Job growth in the Bay Area will outpace California and the United States, according to a new report.

Steven E.F. Brown
Web Editor- San Francisco Business Times

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With job growth over 3 percent, the Bay Area should “continue to lead the recovery” in California this year, according to a report from the University of the Pacific.

While the Golden State’s job growth will stick at about 2 percent over the next few years — that’s marginally faster than the likely U.S. rate — the metropolitan region around Oakland and San Francisco will outstrip that. So says a report by the Stockton school’s Business Forecasting Center.

The report says, however, that Bay Area job growth will slip below 2 percent in 2014 “as the national economy fully recovers and high housing costs and other constraints to growth become more binding.”

Growth in 2014 will shift inland to Sacramento and Stockton — construction and real estate jobs will increase, and state and local governments will recover slowly.

Steven E.F. Brown is web editor at the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2013/02/12/bay-area-will-lead-californias.html

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47858845?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Does anyone remember when the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was up around 8 percent? I do.

Perhaps that’s why it continues to stun me that a tiny shift in our now ultra low rates can have a huge effect on consumer activity, namely refinancing. No question, it is a statement on just how tight and how sensitive our current mortgage market is today.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey, “The Refinance Index decreased 9.2 percent from the previous week. The Refinance Index has decreased for 3 consecutive weeks, reaching its lowest level since May 6, 2011.”

The mortgage bankers cite a jump (and by jump, I mean more like a hop) in rates on the 30 year from 4.46 percent to 4.69 percent. This is the highest rate since mid-May, they note, which I will note was just two months ago.

Yes, that’s a pretty large jump, but we are still below 5! The trouble is that there is a very small pool of eligible refinancers right now, because 1) so many have already refinanced at these incredibly low rates, 2) many borrowers are still underwater on their homes, which makes them largely ineligible for super low rates and 3) many borrowers don’t have enough equity or the proper credit score to get into a refi that’s worth the cost.

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43654703?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS