Articles like this one: Foreclosures: 'April was a shocker' have gotten an awful lot of play in the media these last couple weeks. Here's what they're not telling you - or not explaining why it's important: This particular article...
The new consumer article for today is Who Has A Legitimate Interest In A Real Estate Transaction?. This article goes all the way back to first principles to determine who has an interest worth getting hot and bothered over, and...
The new consumer article for today is Confusing Past Performance and the Present Situation with Future Planning. If you are sitting on the sidelines thinking about buying property, you need to read it. If you have a property you're thinking...
The new consumer article for today is "Quantity Has A Quality All Its Own": Low Price. When people can get a good for less than previously, then not surprisingly they will buy more of it in the aggregate. It all...
Today's new consumer article is Why You Should Not Walk Away From Upside-Down Real Estate. You shouldn't, if there is any alternative. Doing so takes a theoretical loss on paper and turns it into something concrete with real world consequences....
Today's new consumer article is How Loan Modification Benefits The Real Estate Markets, in which I discuss the benefits that everyone, even those who aren't in trouble, get out of the loan modification program. A lot of people get upset...
Let's do a thought experiment. Any market in any commodity has two components: The demand, or willingness and ability to pay for that good, and the supply of that good. Let's consider the demand half of that first. Specifically, ability...
When I'm driving, and get to busy main streets, I hate turning left unless there's a light there. Traffic is coming hard both ways, usually at high speeds, and with only intermittent breaks in each direction. If you're turning left,...
A couple of weeks ago, I got an email asking Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now?, and I wrote a two part article on the subject. Part 2 of Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now? Gave...
(click for Part 1 of Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now?, which deals with the basic question of how well saving for a down payment increases affordability) But suppose, instead of waiting because you can't afford the payments...
An email asked a question I should have thought to answer a long time ago, and the answer may surprise a lot of folks. I've been vaguely aware of this for a couple of years, but I was amazed how...
For at least the last thirty years, I've been hearing "affordable housing" advocates yammer about the high cost of housing, and how working families can no longer afford "decent" housing, which they apparently consider to be the three or...
I have just gotten an email from one of my wholesalers (who shall remain publicly unnamed) removing the "declining market" designation from San Diego loans! This particular lender is still not willing to do 100% loans, but they will...
My advice to sellers is very simple: Hold off if you can. Things have already improved, but better times are coming once more inventory clears. The prognosis for this is very good. I'm seeing fewer short sales, at least...
I am seeking to sell my properties to my tenants. I want to create a mortgage and then sell the mortgages. Properties are undervalued in this area as they have been historically fixer-uppers. Ours are in very good condition...
Most of the articles and things I read about the price of gas seems to be based upon an implicit assumption that the price of gas is only as high as it is temporarily. This is not the case....
I've seen many new home developments with vaulted ceilings, mini-vineyards, huge houses on little tiny lots...Why can't some developer built some homes for us regular people? A normal sized home with plenty of closet space and a decent (not...
Don Henley has a fun song off his second solo album called "Driving With Your Eyes Closed". I can't find a video performance, but here's an MP3. It's got a chorus that ends with the line, "You're gonna hit something...
Having written several articles on Negative Amortization Loans, telling of the details of what is wrong with them, and even destroying the myth of Option ARM cash flow, I sometimes get asked if I would like to see them banned...
Effective April 1st and for the rest of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be buying loans above the current limit of $417,000. The is a result of the economic stimulus package signed by President Bush on February 13th....
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