Archive for November, 2006
Creating Affordable Payments (Part III)
3/1, 5/1, 7/1 and 10/1 ARMs 
In Part I we laid the foundation by briefly looking at 15 and 30 year loans. These traditional products offer safety, security, and in the case of the 15 year, save a pile of money. What they don’t do well is to create affordable payments.
In Part II, we examined the heavily promoted 40 and 50 year loans to see what they’re made of. It turns out they’re more sound bite than substance. They do little to help lower payments and they are far more costly in the long run.
So now let’s look at the “intermediate ARMs”, also sometimes called 3/27, 5/25, etc.
read comments (2)October New Home Sales
Has the real estate market hit the bottom?
Don’t bet on it. Despite the aggressive incentives offered today by builders, new home sales are slowing dramatically. According to the report issued today by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, October sales are 3.2% lower than last month and 25.4% off the October 2005 pace. As dramatic as these figures are, they actually understate the slowdown.
The Brave New Real Estate World
Do you feel the change coming?
No, I don’t mean the dramatic downturn in home sales and prices. To be sure, that storm is grabbing headlines and bringing heartache to many people.
But the howling winds on the surface mask another change, more profound and permanent. If you are still, you can feel the low rumble of tectonic plates shifting beneath our feet.
Creating Affordable Payments (Part II)
40 and 50 year loans
These days, a lot of clients ask about 40 & 50 year loans. The industry has advertised these as a way to create affordable monthly payments.
The idea sounds good. But do they fulfill that promise, or is this just another marketing gimmick? Lets have a look.
Creating Affordable Payments (Part I)
15 and 30 year fixed rate loans.
Creating affordable payments is one of today’s biggest challenges. Home prices have risen faster than incomes. We qualify more people today than ever, but payments are often still just too high. There are lots of ways to create affordable payments, but the sheer number of loan programs causes confusion and often leads to poor decisions.
When affordable payments are the issue, I like to start by giving clients a simple way to clarify the choices and understand the trade-offs. This is the first in a series of posts that follows that conversation.
Four Great Reasons to Choose an Interest-Only Loan
Somewhere along the way, it’s been burned into our brains.
Interest-only loans are bad.
The endless Chicken Little cries of columnists and talk show hosts have scared a lot of people. If you bought recently, and if you got 100% financing, and if real estate values tumble, and if you have to sell, and if you took an interest-only loan…… you could be in trouble
Bond Market and Interest Rate Update
Bonds rallied and mortgage rates improved a bit in the aftermath of the election, responding positively to the Democratic sweep.
Why?
Primarily because of the expected return to fiscal responsibility, and barring that, at least based on the notion of a spending gridlock arising from those opposing forces of a Republican White House and a Democratically controlled Congress.
How Much Would You Pay For Your Home?
Want to succeed as a seller today? Think like a buyer.
The abrupt change in our market has sellers reeling. A year ago you could poke a For Sale sign in the front lawn and have two offers before you reached the house. Today, many sellers haven’t seen a buyer in weeks. It’s hard to make the adjustment. If you need to sell, this can be gut-wrenching stuff.
So what’s a seller to do?
Sacramento Region Housing Forecast
What’s next for the high flying Sacramento real estate market?
To find out, last week I attended the North State Building Industry Association (BIA) Sacramento Region Housing Forecast in downtown Sacramento to see what four experts had to say.
Elliott Eisenberg is a housing policy economist with the National Association of Home Builders. Michael Lyon is President of one of Sacramento’s largest privately held residential real estate firms. Greg Paquin heads the Gregory Group, and Harry Elliott III is President of Elliott Homes, a national home builder based in Folsom CA. I figured that from their altitude, there might be a clearer view of what’s on the horizon.
I Swear Your Honor, I Didn’t Know It Was Loan Fraud!
How would you feel if you found out you had committed mortgage loan fraud and now faced serious consequences?
A frequent scenario.
Let’s imagine that you want to buy a home but have no money for a down payment or closing costs. Let’s also imagine that you have some credit card debt you’d like to “roll into the loan” and the house you want to buy needs a little sprucing up.