Traveling in Northern California

This weekend I was quite busy and all over Northern California.  Friday afternoon we left from Truckee to head down the hill to attend the wedding of the first of 3 daughters of some good friends.  The wedding was held in Santa Cruz, CA.  The weather there was unbelievably beautiful and cooperative.  No fog, no rain . . . . just lots and lots of SUN!  It was great to reconnect with old friends and on such a happy occasion.   Congratulations Jeanine and Brogan, may you live long and prosper.

After the festivities at the beach, we headed back home because I had purchases tickets to see Toby Keith at Harvey’s Casino in South Lake Tahoe.  Again, the weather cooperated (did I mention that the concert was in their outdoor facility?).  It was a beautiful evening with the moon almost 3/4 full, lots of stars and just a little breeze. Toby did not disappoint.  The concert went way too fast.

Back in Truckee now and nose to the grindstone.  There’s no place like home!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

New Rules for Lenders

In the wake of all of the troublesome loans made over the past 5-6 years, the government has really begun to hogtie the lending industry — all in the name of protecting the consumer from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous practitioners.

The latest of a rapidly growing list of new regulations on the lending industry is the requirement for the lenders to re-do their “truth in lending” disclosure whenever any thing happens that would change the annual percentage rate (APR) that their clients would be charged on a loan by 1/8th of a percent (either up or down).  The APR is determined not by just the mortgage rate but the combination of the rate and all of the fees that it will take to get this rate.

This may not sound too onerous at first blush but the more you think about it, the more complicated it gets.

Let’s just say that the borrower meets with the lender and they lock a loan of 6.5% with 1 point (a point is 1% or the loan amount).  The lender produces a “truth in lending” statement that discloses the annual percentage rate.  The borrower and the lender go through the transaction (either a re-fi or a home purchase) and when they get to the end the borrower decides that he would rather have a lower mortgage rate and pay for it with another point.  This will probably change the APR by more than an 1/8 of a percentage point and the lender will have to produce a new “truth in lending” statement which carries with it a 3 day right of rescission (the borrower can back out of the loan within 3 days).  Well let’s remember, at least in the case of a purchase, there is a seller on the other side of this transaction, waiting for the contractual closing date.  Add to that the time it takes a lending institution to re-draw documents after being told that their customer (the borrower) has decided to change his rate.  Well, you can begin to see the picture — right?

Now, I am not saying that this is a bad decision on the part of our regulatory agencies — it is just that either escrows are going to take a lot longer or borrowers are going to have to spend a lot more time doing their homework with regard to interest rates and loan scenarios before they make a decision.

As always, this is just our take on the situation.  Read more about it here.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Coldstream on a cloudy morning.

You can see Tinker’s Knob. Nice walk with the dogs, they went swimming. Very, very quiet.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Truckee-Basque Country

Last night after a long “hot” day at work, some of us went to investigate a place we had been told about.  It was off a dirt road out past Russell Valley.  We were given directions to what was called “A Basque Sheep Camp.”  Since we had worked all day, we took the dogs and some wine, cheese and bread to enjoy along the way.  I am not going to share with anyone EXACTLY where this place is but I have been here 38 years and every day I am amazed at what there is to see here.  Again, I am so lucky to be living in Truckee.  Although you could never really see it as we did — no power lines, and absolutely NO noise. I hope you enjoy these pictures.   Another treasure to store in my memory.  Thanks Manon.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Truckee Town Hall Meeting – Repair California

Yesterday Jennifer and I went to a meeting at the Truckee High School Auditorium which was put on by the Sierra Business Council whose offices are in Truckee, CA.  The meeting was to encourage citizens to support the grass roots movement to call for a California Constitutional Convention.  These are all big words to me, only an English Major, but I am glad I went because now I think I have a little better understanding of why we are having so much trouble in this state getting anything done.  It was explained to the audience that our State Constitution has been amended so many times that it essentially has made the document unmanageable.   I like to make the analogy of a roof.  You can put only so many patches on the roof before the roof looses its integrity and in order to keep the protection of the roof, it would be best to just replace it.

Several of the panelists made the comments that our legislators are working with their hands tied behind their back because the current State Constitution has too many conflicting, outdated and outmoded initiatives binding them.

The group “Repair California” would suggest that we tackle only a small part of the constitution first and those would be in areas of the budget, election reform, governance and the state/local fiscal relationship.  There are a lot of hoops for this organization to jump through but they propose to work through these and get this initiative (to call for a Constitutional Convention)on the ballot by November 2010, with the resulting convention to be held in 2011.

Panelists were Jim Wunderman, Bay Area Council; Assemblyman Ted Gaines, CA State Assembly, District 4; Supervisor Norma Santiago, Eldorado County, District 5; Supervisor Ted Owens, Nevada County, District 5; Derek Cressman, Common Cause; and John Grubb, Bay Area Council.   Moderators were Steve Frisch, Sierra Business Council and Maia Schneider, former Mayor of Truckee.

I am grateful for these people who are trying to help this state move itself ahead.  The point was well taken, it is not the people in the legislature that are stonewalling any progress, it is the outdated, outmoded DOCUMENT.  Maybe we can give our public servants something worthwhile to work with.   If you care to get involved or become more informed, check out the Repair California website here.  This, at least at first blush, is not politics, just common sense!!

by Kappy Mann

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Next Page »