With all of the bank-owned property being snapped up by people seeking bargains, you might wonder where the people who used to live in those houses are going: into rentals, and that demand has pushed rental availability rates to historically low levels. Rents are up more than 3% over last year, and they continue to rise.
People are also frequently asking me if there is any money available for home loans because they hear that credit has frozen. While financial institutions are balking at lending money to each other, there is no shortage of cash available for home loans. The The LA Times addressed the abundance of mortgage money in last Sunday’s paper.