MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Freddie
Mac (OTC: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey®
(PMMS®), coming on the heels of the Federal Reserve's recent
announcements. The conventional 30-year fixed averaged an all-time record low at
4.01 percent; likewise the 15-year fixed averaged an all-time record low at 3.28
percent for the week. Of the five regions surveyed in Freddie Mac's survey, the
West region recorded the lowest average rate for the 30-year fixed dipping below
4.00 percent to 3.95 percent.
News Facts
30-year
fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.01 percent with an average 0.7 point
for the week ending September 29, 2011, down from last week when it averaged
4.09 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.32 percent.
15-year FRM
this week averaged 3.28 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week
when it averaged 3.29 percent.A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM
averaged 3.75 percent.
5-year
Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.02 percent
this week, with an average 0.6 point, matching last week when it also
averaged 3.02 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.52
percent.
Real estate market in Palo Alto was very slow last week. With only 10 new listings and 15 new contracts (pending sales) the feeling is that the demand for Palo Alto homes is still strong and the market is held back by the lack of properties for sale (see my earlier post here). The week in numbers:
10 homes were listed this week, 8 single family homes and 2 condos. There is currently 73 homes available for sale in Palo Alto, same as last week.
12 homes closed escrows this week and went to their new owners, one more that last week and two more than the week before then.
15 new contracts were accepted and homes went into pending state - a jump from 11 pending sales last week.
2 homes were taken off the market this week - one expired and one canceled.
The economy is forcing more and more workers to hang a shingle the only place that's left -- at home.
That can be tough. You'll have to pay a "self-employment tax." When you work for someone the employer pays for half your Social Security contributions.
You'll have to pay for your own benefits. You don't get vacation time off unless you foot that bill too.
You do, however, get a tax break for your troubles. (Visit this link to see the IRS' video tips.)
If you run a business from your home (rented or owned), along with business expenses, you can deduct part of your rent or take a depreciation deduction based on the portion of the home you use for business purposes, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Home-based business expenses (office, payroll, labor, auto, travel and entertainment expenses, business asset depreciation, business insurance, supplies, items purchased for resale, etc.) reduce your net profit which in turn reduces both your self-employment taxes and your income taxes.
For depreciation purposes, if your home is 2,000 square feet and you use 300 square feet as an office, for example, you can deduct 15 percent of your rent or take a depreciation deduction on 15 percent of your home. Likewise you can deduct 15 percent of your energy bill, home owners insurance and other costs to run your household.
First, however, you must prove regular and exclusive business use of your home that can be clearly distinguished from personal use or prove use reasonably allocated between the two.
To qualify for home-based businessdeductions, the IRS requires that you pass a few tests.
Your home must be your principal place of business. If you work from two locations, in order to take the deduction, the home must be the most important location, generally, the one where you generate revenue, but not always.
If, you compare the two locations and it's not clear from which location you generate the most income, also consider time spent at either location. You must spend most of the time in the home for it to be the principal place of business under this consideration.
If after you look at revenues and time spent at each location and you still aren't clear if your home is the primary place of business, you probably shouldn't take the deduction, experts say.
There are two exceptions to this rule.
If your home office is not your principal place of business, you can take the home-office deduction if, for part of your business, you see clients, patients, or customers face-to-face in your home or use the space for administrative duties, paperwork activities and other related activities crucial to your business or work.
Also, if your home isn't your principal place of business, but you use some free-standing structure on your property, exclusively and regularly for business, you can claim the home-office deduction for that space. A barn, greenhouse, workshop, studio, detached garage, or any freestanding structure is eligible.
Your work-at-home business must also occupy a clear and identifiable space in your home. Generally, that means it must be in a location apart from the rest of your home, say, an addition constructed for your office, a converted bedroom, attic or basement, but also space in an alcove, nook or say, large walk-in closet space in a larger room.
You must use your home business space exclusively and regularly for your business. You can't use your business space, say, to watch TV with the kids, play computer games or temporarily house a visiting relative.
Personal, family, and living expenses are not deductible.
The IRS says a common error is to deduct expenses for a portion of the home that is not regularly used or exclusively used for business.
It's important to understand the rules, compute the deductions correctly, and keep accurate records to substantiate those deductions.
Why go: Check out new forms of storytelling in film and media, including 20 features, 25 shorts and 30 talks, panels and workshops. Check out the full schedule here.
Where/When: Menlo Park Fire District Headquarters, 300 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park; Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Why go: The Junior League of Palo Alto, the Menlo Park Fire District, and the Stanford Park Hotel will be pancakes & eggs to benefit the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation. Wake up and smell the bacon!
Why go: What do you need to grow to make a complete diet? This workshop looks into what fruits, veggies, and foods are necessary to grow together in order to make for a highly productive, sustainable garden!
Where/When: Dragon Productions Theatre Company, 535 Alma St, Palo Alto; Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. Why go: This "comic but heartfelt" production is about four sisters with four different fathers who reunite after their mother's death. Written by Colette Freedman. Price: $30
For the first time in decades, the Palo Alto Unified School District is on the verge of acquiring new property as it contends with rising enrollment, particularly in the southern part of town.
Board of Education members Tuesday night expressed enthusiasm for an $8.5 million deal to acquire a 2.6-acre parcel at 525 San Antonio Road. The property, which housed Peninsula Day Care Center before it closed in June, backs up onto the Greendell School campus, which is contiguous with Cubberley Community Center.
Pending the results of environmental tests, the board is expected to authorize purchase of 525 San Antonio at its next meeting Oct. 11, using funds from Measure A, the $378 million bond voters approved in 2008 for school improvements. The property is currently under contract to be sold to residential developer SummerHill San Antonio Land Holding, but SummerHill has indicated its willingness to sell the property, in turn, to the school district, according to a staff report.
"I'm absolutely thrilled. This is the first proposed addition of public school land in over a generation, ending an old, long streak of school district sales," board member Barb Mitchell said.
She was referring to the selloff during the 1980s of a number of Palo Alto elementary school sites as enrollment contracted in the post-Baby Boom era.
At its enrollment peak in 1968, Palo Alto had nearly 16,000 students, with three high schools, three middle schools and more than 20 elementary schools. Enrollment declined through the 1970s and '80s, reaching a low of 7,500 in 1989 before trending upward again.
Today, with 12,286 students, Palo Alto has two high schools, three middle schools and 12 elementary schools.
At Tuesday's meeting, board members parsed the nuances of this fall's enrollment data even as they pondered the need for a 20-year long-range plan.
With elementary headcount growing at 4 percent for the past several years, members agreed on the need for new facilities.
But some noted that kindergarten enrollment was flat this fall, wondering whether that is "a blip or a trend."
Despite much discussion of the need for new space in the southern part of Palo Alto, the district has made no formal commitment on how it would use the prospective new property on San Antonio Road. The school board last year also voted to take back the old Garland School site on North California Avenue but has not decided when, or how, that site would come back online.
Board President Melissa Baten Caswell said there's an urgent need for more middle school space.
"We're going to hit a middle school problem before we hit an elementary problem," she said. We can put a few more kids in a classroom, put a portable here, add another building at (an elementary) site, but we hit maximum at our middle schools faster than that.
"Certainly within the next five years were going to need a solution."
Mitchell said a decision on the use of Garland is also needed.
"The sooner we can make that decision, the longer we have as an implementation and transition period to help community members and staff plan the implementation," she said.
Board Vice President Camille Townsend said she hoped to avoid stirring up premature anxieties about school boundary changes.
"Uncertainty does unnerve people... In the past it was a discussion that created great uncertainty and got a lot of anger going. I want to make sure our conversations are taken as conversations, and that things are fluid until we have to make a decision. Otherwise people get positional before they need to," Townsend said.
Uncertainty seems to be everywhere. Less than two weeks ago city's Planning and Transportation Commission approved the plan by SummerHill Homes to build 10 homes on this property - see my earlier post here.
An elementary enrollment boom charges ahead in Palo Alto this fall, with city-wide K-5 growth -- at 4 percent -- approaching the high end of projections.
But district-wide, Palo Alto's K-12 headcount of 12,286 is up only 2 percent over last year. That overall figure falls in the low-to-medium range of projections made by the district's consulting demographers.
Middle school enrollment rose 1.9 percent, slightly above the low end of projections.
And high school enrollment was flat, actually declining when alternative programs such as the Hospital School and Middle College were taken into account.
Racing to stay ahead of the elementary surge, school officials last spring discussed plans to add up to 30 new classrooms in the next five years in addition to the 10 new ones already under construction or in the pipeline at Ohlone, Fairmeadow and Duveneck schools.
And tonight, the Board of Education will discuss the possible purchase of a 2.6-acre parcel on San Antonio Road for $8.5 million. The funds would come from the elementary school portion of a $378 million facilities bond measure approved by voters in 2008.
The proposed acquisition is the site of the former Peninsula Day Care Center, which backs up to the district's Greendell School campus and is contiguous with the 35-acre Cubberley site.
Officials also have asserted an intention eventually to reclaim Cubberley -- now leased to the City of Palo Alto and used as a community center -- for school use. But they have been mum about specifics.
The Board of Education and the City Council are scheduled to launch discussions this fall about the future of the dilapidated campus, which closed as a high school in 1979.
Current bond measure construction is intended to expand capacity at Gunn and Palo Alto high schools to accommodate up to 2,300 student each. Headcount this fall is 1,864 at Gunn and 1,885 at Paly.
The district's 12 elementary schools range in enrollment size from 336 at Barron Park to 583 at Ohlone, where a new, two-story classroom building is set to open by winter break.
District-wide, enrollment has been on an upward trajectory since 1989. But, at 12,286, it has yet to approach its historic high of nearly 16,000 hit in 1968. At that time, the district had three high schools, three middle schools and more than 20 elementary schools.
Tonight's Board of Education meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the board room of school district headquarters, 25 Churchill Ave.
El Camino Park will be closed starting Monday (Sept. 26) through the summer of 2013. According to a release from the City of Palo Alto, the closure is the first step in the construction of a new underground reservoir and well, which is a part of the Utilities Department's long-term citywide emergency water-supply planning effort.
According to Debra Katz, acting communications manager with the Utilities Department, the park "is about to undergo major 'internal surgery' followed by a complete head-to-toe makeover."
Groundbreaking for construction will begin the second week in October. The work will continue through December 2012 and recreational facilities will be restored by the summer of 2013.
"Even though Palo Altans will have a long wait before having access to the Park again, in exchange for that wait they are getting a secure emergency water supply and a beautiful, modern new park facility, both of which will be treasures for generations to come," Katz stated in the release.
Approved by Palo Alto voters in 2007, the Emergency Water Supply and Storage Project will provide enough water to meet basic needs for the entire city in the event of an earthquake or other emergency that cuts off normal water supply from the Hetch-Hetchy aqueduct system.
El Camino Park is located at 100 El Camino Real, across from the Stanford Shopping Center.
Even if state officials can scrape together the billions of dollars needed to fund California's ambitious high-speed rail plans, lawsuits from cities and opposition groups could delay, divert or derail the project.
In the Bay Area, cities and nonprofits are suing over issues with the route and environmental studies. In Southern California, the city of Palmdale (Los Angeles County) has gone to court over fears that rail officials will abandon a planned Antelope Valley line through the city and reroute the tracks up Interstate 5 instead.
Perhaps the hardest-fought battle is yet to come in the Central Valley, where Kings County officials and residents say they'll do everything in their power to stop a 100-mile stretch of track from wiping out thousands of acres of prime farmland between Fresno and Bakersfield.
The biggest obstacle facing the beleaguered bullet train is probably its uncertain financial future. But lengthy court battles also could affect the project by delaying construction, increasing costs and altering the course the train takes through the state.
According to estimates by the California High-Speed Rail Authority, rerouting the high-speed line to satisfy stakeholders could add hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars to the final price tag.
At the moment, ground zero for opposition to the project is Kings County. It's a crucial region for the project because federal requirements attached to almost $3.5 billion in stimulus cash dictate construction must begin in the valley. If rail officials are unable to spend those funds by September 2017, the federal government could divert them elsewhere.
Kings County farmland
In Kings County, lawyers are preparing objections to a recent draft environmental study. Local officials and residents say that if their complaints fall on deaf ears during the legally required public comment period, they are ready for a fight.
"Some higher authority needs to put a stop to this," said Diana Peck, director of the Kings County Farm Bureau. "If we've gone through every single channel up the chain, then, of course, it's going to end up in court."
