We set out for the Los Angeles area last week to get a little first hand knowledge from local real estate agents on the state of their market. I was fortunate enough to meet Denine Kerns, CRS of Prudential California located at Corona del Mar, a toney oceanside community about 40 minutes South of L.A. Denine specializes in estate properties and …
The Mortgage Professor
Jack Guttentag, aka “The Mortgage Professor”, is a syndicated columnist to the Seattle Times. He has often referenced his website: http://www.mtgprofessor.com/Default.htm. Today, I finally decided to pay a visit, as I am considering the alternatives available to me for refinancing my current Jumbo mortgage. There is a lot valuable information there. It is more important than ever to thoroughly research …
Mortgage Mess: Light at the End of The Tunnel?
Jack Guttentag, aka “The Mortgage Professor”, provides some interesting insights into the mortgage market meltdown in his Sunday Seattle Times article “It’s Time To Expand Role of Mortgage Insurance”. Parts of his article are characteristically dry and difficult to read, but the essence of the message is there. If there is a bright spot in this deluge of not-so-good-news, it …
Rex Agreement: Avoid This Like The Plague
You would think that with the mortgage mess still unsorted, the last thing we would see is another exotic home equity product from a financial institution. The Rex Agreement has to be one of the most abusive instruments I can image. It’s just like taking your home equity to the pawn shop. According to the Sunday Seattle Times article: 1. …
Know The Cost Of Your Commute
As we face the prospect of $4.00/gallon gas, and the likelihood that we will soon be paying tolls to drive around King County, take the time to calculate what your commute actually costs, relative to your home’s value and location. This nifty tool will answer questions that perhaps you hadn’t thought of asking before. While we have historically sought to …
What $1 Million Buys In Homes Across The U.S. by Forbes.com
Honestly, most of the news surrounding housing has me a little depressed lately. Actually, it’s not so much the housing, but the credit debacle that has caused banks across the country to lose their collective minds as evidenced by arcane C.Y.A. policies implemented in the last week: cancelled “HELOC’s” [home equity line of credit], and second position lenders refusing to …
Fed Help Not Really Enough For King County….
Daniel Billett of Response Mortgage in Seattle plans to refinance as soon as the new loan limits are confirmed. The Saturday Seattle Times featured a cover story by Katie Hafner of the New York Times concerning the Federal stimulus packagerecently signed into law. (For some reason, the Seattle Time’s on-line version is not available, so this link takes you to …
Where is the Economy Headed?
Ben Bernanke looked about as comfortable as Roger Clemens at a Congressional hearing on the economy yesterday. In case he didn’t know, all the help the Feds are talking about is HAPPENING TOO SLOW! The credit crisis is actually a crisis when banks won’t lend to banks, never mind to you and me. The credit crunch is real! Be very …
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