Save more than daylight!

Save more than daylight!

Don't forget to set your clocks an hour ahead this Saturday before you turn in.

If you or a friend are still waiting for something to happen before you get serious about buying your next home, consider the following facts:

You can't buy a home without funds. Most of us don't have the price of a home in liquid assets, so we turn to lenders for help. When we borrow money from a lender, we have to pay for it--think of it as rent.  The rent we pay depends on the mortgage rate and the length of the loan. When rates go up, the rent for the money goes up.

• Fact: 30-year fixed mortgages are around 5% today.
• Fact: No one can guarantee that the rates will stay this low. Today's 5% may be tomorrow's 6.125%.
• Fact: A single percentage increase in mortgage "rent" results in either a higher monthly payment or a reduction in your buying power.

For example: At today's rates a $400,000 loan would result in a monthly payment of $2147 (before taxes and insurance). A 1% increase in rates would raise the monthly payment to $2398 (or reduce the price you could afford by 10%).

North Kitsap sales prices in February were were lower than they were in February of last year.  The median price (half the homes on the market are listed above the median, half below) of the 411 homes on the market is $392,000. That means 205 homes are available for under $392,000!

Not to put too fine a point on it, if you or your friend are waiting for prices to drop, either on a home or the rent for a mortgage, you are probably making a mistake. If you're serious about buying, now is the time to get pre-qualified with a lender. 

Once you know what you can afford, beat the other buyers attracted by these low prices and rates. Historically, the market heats up right about now--Daylight Saving Time.

What to do while you're waiting to turn your clocks ahead

Twice a year we mess wif' our clocks (unless we live in one of the states that doesn't). Here's a quiz to help you pass the time. So to speak. 

Let me know how you do!

Fall back! Run away!

This week will once again spawn thousands of online and offline rants about Daylight (what other kind? Moonlight? Starlight?) Saving. Even though this year the period has been extended in the U.S., we give up the effort once again. No daylight saved. Fall back! Quit!

The effort has a long history, actually first proposed by Ben Franklin. Comments for and against are legion. Some are like the proverbial chief who wryly observed to a farmer that the attempt to save daylight was no more useful than cutting one edge off a blanket and sewing it on the other end. The passionate argue that we should be saving energy, or the world, or the future of our children instead. Others are not so cynical, arguing that DST has many benefits.


And look how seriously the State of Indiana has taken it!

We in the Northwest are so far north that we're used to hibernating from November through March. For us, whatever we give up by reverting to standard time just doesn't matter. It's dark when we roll out of bed, and it's dark when we sit down to supper. Let the wimps of the rest of the country whine all they want. We're tough up here!