Morning Briefing: California realtors highlight affordability crisis

California realtors highlight affordability crisis… Mortgage rates edge lower… Beverly Hillbillies star’s former home sells for $5 million…Wells Fargo is largest commercial/multifamily mortgage firm…

California realtors highlight affordability crisis
Only 7 out of 32 reporting counties in California have home prices that average buyers can afford. That’s the finding of the California Association of Realtors which says that less than one-third of the state’s housing inventory was at or below the home price a typical household earning the median income can afford.

 “The significant disparity between what home buyers can realistically afford and actual home price is discouraging, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said C.A.R. President Chris Kutzkey. “While housing is affordable in some regions of the state, California lacks an adequate supply and mix of affordable housing in locations where the majority of the state’s workforce resides.” 

In the second quarter of 2015, the statewide median price of $446,980 was nearly 50 per cent higher than what a California household with the median income of $60,244 could afford to purchase.
 
Mortgage rates edge lower
Mortgage rates are staying below 4 per cent for now according to the latest data from Freddie Mac. Its weekly mortgage survey found that for the week ending Aug. 20 the average rate of a 30-year FRM was down to 3.93 per cent from 3.94 per cent a week earlier; 15-year FRM’s averaged 3.15 per cent, down from 3.17 per cent; 5-year ARM’s averaged 2.94 per cent, slightly up from the previous week’s 2.93 per cent; 1 year ARM’s were unchanged at an average of 2.62 per cent.
 
Beverly Hillbillies star’s former home sells for $5 million
The former home of Beverly Hillbillies actor Buddy Ebsen has sold for $5 million. Ebsen, who played Jed Clampett in the classic series, owned the waterfront home on Bilboa Island, CA for more than two decades. He died in 2003. The OC Register says that the six-bedroom, 4-bathroom home has been on and off the market since the actor’s death but following the latest listing he saw a lot of people who paid respects to Ebsen at some very busy open house events. The home’s new owners plan to rebuild the 1965 house.
 
Wells Fargo is largest commercial/multifamily mortgage firm
Wells Fargo has been named as the largest mortgage servicer for commercial and multifamily loans for the first 6 months of 2015. The Mortgage Bankers’ Association says that Wells Fargo Bank NA serviced $484.2 billion in US master and primary loans followed by PNC Real Estate/Midland Loan Services with $465.8 billion and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage with $230.4 billion.