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bearishgurl
Participant[quote=scaredyclassic]I am actually slowing down with age. I am not as peppy as I was at 42. Based on that, I can see how it might be possible that some day I do actually die.
If our consciousness ultimately becomes download able will insurance companies be able to avoid payment? I better check how death is defined[/quote]
[img_assist|nid=13866|title=Priceless!!|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=74]
ParticipantCAR, the insurance rep came to our home and signed us up when I was 25 (many moons ago). As I recall, he did ask us questions and took some notes, but did not weigh us or take any photos. I was renewed every five years until age 50, at which time I had to convert to a different product (which required a physical exam) if I wanted to stay with that carrier.
The premium for the term life offered by my carrier automatically went up every five years, starting at age 25. It was a plan open to active duty and retired military and their families and DOD personnel but I was allowed to apply to the same carrier at age 50 (even though I was no longer a military dependent) because I was not a new customer. Essentially, I “converted” from regular term life to a 20-year level term policy with them at that time (but had to “requalify” for it, as did every current policyholder who aged out of their regular term life program).
I don’t recall my insurance company offering 15-year term policies at age 50 (as ljinvestor posted). And I always had just $200 – $250K of coverage (which was actually a lot of money back then, lol). Actually, that might have been the most term life they offered back in the day.
It was so long ago that I signed up initially that it is possible that life insurance companies selling large term life policies now require a physical exam of every applicant, regardless of age. Maybe ljinvestor knows the answer to this question.
Participant[quote=The-Shoveler]Expensive Gas tops the list (almost a dollar a gallon more than most the rest of the nation).[/quote]True but it only matters to people who must commute long distances for a living. I have only purchased five tanks of gas since the new year and my car’s tank is currently full. (And I made one 250 mile RT in March.)
[quote=The-Shoveler]Overzealous zoning laws.[/quote]Be glad CA has them in place. Try visiting your favorite gas and oil producing state which offers cheap gas but has next to zero zoning or environmental regulations (esp in small towns and rural areas). Then come back and give the Piggs an assessment of your thoughts on its residents’ the quality of life.
[quote=The-Shoveler]The fact I cannot trade my canyon view home for a similar home with an ocean view.[/quote]You can’t trade in a lesser-priced home for a higher-priced home anywhere without parting with some cash or taking out a larger mortgage.
[quote=The-Shoveler]Not enough June gloom (most years)[/quote]Is this good …. or bad?
[quote=The-Shoveler]Special California Smog laws.[/quote]Yes, they are a PITA, especially for older vehicle owners who are biennially unfairly targeted by the DMV and routed to “Star Stations” for a “spread-eagle-like, high-emitter profile” inspection. Yes, even if it passed all its smog inspections in the past.
Well, I guess those who don’t like it can move on down the road …. along Route 66, where they can inhale truck exhaust and cigarette fumes in and out of truck stops all the way to Chicago.
[quote=The-Shoveler]Still I am not leaving though.[/quote]I’m not planning to, either.
Participant[quote=spdrun]Everything here (except gas and housing, maybe) is cheaper than in the Northeast. Gas doesn’t matter so much. Perfect climate for electric cars and motorcycles! And when you factor in HVAC costs, taxes, comparative HOA fees, housing doesn’t look so bad either.[/quote]
Agree with all. We all need to take periodic road trips to realize how good we who reside in SD County have it. It actually doesn’t cost any more to live in SD than many “flyover cities” and it is often cheaper to live in SD, primarily due to lower utility costs, lower food costs (for fresher food with more variety) and lower entertainment costs (so many free and really cheap things to do here year-round).
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]I don’t have life insurance because I have nobody to give the money to.
But if you buy life insurance early, say in your 20s, is it cheaper and is the term longer?
Also, if you don’t go hot air ballooning now, but go later and die of the balloon falling to the ground, does the insurance pay up?[/quote]
FIH, I bought term life insurance from age 25 forward (to supplement the 3x pay coverage I had at work, which wasn’t much). When you’re younger, your term life premium typically goes up every five years on a level-term policy (ex: age 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45). At age 50, the term ends. If you want a 20-year level term policy (typically from age 50-70), you will need to submit to a physical exam (with the CARRIER’s chosen provider) and sign a release for your medical records, in order to get properly priced. Once all that is completed, you will be offered policy terms and premium levels …. or you will be declined. At age 50, I applied to and kept the same carrier I had since age 25, but you are free to make application with other carriers.
If you answer that you do NOT go hot-air ballooning (or skydiving) on your application for term coverage (your premium was priced for a non-ballooner/skydiver) and then you later die in a ballooning/skydiving accident, your carrier will not pay out. If you answered that you DID go ballooning/skydiving on your app for coverage, the premium offered you will reflect that preference OR your app will be declined (depending upon carrier).
If you don’t have any dependents who will be your heirs, then you probably shouldn’t bother with paying life insurance premiums. Whoever will settle your estate will not be personally liable for any debts you leave behind that your estate cannot pay, and, in any case, life insurance proceeds are generally not part of your estate.
Please consult an estate planning attorney on this issue as I am not giving “legal advice” here.
Participant[quote=scaredyclassic]best price i could find 52 to 72 level term life is 2100/year. for 1 million . . .[/quote]
That’s very competitive, scaredy … a very good rate. I take it you are currently 52 years of age.
My carrier does not insure over the age of 70. As I posted, I have $250K in level-term coverage for 20 yrs at $47 month, taken out at age 50. $47 x 4 = $188 mo or $2256 year. I was eligible for the very best rate they offered at the time.
This is as good as it gets, scaredy. If you are offered this policy, it is issued by a reputable carrier and you are comfortable with a $175 mo premium, then my advice is to take it …. while the getting is good.
Participantspdrun, I see nothing in the CA “Homeowner’s Bill of Rights” which precludes a lender from foreclosing timely 141-145 days after default (w/30 days added for phone contact to borrower to ascertain if they may be eligible for a mod).
There doesn’t appear to be any provision in it requiring lenders to offer any remedies at all to FC … it only requires them to ask their delinquent borrower questions to determine if they are eligible for a mod during the 30-day statutory “contact period” before a notice of default is filed.
This is assuming the left hand of the lender hasn’t already accepted an application for mod from the borrower and is attempting to process it.
Just like the employer who doesn’t want to hire a particular candidate for a job, a defaulted-upon lender can come up will all kinds of legally plausible reasons why their delinquent borrower is ineligible for a mod.
All it costs the lender is 30 more days added to the nonjudicial FC process (now extended 5 more years to 1/1/18).
Am I missing something here?
So, why again are these lenders still languishing and letting deadbeat home”owners” squat into oblivion in this supposedly “hot” market??
Participant[quote=thejard]It is funny you mention 91910 and SFR…
I stumbled upon this site a few months back and loved the analysis. Have lately been reading the comments… so a bit of a lurker here 🙂
But, this got me to post since relevant.
We just had our first baby in Dec and we are trying to turn that tax windfall into a house in Chula Vista where my gal pal (don’t plan on marriage anytime soon) grew up. Ideally NW Chula…
3.5% FHA, maybe a small 203K, trying to be around $300K-$330K, need 3/2, already laden w/ debt
So, the realtor.com link is very familiar to me 🙂
709 4th–>went pending in 1 day; it was a relisted/back on market… I’m guessing all cash
752 2nd–>owners squatting, will not move. bank has offered ‘substantial’ $$, but they no take. Auction I think starts at $209k
164 Landis–>I’ve seen bounce from 375-350-375
The rest are contingent. I don’t feel like NW Chula is ‘cheap’This all makes us sad and frustrated lol… She bought a house in 2007 and prices are back above that level a decent clip. At our price range we are in direct competition w/ investors with fat wallets.
We’d love to get a house… American Dream and all that, but maybe we missed the boat on this ‘time to buy’ so to speak? But how long is too long to wait… in the mean time we rent at a low cost ($1120 North Adams, 1/1+den… baby room!) and save/pay down debts… and obsess![/quote]
thejard, I didn’t mean to imply that Chula Vista was “cheap” (and it shouldn’t be). Actually its northwest corner is the most well-located and convenient part of the city, has great weather (being situated on the bay) and is very walkable and convenient to public transportation. Plus, it has almost all the city govm’t HQ there and a full range of government services, ie. library, swimming pool, rec center, courts, assessor, etc (all walkable).
My last post doesn’t sound like it but I am probably the most UNsympathetic on this forum to underwater borrowers’ plights. I feel that the vast majority of them did it to themselves by living beyond their means (often FAR BEYOND) using their principal residences as ATMs. IMO, squatting owners deserve to be booted out within days after their former property is sold to the highest bidder or reverts back to the beneficiary at a trustees sale.
I totally blame the defaulted upon LENDERS for allowing all these idiots to squat for many months to several YEARS. They ALSO made their own beds.
I have found that many of the RE agents around here will just take an underwater listing before even determining if the defaulted-upon lender(s) are even remotely interested in considering a short sale. Some of them even keep them as “pocket listings” and will not place a lockbox on these properties because THEY want to be the ONLY agent to “show” them (by appt only).
The vast majority of these SS listings are in really bad shape (even unsanitary) and usually there are too many people living there (owner-families/tenants or both), often with language barriers. These agents taking these so-called “short-sale listings” are just throwing spaghetti at the ceiling to see if any sticks (wasting everyone’s time).
The flipper teams have had a field day around here in recent years, even flippers who went into “equity-sharing” agreements with marginal homeowners who didn’t have the money to fix up their properties for sale (to recover enough to pay off their liens without affecting their credit and get out cleanly). For the most part, what the flipper-teams have done has been raising all boats …. albeit slowly, because there still seem to be quite a few underwater homeowners out there.
Your GF is typical of new parents today who start their families and then move back to Chula Vista, to be near family help for child care. Often, their local families here help them with a downpayment or even purchase a nearby house FOR them!
Owners of GOOD, LARGER homes on DECENT-SIZED lots in central/west Chula Vista are NOT bringing them to market in this mess because the recent sold-comps are too low due to recent SS closings, and, to a much lesser extent, FC sale closings. The currently “active” (mostly UNapproved) SS listings create a perception among prospective out-of-area buyers that their artificially-low asking price is actually how much a house of that size is WORTH in the immediate area. But nothing could be further from the truth. Equity owners aren’t going to sell for $100-$200K LESS in this micro-market just to sell when they don’t need to. So it’s a “push-pull” vicious cycle still prevalent in many micro-areas of SoCal and that is why you aren’t seeing much inventory.
thejard, I’ll be honest here and say you very likely will not find a SFR seller in 91910 willing to accept an FHA offer. And so many condos cannot go FHA due to their low owner-occupancy rate. In any case, 91910 has few condos.
If you are renting north of Adams (Normal Heights?) for just $1120 mo, I feel you should stay there and pay your debts down. You cannot compete as a buyer in the lower-priced areas anywhere in the county while mired in debt and submitting FHA offers. As you stated, cash buyers are the biggest impediment in your price range.
If I understood your post correctly, you stated your GF bought a house in 2007. If that house is located in SD County, why isn’t she (and you and your baby) living there? It seems to me that that would be preferable to collecting rent from it, depending on its PITI and amount of rent she is collecting. You all have to live somewhere.
If your GF is already a homeowner, will she actually be able to qualify for another mortgage with you? Does she work? Why does she/do you want to buy another house when she already owns a house and you have other debt to pay off?
ParticipantBack when I turned 50, I obtained a level term policy for 20 years for $250K. I pay only $47 month for it and the premium can never be raised.
I wasn’t in quite as good of shape as scaredy at the time …. but close. My underwriter was John Hancock and they had their nurse submit to them front, side and rear pics of me, as well as taking my height and weight and conducting a battery of labs and other tests on me.
I am in better shape now but have since gotten the bad news (on my medical record) that I possess a gene for an inherited cancer (which I long suspected). Knowledge of this would scare the bej@sus out of any life insurance carrier.
So I am SOL if I want any more coverage. Fortunately, I have only 3/4 of one kid left to assist through college and a small mortgage left on my home (which I could have paid off as early as 2012, but choose not to).
None of us can pick our parents. But we can all do the very best we can with the body we are given.
Participant[quote=scaredyclassic]just got my exam. bp 93/72. heart rate 59. i think im gonna pass. curious about the cholesterol results as i havent had any meat this year, just fish…
krav maga lowers bp.[/quote]
scaredy, with those kind of stats (and assuming your labwork comes back okay), try to get a level term policy for 20 years (or, in the alternative, coverage until age 70) for $500K to $1M, at whatever premium you feel comfortable with.
NOW is the window of opportunity for you to obtain coverage “while the getting is good.”
After you secure it, you will be freer to retire when you want to without worrying about losing your (guaranteed as long as you are still working) 1 – 3x pay supplemental life policy.
It doesn’t/won’t get better than this. Congrats! You are among the very fortunate (small) minority among your “brethren” and I know you “earned it” … the HARD way!
ParticipantBelieve it or not, there are still SFR rentals in SD County TODAY in the $1600 – $1800 mo range … in MANY areas.
Participant[quote=spdrun]svelte: it’s not where as much as what. lower-end (not necessarily bad) condos that would have been snapped up by investors at a given price in 2013 or 2014 aren’t moving as fast this year. the middle and high end markets are still moving well.
bearishgurl: agree that dual-tracking was dishonest. however, i think there should have not even been lip-service to a mod unless there were exigent circumstances involved (job loss, death in family, serious illness in family). miss a few payments outside of said circumstances, house should have gone on the block and become a REO on the MLS.
Failing to analyze and thin before making an expensive leveraged investment is not a good enough excuse (IMHO).[/quote]
Agree on the mods, spdrun. However many (unqualified) borrrowers/mod applicants were TRULY LIED TO BY THEIR LENDER(S) REPEATEDLY, which caused them to attempt to jump thru HOOPS OF FIRE for their lender(s) only to later find out that their TRUE INTENTION was to pursue immediate foreclosure.
Had these lenders been honest from the get go, they may have received keys (and a “broomswept” property) from these borrowers many months in advance of FC and thus saved a lot of time … for everyone involved.
Participant[quote=AN]BG, did you list 92121 by accident?[/quote]
Sorry, long day … I meant 92020 and 92021 (EC Valley and Bostonia).
Participant[quote=svelte][quote=spdrun]Who says it is keeping going? Per the PPSF chart posted on here, prices per sf aren’t much different from last year. The real run-up was in 2013, and that’s past history.
https://www.mainstreet.com/article/brace-for-flood-of-foreclosures-when-boom-era-helocs-turn-10
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-foreclosures-surge-20150212-story.html%5B/quote%5DWe’re not talking about LA here, we’re talking about San Diego…
[quote=spdrun]I see a lot of units sitting with price drops within 1-2 mi of where I own my rental. NOT a fast-moving market. Secondly, I was at a few well-priced open houses last week and there was virtually no traffic.[/quote]
So now, since you quoted LA stats above, are you now talking LA area, or SD? Because if it’s SD, you must live nowhere close to where I live.
[quote=svelte]Spoke with a realtor friend this weekend – he’s been closing one sale every 1 to 2 weeks. Yikes! He says it feels like a seller’s market as he has more buyers…Realtor said this week he is getting multiple offers right now too.[/quote]
Let’s see what the stats are telling us:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/16/dataquick-march-realestate-home-sales-mortgage/
“San Diego County’s housing market surged in March, seeing its biggest annual increase in sales in nearly two years.”
Wow. Sounds a lot like I was saying above…
“Last month, 3,467 real-estate transactions closed in the county, a 13.4 percent jump from March 2014, real estate tracker CoreLogic reported Thursday. It was the biggest annual increase in sales since they rose more than 19 percent from July 2012 to July 2013.”
Again, kinda matches what I’m saying not what you’re saying…
“CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage said inventory still remains an issue holding back the housing market. In March, there were 6,101 active listings in the county, the San Diego Association of Realtors reports. That represents fewer than two months of supply, which bodes well for sellers.
LePage said as a general rule between three and six months of supply would render the market neutral, while any more would turn the tide in favor of buyers.”
Wow…now…who was it saying it’s a seller’s market, me or you?
“Housing demand has been stoked over the last year by job growth mainly, to some extent some income growth, and increased job security,” LePage said.
From February to March sales rose 35 percent in the county, while the median home sales price was up from $440,000.”
Again…points strongly in my direction…not a tanking market.[/quote]
svelte, spdrun is correct in that there are pockets of SD County which haven’t quite recovered yet:
As an example, see: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/91910/beds-2/baths-1/type-single-family-home/price-na-400000/sqft-4/pfbm-900
The link above reflects that the problem is present in the SFR market at the lower end of 91910 (and also includes 91911). I haven’t yet spot-checked in East County (LG, EC and SV) but I suspect 91945, 92120, 92121, and 91977 (and possibly 92071 as well) have similar issues in pockets. Not to mention that just as many zip codes in North County are still affected by underwater borrowers (esp in Esc and Vista).
In addition, 92154, 92173 and 91932 (int’l border areas) may still have problems as well but I know for a FACT that residential property in 92154 was heavily purchased during the downturn of 2009 thru 2011 for deep discounts by several deep-pocketed buy-and hold investor teams (incl REITs) plus individuals. (A large portion of SFRs in that zip code are over 1900+ sf.)
From my findings when looking deeper into the problem in South County, it’s not HELOCs that are the problem, as spdrun suggests. Perhaps resetting HELOCS will still be a problem in East LA (pockets), San Bern and RIV counties, which all still have a backlog of delinquencies and failed mods leading to FC, but in SD County, the problem appears to me to be cash-out refinancing (often repeatedly) with the last transaction occurring no later than the first half of 2007. In my spot checks in LA county, about 8 zip codes I studied had more SS and FC listings than traditional-sale listings in the current SFR market as recently as last week, often completely eclipsing “traditional sale” listings. For the most part, these homes were 60+ years old, situated on 7,500 to 13,000 sf lots.
I think many owners in the lower-end SoCal areas (or those owners of lower-end homes in moderate and middle-class areas) have tried mightily over the years to hang onto their homes since removing equity from them or paying too much for them years ago, but just like spdrun stated, the “(CA) Homeowner’s Bill of Rights” (Assembly Bill 278) essentially put a “monkey wrench” in the processing of FC’s in a timely manner in CA as determined by the statute (section 2924 of the Civil Code as it read PRIOR to when the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights was enacted).
CURRENT WORDING OF STATUTE: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/CIV/5/d3/4/14/2/1/s2924
RAMIFICATIONS UPON CA HOMEOWNER’S BOA UPON STATUTE: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB278
The CA Homeowner’s BOR (above) has a couple of provisions that I wholeheartedly agree with. Those are, the elimination of “dual tracking” of foreclosures (I witnessed this firsthand with homeowners who THOUGHT they were in the process of applying for a mod ALL THE WHILE the mechanisms for FC were actually systematically being put in place against them BY THE SAME LENDER who claimed to the borrower that they were collecting documents for a prospective loan mod). This practice was just ba-a-a-a-d and totally dishonest/duplicit (on the part of the lenders on so many fronts) in putting these borrowers thru the wringer while giving them false hope that they may be able to “save” their home. The second provision I agree with is the “single point of contact” for a borrower who is applying for and sending in documents for a loan modification (or in foreclosure). During the downturn, I worked with a handful of borrowers who were (mostly) submitting documents (as requested by the lender) for a mod but who got a different person EVERY TIME they called the same Big Banks’ loss mitigation or “collections” department. That person clearly had no idea what the last person they talked to told them to submit and denied receiving ANY of the documents they had already submitted (upon the bank’s request). It turned out to be a complete clusterfvck which these delinquent borrowers ended up navigating only to discover that it was a no-win proposition for them offering little incentive to continue to cooperate with the lenders’ demands.
It’s now “showtime” for many of these longtime “beleaguered” CA homeowners and it appears to me from the listings I actually recently viewed that a good portion of them DID spend some of their cashed-out equity on home improvements, but, to this day, cannot yet recover enough from sale to pay off their current encumbrances. In other words, they’re still “underwater” at this late date.
Aside from being located more than 20 miles from high-paying white-collar jobs and in “older” areas, there is really nothing wrong with the above SD County zip codes. IMO, it’s a dirty shame that these pockets haven’t fully recovered in value by now. This problem is keeping many well-above-water and even free-and-clear owners from listing in this market due to having to compete with current listings with (approved or non-approved) artifically-low asking prices. I personally KNOW free-and-clear owners who have recently chosen to RENT OUT rather than compete with artificially-low listing prices (“wishful” owners of SS listings) in this market.
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