This April’s National New Homes Month arrives with some welcome news for homebuyers as well as all Baldy View region residents.

Probably at no point in our recent history have worldwide events focused light on the importance of our homes to our lives, futures and economy. ‘Sheltering in place’ and ‘social distancing’ would be exercises in futility without our homes.

Back in the days before personal computers, financial professionals were fond of the term ‘pencil’ to indicate whether columns of figures totaled out correctly. To say ‘it pencils’ means ‘it works. For new homebuyers, a great deal of information is required …

The first choice most homebuyers make when deciding to shop for a new home is whether to purchase a state-of-the-art new home or an existing home – and both of those choices come with their own advantages.

Spring started with good news for home buyers and sellers when the Bankrate.com National Survey of Mortgage Lenders reported that mortgage rates were falling for 30-Year Fixed-Rate mortgages (FMR) and reported “signs point to more downward action”.  The website reported that the 10-year Treasury Note “slipped to 1.080 percent, creating yet another historic low for yields. The 10-year Treasury and mortgage rates typically move in the same direction, so where the 10-year goes, mortgage rates usually aren’t far behind”.

A theme you will see repeated often in real estate columns is: for most Americans, their home will be the biggest and best investment they will make in their lifetimes.  Factor in all the tax and credit benefits and you will see how homeownership offers opportunities presented by few other investments. However, since few investments offer the enjoyment and excitement of actually shopping for a new home, it is important for home buyers to stay focused on the importance of approaching their purchase as a major investment. 

In 1974, a pop song swept the nation containing the lyrics “dreams can come true again, when everything old is new again”. If you remember hearing this song on the radio, you are one of a generation of Americans who are living longer, more active and healthier lives and planning for retirement. Today those planning for their golden years have far more housing options while enjoying greater convenience and comfort than previous generations thanks to new remodeling innovations known as ‘aging-in-place’ – innovations that can make older homes new again.

While all of the old ranchos and ranches in the Baldy View region featured orchards and vineyards; cattle ranching was our region’s key industry until citrus growers harnessed the waters of the Santa Ana River and vintner Secundo Guasti realized that an underground water table could nourish huge tracts of vineyards without surface irrigation.

Last week, the legendary Groundhog Day groundhog Punxsutawney Phil failed to see his shadow and ‘predicted’ an early spring for 2020. For those of us who are fortunate enough to live in Southern California, an early spring isn’t big news as it might be in other states – but it is always good news for homeowners and home shoppers. This is because for homeowners looking to prepare  or ‘stage’ their homes for sale as the home shopping season begins, these next few weeks offer a terrific opportunity to get a head start on a number of details that will benefit the sale and enhance the value of the home considerably.

Take a walk through the state-of-the-art models in any new home community here in the Baldy View region and you will experience how today’s homes are built to address today’s – and tomorrow’s - buyer’s needs, concerns and preferences.

These designs continue to be state-of-the-art thanks to events like the January National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) 2020 International Builders’ Show (IBS) which - combined with the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show for the annual Design & Construction Week - drew a total of approximately 90,000 home building professionals.