My Mind on Mortgages

President Obama unveiled “looser” guidelines for the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) over the weekend.  Here are a couple highlights from the WSJ article on the topic: *”The overhaul will, among other things, let borrowers refinance regardless of how far their homes have fallen in value, eliminating previous limits.” (previous limits were 125% loan-to-value) [...]

The website Mortgage News Daily (which is one of the sources I consult when creating my ‘rate update’ posts) has a great article today advising consumers on how to show for a mortgage.  Here is an excerpt from their post: “Shop For Loan Agents, Not Rates Every consumer shops for mortgages and they should. But [...]

I was fortunate to be interviewed and quoted in THIS ARTILCE about the increase in households that pay more than 30% of their income towards their mortgage.  The author pointed out that do to the economic downturn incomes have fallen while mortgage payments have remained constant.  I added that there are also many households who [...]

Sorry for the late post on this topic.  As of October 1st, 2011 FHA loan limits for most areas of the country have declined as a result of expiration of stimulus legislation.  Currently, the  FHA loan limit for a single family residence in the Tri-county area (Portland, OR) is $362,250.  This figure can adjust as [...]

One of the questions that has been on the mind of many struggling homeowners is whether or not their mortgage is recourse or non-recourse?  In other words, if the are foreclosed on or enter into a short sale where they don’t completely pay-off the outstanding mortgage balance, can the lender come after the difference? I [...]

In my interactions with first-time homebuyers I am often asked about special assistance programs that may be available for them.  I recently came across the HOMEOWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES WEBSITE NORTHWEST which provides a search tool where you can plug in information about yourself and see what programs might be available to you.  It’s an easy way [...]

I’ve received multiple inquiries recently from Realtors who have clients that went through a short sale in their recent past and are wondering they’ll be able to buy again.  I thought I would put together a short post to help people navigate these inquires. Please keep in mind that this information is based on underwriting [...]

You can file THIS ARTICLE in your ‘proof that humans have short-term memories’ file.  Alyse Rzemek of themreport.com is reporting that there are a few companies out there raising capital with the hopes of making loans to applicants who don’t qualify for conventional mortgages.  Fortunately one company is going to at least require a minimum [...]

The financial blog couplemoney.com gave very prudent advice in THIS POST for aspiring 1st-time home-buyers.  They recommend taking a breath before jumping into a house and making sure that the home-buyer is both financially and emotionally ready for this level of commitment.  What I also love about the post is that they recommend a home-buyer [...]

The newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, formed out of the regulatory response to the subprime mortgage era, has proposed two revised formats for the “Good Faith Estimate”.  You can view both formats and even vote on which one you like better at THIS LINK.  I have to say that these versions have significant advantages [...]