January 20, 2009
If you are worried about interest rates, consider yourself lucky to be buying a home now rather than the 1980s or 1990s. To date, mortgage rates have averaged 6.5 percent during this decade. At that rate, the monthly principal and interest payment for a fixed-rate, 30-year, $200,000 mortgage is $1,264.
In contrast, the average mortgage rate during the decade of the 1990s was 8.1 percent, bringing the monthly payment on a $200,000 loan to $1,482. During the 1980s interest rates were even higher, averaging 12.7 percent. At that rate, the monthly payment on a 30-year, $200,000 mortgage is $2,166 an increase of $900 from what you would be paying today.
January 5, 2009
In Forest Grove, a larger number of people have these characteristics than in surrounding neighborhoods:
Education: Did not complete high school, Females in college or graduate school
Employment: Work in building and grounds cleaning or maintenance occupations, Work in personal care and service occupations, Work in production occupations
People & Culture: Not U.S. citizens, Single females, Speak Spanish or Spanish Creole, Widowed females
Transportation: Walk to work
The main types of people are…
Frugal Families – Lower-income families living in the suburbs. Middle-income married couples with children, ranging in age from upper 30s to upper 50s. Some are high school graduates, while others have completed college. Occupations vary.
Striving Immigrant Families – Lower-income suburban immigrant families. Struggling families that are on a tight budget and work in service or skill-based jobs. Most have a high school education or lower and some own their homes.
New Suburbanites – Mobile suburban singles. A high proportion of these pre-middle-age to middle-age singles have moved to the suburbs in the past 4 years. Some have a college education and work in professional or management careers.