March 26th, 2009
Jumbo News
Even thought the median price of homes sold on Bainbridge in the last 6 months was $530,000, the median price of the 225 homes listed for sale is $795,000. While the market under $600,000 has remained healthy relative to the rest of the market, sales have limped along in the higher price ranges. This is in no small part due to the lack of availaility of money in the jumbo loan market. Jumbo loans (anything over the conforming amount of $417,000) have been more difficult to get and more expensive since the sub-prime meltdown. Good news came out this week from two banks that are entering the jumbo market with reasonable rates: Bank of America and ING. (See 3/29/09 Seattle Times article). It will be months before we see the effect, but in theory this would help energize market like ours where there is a large percentage of inventory for which jumbo loans are necessary.
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