FAST FACTS CALIF. MEDIAN HOME PRICE: SEPTEMBER 2017: California: $555,410 Calif. highest median home price by region/county: San Mateo, $1,400,500 Calif. lowest median home price by region/county: Lassen, $145,500 CALIF. PENDING HOME SALES INDEX: Pending Home Sales Index declining 6 percent from 127.7 in September 2016 to 120 in September 2017. MORTGAGE RATES: Week ending 10/19/2017 (Source: Freddie Mac) 30 year fixed: 3.88% fees/points: 0.5% 15-year fixed: 3.19% fees/points:

California’s five-year run of rising home prices is expected to last another three to five years, with median house prices on track to beat the record highs set during the housing bubble, a Realtor economist said Thursday, Oct. 12. The California Association of Realtors forecast home prices will increase an additional 4.2 percent in 2018, rising to $561,020. If the forecast proves accurate, that existing single-family home price will exceed the record high of $560,270 set in

DOWN PAYMENT PREFERENCES AND HOW THEY INFLUENCE COST OF HOME More than half of Americans say they would prefer to put 10 percent down on a home purchase rather than 15 percent, 20 percent, or 30 percent, according to mortgage banker American Financing’s 2017 Mortgages in America Survey. The 10 percent down payment option was the lowest among the choices respondents were given in the survey. It also was the most popular choice across generational divides, including millennials

Sellers must prepare their home for the market. Going on the market blind can leave an irreversible impression that will last forever in a