amazing to watch CNN and see how much our country affects the rest of the world.  It was strange being in Europe when so much was happening at home.  The trip pointed out something that I want to share and that you probably know already.  The world is a beautiful place.  I have now visited 18 countries in my life and the coast is as beautiful as any location in any of them.
Michael and I have been taking our extra time to explore the wonders of where we live; discovering walking/hiking trails from Higgins Canyon, Montara Mountain and Pacifica.  There are old Indian caves, rusted cars in places you won’t believe, views of the tunnel project that you won’t see from anywhere else and vistas of our coastline where you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.  Every hike/walk is a new adventure.  It always brings up the phrase, “and we live here”.
We tried to change it up a bit this year with a Luau in our tropical courtyard instead of a Holiday Party.  We loved seeing those of you that came over and missed those of you that couldn’t make it.   This year, Michael debuted his second album, Island Rain, on CDBaby.com which is also carrying his first CD-So Many Guitars So Little Time.  He has a new band, with fabulous musicians, and is enjoying scheduling gigs for 2009.
2009 is a hopeful year for all of us.  We hear the economy won’t be fabulous but, will be on the road to recovery.  We have a new blog site at www.CoastsideLife.com where you will find great coastal photos, market condition videos and comments on day to day events. We welcome your participation and, most importantly, your story on how you are turning lemon into lemonade, and on how; Love is the Answer in your life.
Michael and I want all of you to know we cherish our friendships as the years pass together.  We invite you to join us on a walk or hike; it’s free, beautiful, healthy and here.  We are thankful for our life of abundance in knowing you, and wish you and your families a New Year filled with love and joy.

Happy New Year,

Kathy & Michael

A Holiday Wish for 2008

Dec 18th, 2008
by Kathy Rain.
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This wonderful Holiday Wish was written by my friend Alice Held from Phoenix, Arizona. 

Alice Held is an incredible Realtor with ReMax Fine Properties serving Arizona.  You must check out her fabulous site on www. Come2az.com and send all your friends that are planning on going to Arizona and looking at Real Estate.

Ho! Ho! Ho!
Wishing you a Happy Holiday!
If you find or need a moment to relax, please enjoy these sites!
We’ve included fun for adults and a list Just for Kids!
 
A Winter Web Wonderland and fun Christmas stuff, including a virtual Christmas tree has wonderful information about Christmas trees, how they’re grown, harvested, and goes further with Holiday Tips for the festive season.

Don’t bother with the malls this holiday season: they’re crowded; the parking lots are full; and you’ll never find what you’re looking for, anyway. Go instead to your “one-stop shops” for all your holiday purchases: shopping.com , Bizrate, Pricegrabber, Nextag, MySimon, Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, and for last minute shopping, try for gift ideas for everyone on your list.

CNet lists the Top 100 of 2008 and ZDNet has reviews for you, too.
Got that last minute gift to get? Go holiday shopping at these great places! Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and in spirit of the economy, Wal-Mart and Target are offering some great deals.

If you’re doing Christmas on a Shoestring this year, check out these tips.

From Brooks Brothers to Wal-Mart, there are coupons galore . Instead of downloading and printing them, here you request that they be e-mailed to you. You can also post comments about a product. This site has a good privacy policy.

In all the years that carolers have been singing the 12 Days of Christmas, the price of a partridge in a pear tree has never been higher. Want to see how the prices of the 12 Days of Christmas has escalated since it was written? Check out what A Partridge in a Pear Tree costs these days. PNC Bank did an enlightening Christmas Price Comparison.
 
Add zip to your holiday newsletters with Holiday Fun Facts from the U.S. Census Bureau data collection. You’ll find lots of holiday-related facts and figures from its data collection.
 Visit the famous Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rockefeller Center. Each year designers transform department store windows into miniature holiday worlds attracting passerbys, hoping they’ll shop.

Talking about Christmas trees, this Christmas tree farm has lots to tell you about the care, types, events and just fun! Don’t forget to go down Hwy. 92 for several Xmas Tree farms offering great family fun.
Countdown tells you how much time you have left by the days, days, hours, minutes, seconds to shop and say Merry Christmas from around the globe. If you still don’t have the Christmas spirit, try this Countdown page to check out all the fun things it has to do.

Want to sing along this season? Here’s some good lyrics and midis to get you in the mood.

Need to send a Xmas card real quick? You have a choice in these sites.

And here’s a fun way to decorate your own holiday card … just slide the ornament to the right and see what happens. Then click on the snowflake and watch it snow!

 For a fun page to get you in the mood The Ultimate Christmas page will have entertaining ideas and themes and holiday tips, and Christmas in Cyber Space has a Christian theme. And leave it to How Stuff Works to tell you everything about Christmas “stuff!”

This Christmas tree has the history of the Christmas tree for you.

More interested in egg-nog, elves’ fudge, peanut clusters, fruit cake (the good kind) and Santa’s Punch? You’ll want to head on over to this collection of desserts, candies and drinks gathered together at the rather aptly titled Christmas Recipes. For everything gingerbread… enjoy! According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest gingerbread man cookie weighed 372.13 pounds and was 13 feet, 11 inches in height.

So, you now know the difference between a chanterelle and a shiitake mushroom. But, do you know the best way to save your all-important recipes? Tools for the Gourmet will help you. Holiday recipes are Epicurian’s favorites to share. VegSource serves up 3 full-course vegetarian menus for the holidays, each designed to serve 8 people.
Reader’s Digest Holiday Extravaganza has decorating ideas, recipes, and holiday crafts. Get organized for Christmas has many ideas to get ready for the day. And if you’re sending a newsletter this year, here’s a place to find Holiday Clipart.

Start with one mouse a-clicking…you don’t have to be a sleighve to tradition…this site has photos of real-live-reindeer on a America’s Heartland… with lots of Christmas stories and sites, as well as tips to preserve your tree. 

Join PopGun for the neatest Christmas Flash pages he puts the Merry in Merry Christmas!
While you’re in the mood, here’s some easy to sing along Christmas songs.

Just in time for Christmas, Jako Olivier has gathered together the lyrics of the carol Silent Night, Holy Night, as translated into 147 versions in 100 different languages. The Silent Night Museum in Salzburg celebrates the author, Joseph Mohr, and has many renditions as well. 

How to say Merry Christmas in 33 languages and another with even more , including European, Japanese, Korean and more! Christmas in many languages offers just that: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in many, many languages. See how 30 different countries celebrate Christmas! 

Do you know the Sacred Cities? Every culture has sacred, historic elements. Travel to these sacred cities via the Internet: Banaras the Eternal City, India; Jerusalem, the Holy City, Israel ;Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet ; Machu Picchu, Peru; Makkah the Blessed, Saudi Arabia; and visit the Splendor of Persia .

Christmas is one of the few holidays that is celebrated worldwide with as many Christmas Traditions as there are countries. Whether the Celebration of Christmas is the Yule Log, or singing carols, many cultures celebrate the season. Traditions Around the World lists religious Christmas traditions.

You’d rather play Spin the Dreidel? Fine. Go ahead. Really, it’s nothing to feel gelt-y about.
Oh, and Happy Hanukkah and Chanukah on the Net , Kanukkah, Khanuka. You get the point, there are a latke of ways to spell it. Celebrations has caloric treasures, yum, gifts, and spiritual perspective. Virtual Jerusalem has photos of all the holy sites.

Kwanza was established in 1966 to provide an opportunity for the African American community to celebrate their heritage. Kwanza is celebrated for 7 days starting on December 26th and ending on January 1st. On December 31st a feast is prepared for family and friends. The History Channel has some wonderful features about the Kwanza holiday.

Ever wonder how Santa does it? Visits every house in just one night? SantaLand will tell you! Santa’s Reindeer Secrets has an excellent Video of Santa’s actual reindeer in Lapland.

NORAD has tracked Santa Claus on his annual delivery travels since 1958. If you want to see up-to-the-minute, high-tech radar tracking of ol’ St. Nick, the NORAD Tracks Santa website is the place to go. And of course NASA will assist Santa weaving in and out of all those satellites and space debris. In addition to Santa-Spotting: Stargazing at Our Challenger Space Center. They have a Christmas Stargazing event.

Curious as to just where in the world Santa’s workshop is? Here’s a satellite image, thanks to NASA. and ESA. Live From the North Pole has a daily reading.

Visit Christmas at White House and see how Deck the Halls look.
 
Wilstar’s Christmas page has been up since, 1995! Check Jerry’s Singing Christmas tree.

Looking for some free Christmas music clips? Christmas Midis brings the holiday to your desktop; Midis in different languages.

Get your snowflakes and reindeer here. Want snow and don’t have it? Find out how to get it on this Snow page . Then Build-A-Snowman online!

Just For Kids:
What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Snowflakes, of course. So you can make your own , more here, and here too! What they’re really made of is here . And if you have a really lot of them, you have snow!
Santa’s Secret Village

The North Pole

Don’t forget to email Santa and read what others have written him.

Check on Santa’s Elves

Christmas Stationery and Screensaver page for Children

Santa’s Page has a Kids Zone and fun pages.

Kids Domain and Christmas Time Together have tons of things to do!
Holiday Lessons about other cultures.
Just for fun Shake-a-globe
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus from the year 1897.Where is Santa’s factory and what makes it magic?
Finland is where Santa lives. Visit him here! But, guess what? He speaks English! Then visit Virtual Finland and find him there, too! (Aulikki, my friend, is from Finland, and knows Santa very well.)

 Believers click here! Santa’s Elves take you to all kinds of wondrous activities. Check the weather at the North Pole for daily updates! Then pay a virtual visit to Santa in his colorful, snowy town in the North Pole.

Did you know there is a Santa Claus Championship with 100 “Santa” competing? Who will be the best? Check it out here.

Ever wonder what it’s like “down under” where it’s summertime during out wintertime? Christmas in Australia will tell you all about it.

Holiday Home for the Family includes mail to Santa, recipes, movie reviews, crafts, music, and a section Kids Zone with artwork, stories and games. Check out this complete Christmas Recipes Index. Better Homes and Gardens has more for you, too.

It just isn’t Christmas without a Gingerbread house! Ginger Lane to the rescue!

 And if it’s to Grandmother’s house we go, the Family Travel Guide offers up some useful and important information for traveling with kids of all age groups. And TravelSense has lots of good tips, too! TopoZone is a searchable database of the entire United States, from sea to shining sea (and every hill, rock and field in between).
 

Best and warmest wishes to you!!
May you always have an Angel by your side!

Latest on Lending by Andy Block, Opes Advisors

Dec 17th, 2008
by Kathy Rain.
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While guidelines for lending have become much tighter, there is money to lend and loans are funding at all price levels. For clarity, there have been some changes in the conforming loan limits:

Effective with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) release in November 2008, there are two sets of conforming limits provided for first mortgages: 1) general conforming loan limits, and 2) high balance conforming loan limits. General conforming loan limits remain at $417,000. The new high balance conforming limit (max limits are county specific) is $625,500. You can review Loan to Value (LTV) lending limits and county specific limits here.

Recently there have been reports that the U.S. Treasury will lower mortgage rates for purchases to 4.5% for conforming loan limits. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. To get a similar result for jumbo loans, sellers can buy down the rate. This can be more advantageous to sellers than a price reduction, it gives them a competitive advantage and it increases the pool of qualified buyers. You can see an example of this benefit here.

While speculation of the Treasury’s actions continue, we have seen great rates. If buyers can afford the home and can also afford to pay for the things that matter to them going forward, now is the time to buy.

Please contact me with any questions you may have or to discuss a specific client’s financial or mortgage strategy.

Regards,
Andy

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