Financing a home is still
prohibitive for many and the Office
of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) conforming loan limits
for 2007 will not help either. The maximum 2007 conforming loan
limit for single-family mortgages will stay at $417,000, unchanged
from the 2006.  It
determines the maximum size of a mortgage that Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac can buy or guarantee.

Home buyers in our state could feel shortchanged knowing how the median price of a home exceeds the
national level by 79 percent.   Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin
Islands are recognized by OFHEO as ‘high-cost’ areas but not Clifornia.  Maybe they should come and live here for a while?   With numbers putting California as the third highest home
price in the nation, compared with Hawaii at seventh, and Alaska, which
ranks 39th in terms of median home price, it would make sense to change that limit.  Ah, the ways of bureacracy!

Another i,portant nu,ber the study revealed was that California has the second lowest rate of homeownership in the
nation.

Here is the original article.