When people ask how to get started in real estate what they usually want to know is how to become a real estate broker. What people rarely ask is how to get started in mortgage lending, in large part because there’s an intuitive understanding that mortgage lending is a mysterious occupation with unclear entry requirements.
If you are considering a move to a growing number of regions, be prepared to live a lifestyle heavily influenced by dry weather conditions.
Follow up the federal Do Not Call registry with a Do Not Track list for those who shop online from home and elsewhere.
During the past two weeks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have reported losses of more than $3.5 billion, enough to worry Wall Street investors and drive down stock values for both companies. But the question is: What about you? Should you be concerned?
If you’re what’s known as an “opportunity investor” in real estate, looks like your prime time may be now … or very soon!
Maybe it’s the beginning of a trend: For the second straight week, there’s been more economic good news for housing and real estate than bad.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the only statistic headed south these days is unemployment. Strong job growth in the state s largest city drives wages and home prices in an area that continues to beat the odds in real estate. Rated as the No. 1 real estate market in the West by Forbes, Albuquerque home sellers unload properties in about a month and the prices are up to nearly $205,000 for all property types — an increase of more than 7 percent for the same reporting period as last year.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight kept 2008 conforming loan limits purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at $417,000, but it’s considering lower limits if housing prices continue to fall. Meanwhile, The House is trying to get higher Enterprise loans limits passed, but the Senate won’t cooperate.
On Capitol Hill this week, it looks like all the work on real estate, housing and mortgage issues is getting done in the House, while the Senate can’t seem to get its act together to pass even a single bill.
Since 80 percent of housing inventory was built before 1980, it’s useful to know regional attitudes toward remodeling.
According to just about every source related to the housing and real estate market, times are tough. Things are slow and sales are few and far between. But, if you have to sell your property, or need to buy a new home due to transfer or other reason, you’ll want to find the best Real Estate professional you can. The question is, how do you identify them and where do you look?
For months, Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has been saying that there’s an instant solution to the mortgage meltdown that can prevent massive numbers of foreclosures. Not a perfect solution, but a solution.
To hear the national media tell it, homebuyers are fools to buy right now. Home prices have dropped 5 percent since October 2006. Our economic problems aren’t over, so home prices are bound to drop further. Why would anyone catch that falling knife? But there are some markets out there that are making monkeys out of housing bears.
If you are a value investor — and you’re looking for affordable markets where property values are defying the national downtrend — then check out a new report from the federal government.
We saw another “battle of the warring housing price indexes” last week, with the federal government reporting positive price appreciation in more than two-thirds of U.S. metropolitan markets — at the same time a widely-publicized Wall Street index said home values were down by a record 4 percent for the year, and down by 5 percent in the top 20 markets.
With its population growing at 5 percent each year, Bismarck, North Dakota has a searing real estate market with housing prices on average jumping 15 percent in the last 12 months to a median sales price of more than $161,000.
The Bush administration announced a plan that freezes interest rates for some credit-challenged homeowners who purchased their homes with subprime loans. President Bush called for Federal Housing Administration reforms to lower borrowing requirements for FHA conforming loans, and a five-year freeze on some subprime mortgage loans. Eligible borrowers are those holding adjustable rate mortgages that are about to reset to higher rates and who are current in their payments.
McLEAN, VA — Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.96 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending December 6, 2007, down from last week when it averaged 6.10 percent as well. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.11 percent. The 30-year FRM has not been lower since the week ending September 29, 2005, when it averaged 5.91 percent.
Two of the hottest issues in Washington late last week concerned real estate.
Insurance fraud investigators say they are bracing for an outbreak of home arsons set by cash-strapped homeowners looking for insurance money to escape from foreclosure.
There were two real estate stories in the news during the past week, one you heard about and one you didn’t.
The economy’s messages for real estate in the past week have been just about as mixed as you can get.
There are no sure bets in real estate investing. Everybody knows that, but there are some basic principles that almost always work well.
A Detroit-area MLS’s decision to stand and fight the FTC has paid off big time.
Trick #1: What Was It Worth in 1982?
« Previous Entries Next Entries »
BlinkList, 
del.icio.us, 
Digg, 
Furl, 
ma.gnolia, 
reddit, 
Simpy, 
Spurl, 
BackFlip, 
BlinkBits, 
BlogMarks, 
Diigo, 
Fantacular, 
Fark, 
FeedMarker, 
FeedMeLinks, 
Google, 
Gravee, 
igooi, 
Jookster, 
Jots, 
Linkagogo, 
LinkRoll, 
LookMarks, 
Markabboo, 
Ning, 
RawSugar, 
Riffs, 
Rojo, 
Scuttle, 
Shadows, 
SiteJot, 
Smarking, 
Squidoo, 
Taggly, 
tagtooga, 
TailRank, 
Wink, 
Wists