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- What is the True Cost of Home Ownership? September 8, 2010What is the True Cost of Home Ownership? Most potential homeowners begin their planning with the down payment and monthly mortgage amount in mind. It's an excellent start but anyone who is planning on buying a home needs to be ready to take on the total costs and look beyond the mortgage payment. If you want to effectively determine a home's affo […]Claudette Millette - Metrowest Mass Buyer Broker (The Buyers' Counsel)
- Parallel Is On. Perpendicular is off. September 8, 2010Remember that. It's like, "Lefty loosey, righty tighty." Universal. It works every time. Well, maybe not EVERY time. I got a call from a frantic Realtor. We had an inspection about 2 months ago. She asked if I could call the clients who could not seem to get the gas range to work. "It worked during the home inspection and again the […]Jay Markanich (Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC)
- What kind of agent are you? September 8, 2010What kind of agent are you? I have always been of the notion that my humor, rants, raves, wee people spoofing, music, art and other categories of writing would either connect with an audience or not... As bloggers, we create original content to be discovered by random people using search engines to look for the things that they are interested in (that we som […]C Tann-Starr (CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.net REMAX People Realty)
- Buying A Home From The Home Inspectors Perspective, Rural Homes September 8, 2010Buying A Home From The Home Inspectors Perspective, Rural Homes Part 4 - Buying A Rural Home, From The Home Inspectors Perspective I love living in my rural home. There is plenty of space to raise cattle, horses, chickens ( which my wife loves ), a garden and kids. My nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away. The nearest town is 5 miles away. The main city ar […]David Selman (Selman Home Inspections)
- Capitalism: Let the Fittest Survive September 8, 2010There's so many thoughts that go through my mind when I read blog after blog of real estate professionals considering "throwing in the towel". When I look up, more doom and gloom news about the real estate market. The rain for over 24 hours now in Frisco TX isn't helping very much either. It's funny how sunshine can affect one's […]Loreena Yeo, Realtor® Frisco TX Homes www.316teamREALTY.com (214) 783-2210 (3:16 team REALTY)
- Why You Should Check Your Blog for Plagiarism September 8, 2010Why You Should Check Your Blog for Plagiarism If you've been around Active Rain very long, you probably know all about plagiarism. This is when someone copies your blog and then puts it out as a new blog like they wrote it. There are several excellent free Plagiarism checkers you can use now to check your blog. All you have to do is to search Google […]Bob Haywood, www.BobHaywood.com (McGraw Realtors)
- Higher Payment on Loan Modification September 8, 2010We got word last week that a past client's loan modification was approved. As happy and relieved as they were, my beleaguered clients had to swallow a rough pill: on the terms of the approved loan modification, their mortgage payment would be several hundred dollars higher than their original payment. It had been a long process. First, they had a job l […]J. Philip Faranda (J. Philip LLC) Westchester County NY
- Short Sale Realtors v.s Short Sale Investors|Do Lawsuits Wait in The Wings? September 8, 2010Flipping, flopping and the potential future lawsuits with short sales If you are a Realtor and work with short sales you may want to check out the article I wrote about one type of short sale fraud. The blog a […]Bill Gassett Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate (RE/MAX Executive Realty)
- Are we depriving our children of the joy of real life by forcing them into a virtual reality? September 8, 2010I just spent a few hours watching a PBS Frontline special “Growing Up Online.” It is a documentary about the wired society of today and how children have adapted to it. The point was repeatedly made that the contemporary kids have no life experience in a non-connected world. Their ONLY reality is one that exists in a virtual universe. I feel that we are de […]Richard Weisser Coweta Fayette Real Estate
- Ten easy fixes for your broken business. Just DO it. September 7, 2010[POST UPDATED] This post is inspired by Broker Bryant. My apologies for the title. I don’t know if your business is broken or if you perceive it as such, but since you are now reading it, I’ll assume that it could be better. This post is my experiment in keeping things simple for once, as I am told most of you don’t have the time or the patience to wa […]Inna Hardison-ha media group Design, Printing, Web (ha media group)
The Great American Housing Challenge
July 30th, 2010 | 
Author: 
December 13, 2008 — BLOOMFIELD, MI – Mortgage rates dipped this past week to 40 year lows and although many homeowners would like to refinance and lower their mortgage payments, a significant portion cannot due to being upside down in their homes.
Nationally, as of October, almost 25% of financed properties have less than 5% equity in them or are upside down. Nevada leads the nation at almost 53%, followed by Michigan at almost 47%. Refinancing to lower mortgage payments will be difficult for many homeowners as they would have to bring money to the closing that they probably don’t have.
The government’s efforts in creating programs to help homeowners, have so far failed to significantly slow the deluge of foreclosures.
FHA Secure, designed to help homeowners refinance out of subprime ARM’s, has reported questionable result numbers according to the New York Times. In fact, the definition of the program was changed to pump up the program’s numbers.
FHA’s Hope for Homeowners has also generated dismal results. A 47 page list of participating lenders, updated by HUD December 12th, doesn’t have any of the top tenlenders in the country on it. These lenders account of almost 70% of the mortgage market, if they’re not on the list, consider the program a failure.
On November 11th, the government announced an initiative for lenders to modify mortgages held by FNMA & FHLMC. An $800 per loan incentive was even offered. This program was so well received by lenders that there’s now talk about tying the receipt of federal bailout funds to participation in the initiative.
So, what would be a better solution to help keep people in their homes and seriously slow foreclosures? It’s all about affordable monthly payments. So, how about doing away with appraisals altogether on refinance transactions that don’t pull any cash out of a property and lower the homeowner’s mortgage payment?
Through ownership of FNMA/FHLMC/FHA/VA the government already effectively owns over half the residential mortgages in the U.S. As such, we’ve got nothing to lose by ignoring appraised values. We can only gain by lowering monthly payments to make it more affordable for homeowners to stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure.
This solution also avoids the issues of trying to force lenders into doing loan modifications and the investor lawsuits associated with those same modifications.
Anyone have a better idea?
Drew Sygit
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/the-great-american-housing-challenge-749036.html
Posted in Mortgage Blog
Buy American challenge?
Okay, so this holiday season, I know I’m planning on buying American goods. It’s hard but it’s a nice challenge. This is a challenge, to inspire everyone a little bit. I am going to list 3 ‘families’ with personalities. You can choose 1 family (or more) and ‘buy’ gifts for them, but they must be American. Just list the family you did, and the gift you bought for each person. Each family has 6 figures to buy for, so one gift for each. Here’s a good website to inspire you:
http://www.buyamerican.com/index.html
*The Jones family*:
*Dad- James-52 years old- Sales Representative- James is a guys guy. He likes sports, cars, TV and other electonics, and food. James usually wears casual clothing when not working, and he has barbeques with friends as often as he can.
*Mom- Joanne- 50 years old- Interior designers- Joanne is an interior designer, and loves anything to do with the home. She likes cooking, and decorating stuff for her home. Joanne especially likes unique, creative items.
*Son- James- 21 years old- College Senior- James is a college senior and is a star athlete. He loves all sports, particularly football, and anything to do with them. He is also a decent student and likes to find new things to help him study.
*Son- Jack- 19 years old- College Sophomore- Jack is also in college and loves music. He is an avid guitar player, and loves gadgets and gizmos to go along with that. He is also into comedy, and loves anything, including clothing that reflects that.
*Daughter- Julie- 17 years old- Julie is an environmental activist. She loves anything green, expecially clothing. Julie also is into gardening, and loves anything with that, especially things that are environmentally concious, yet young and hip.
*Cat- Jules- Jules is spoiled and doesn’t play with toys anymore, but prefers treats.
*Ryan Family*:
*Dad- Robert- 45 years old- lawyer- Robert is an achiever. He loves his family, but is devoted to his job. Robert loves anything for his office, especially stuff that also shows his love for his family. Robert drinks coffee every morning, and loves anything coffee!
*Mom- Rhonda- 42 years old- lawyer- like her husband, Rhonda is also a lawyer. She also loves anything to do with her family and job, but is also quite a fashionista. Rhonda loves clothes and accessories but at the same time, likes to look professional.
*Daughter- Rachel- 14 years old- Rachel is into fashion, just like her mom. Rachel loves texting, facebook and reality shows, and anything to do with clothes, shoes, accessories or technology.
*Son- Raymond- 12 years old- Raymond is sort of a geek. He loves seeing how things work, and is really into studying archaeology and dinosaurs.
*Daughter- Riley- 10 years old- Riley has quite an imagination. She loves making things up and is really theatrical. Riley is a great singer and actress and loves anything that she can use to make up stories or plays, or that reflects her talents.
*Grandma- Regina- 73 years old- Regina is a wonderful grandmother who is the homemaker. Regina cooks and cleans the house while Robert and Rhonda are working. She loves her grandkids, and anything to make them happy, including treats and such. She also has quite a collection of ‘I love my grandchildren’ items and loves to add to it.
*Smith family*:
*Dad- Sam- 34 years old- teacher- Sam is a devoted dad, as well as a traveler and adventurer. Sam loves anything to do with his kids, or anything to make family vacations a little easier.
*Mom- Sarah- 34 years old- Stay at home mother- Sarah is a supermom! She can pack a lunch, while arguing with a 3 year old and feeding a baby. She loves anything to help her clean and cook faster, as she has to take care of her kids at the same time. Sarah never has any ‘me’ time either, so something to help her get some may be nice as well.
*Son- Steven- 7 years old- Steven is into superheros, sports and all little boys things. He loves toys, and doesn’t like clothing. He particularly enjoys outdoor activities and also likes boardgames.
*Daughter- Samantha- 3 years old- Samantha is like a little princess herself, and loves anything girly or princessy. She too enjoys toys more than clothes, although she likes dress up. She is very headstrong
*Daughter- Sienna- 4 months old- Sienna is always in pink and purple. Sarah likes flowery things for her, and anything cute as a button. She shows interest in some toys, mostly stuffed animals, that *Sarah can animate to grab her attention.
Dog- Sparkles- Sparkles is very playful and loves all toys.
Be creative! Good luck!
sam
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