Imagine you've owned your California home for 20, 30 or even 40 years. You bought it when prices were dramatically lower. Over the decades, the home's value climbed — perhaps to $1 million, $1.5 million or considerably more. But thanks to California's Proposition 13, your property's taxable value may still be far below its current market value. Now you want to move. Maybe you want to downsize. Maybe you want to leave the Bay Area for a less expensive part of Califor

Many purchased or refinanced when mortgage rates were dramatically lower than today's market. At the same time, years of home-price appreciation have left longtime owners with substantial equity. A recent Realtor.com analysis estimates that the typical California homeowner has approximately $627,000 in home equity. That creates an obvious question: What if you need access to some of that equity but don't want to give up your existing first mortgage? For certain homeow

Buying a home in Petaluma can put you into jumbo-loan territory faster than you might expect. For 2026, the conforming loan limit for a one-unit property in Sonoma County is $897,000. That means a conventional first mortgage above $897,000 generally falls outside standard conforming limits and may require jumbo financing or another loan structure. But here's the important part: jumbo does not necessarily mean difficult, and it does not automatically mean a worse mortgage.