Real Estate 101: Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is one of those ubiquitous real estate industry terms like DOM (days on market) or LTV (loan to value) that sounds simple until a client asks what it means. Then suddenly you're standing in front of someone who just realized those letters "Mean Something [...]

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FOR REALTYTIMES.COM APRIL 24 2026

I practice real estate. Like attorneys practice law and doctors practice medicine, in the San Francisco Bay Area, my office is in Oakland’s Montclair district, and our market is dictated by this simple, ugly [...]

 

One of the reasons I became a real estate agent, besides a tiny push from my dad, was because I felt too intimidated to ask a simple question, “How much is this going to cost?” My first time out of the gate I had been completely blindsided by the extra costs of closing. No one had warned me about the hidden fees, the last-minute expenses, [...]

You're paying $4,000 a month in rent. You have a job, decent credit, and you're looking to make a nest. But you're stuck in a situation that defines the entire first-time buyer crisis. The money is here, but the housing costs take all the fun out of it.

 

You are trying to figure it out and by "it" I mean all of it—relationships, family, career, friends, clothes, food, being cute, and why you're still renting.

You make $186,600 a year—the current Area Median Income for San Francisco County. Solid job, decent credit, and money in the bank yet, you're still paying $4,000 a month for a place with no garage and pet [...]

The title of this piece, 'the Affordability Enigma' part reminds me of an 80's band, one from Massachusetts that would cover "Life in a Northern Town" by Dream Academy—don't judge—dreamy and hardworking and astute—kind of like people I [...]