My Mind on Mortgages

Brent Hunsberger published THIS PIECE in the Sunday Oregonian a couple weeks back.  If you or your child are applying for financial aid anytime soon it is worth a read.

Until recently I had never heard the term “cash-in” refinance nor would I have known what it meant.  Intuitively it’s not too difficult to figure out.  If a cash-out refinance is a refinance transaction where a homeowner borrows more than their existing loan balance to realize cash in their pocket then a cash-in refinance is [...]

Here’s something that I didn’t know until today: When a student loan is deferred it means that the student loan holder does not have to make payments until the deferment period expires & the loan does not accrue any interest.  With FHA loans a home loan applicant is able to have a deferred student loan [...]

Back in September 2008 I wrote this post on household deleveraging.  Although I haven’t posted on this subject in a while it is clear that the trend continues. In this morning’s WSJ this article is featured entitled “Drought of Credit Hampers Recovery“.  In the article the authors explain that consumer debt (i.e. auto loans, credit [...]

For anyone involved in business or investing Berkshire-Hathaway’s annual report should be required reading.  Not so much the entire report but at least the letter which is carefully crafted by one of my favorite people, Warren Buffett.  You can read this year’s letter along with past years at this link. I try to read it [...]

Back on September 29th I wrote this post regarding the concept of “deleveraging”.  Over the past few decades American households and corporations were addicted to debt.  We used credit cards, home equity lines of credit, mortgage loans, auto loans, etc. to accelerate our consumption. However, our unabated use of debt lead us to where we [...]

Kenneth Harney wrote this article on the Washington Post regarding shared equity loans (I’m not even clear if this is the correct name for this). From the sounds of it the loan would work kind of like a reverse mortgage where the lender would make a loan collateralized by equity in a home.  But instead [...]

The following model is the basis for successful long-term financial management.  In our view, the following four pillars represent, in order of importance, the key to incorporating financial responsibility into a person’s life.  It is our goal to introduce and educate our clients on how the decisions they make surrounding the house that they buy [...]

The Federal Reserve Board recently created this website  which is designed to help consumers evaluate whether or a refinance of their existing mortgage makes sense.  Typically I am skeptical of the Federal Governments ability to simplify this process for consumers.  After all they were the ones who brought us the Good Faith Estimate & Truth [...]

My colleagues Tony & Jared of Equity Design @ Mortgage Trust recently wrote this excellent posting on their blog about 6 things we can all do to overcome these tough economic conditions.  Among my favorite- dust off the bike and ride to work which is something I’ve done over the past few weeks!  Thanks Tony and [...]