For the last couple of years, if you wanted to buy a million dollar home in San Francisco, you needed to come up with 20% down payment plus to get a home loan for the purchase. Actually, anyone wanting a loan amount above the current super-conforming limit of $729k needed to have a full down payment. Not anymore. It is again possible to purchase a luxury San Francisco home with 10% down payment. Okay, okay, maybe a million dollar home in San Francisco is not exactly a castle but it can be a gorgeous, spacious home or condo in a nice neighborhood like Bernal Heights, Noe Valley, Inner Sunset...
You can buy a home that costs up to $1,088,000 with 10% down payment. Right now, the historically low interest rates are very attractive - about 4.875% for a 5/1 ARM (5-Year Fixed Rate Loan). We're told that this is a very selective loan program only offered by a handful of local San Francisco mortgage companies. We got the scoop from Team Z @ Guarantee Mortgage (Nastasha Lovas, Dean Rizzi, Stephen Barber, CJ Kerls, Pete Elting, Sergei Andruha, Phillip Cannon, and Jane Glendinning).
If you are buying a luxury home or condo in San Francisco (plus/minus $1,000,000), you may want to check this out because the difference between putting $200,000 and $100,000 into your down payment is substantial. For those of you with high income and great credit, it could be a good fit to maximize your tax savings and minimize your risk. (Keep more money in your reserve account or towards retirement savings, etc.) Okay, I am NOT a CPA so please consult with your tax advisor. 🙂
