Search:

Alex De Mostafa's Articles in Mortgages

Show All\|Display Category\|Title\|Newest\|Oldest
Record Numbers of Prime Fixed Rate Mortgages Head into Foreclosure Prime fixed-rate mortgages now account for one in three foreclosure starts. The best borrowers in our financial system are defaulting on the best loans in our financial system. Subprime Will Return, Alt-A is Dead Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Subprime lending will make a comeback. Lenders focus on the three Cs: Creditworthiness, Capacity, and Collateral. Creditworthiness is measured by one's FICO score, Capacity is based on one's income, and Collateral is the value of the property the loan is being written against. The subprime lending business model was originally intended to take people with poor FICO scores that had good income and savings and give them bridge financing until they could repair their FICO scores and refinance into conventional loans. This business model will probably return in a few years as there will be many people in this category due to the crash of prices in the Great Housing Bubble. Can You Still Make Money Flipping Houses? Speculation is a battle. The forces of greed and fear drive the financial markets, and the speculator attempts to profit from these moves. Speculation is not investment, although most do not understand the distinction. Speculation is the battle of the individual against the herd. For those who understand it and have learned to move against the emotional forces of fear and greed, there is opportunity to profit. For those who follow the herd, there are brief moments when profits are available, but few have the discipline to take them. Most speculators are slain by the market. Housing Desire is Not Housing Demand The last line of defense for the housing bulls is the fallacy of pent-up demand. Belief in this fallacy relies on people's inability to distinguish between desire and demand. Most people want a house. About 65% of Americans own their homes, but probably 95% of residents wish they did. The desire for housing always exceeds the supply because there is always some segment of the market that is unable to obtain home ownership due to the cost of housing and a lack of available credit. Why Were People Buying Houses While Prices Were Dropping? There is a great deal of price volatility in California. There are significant periods of time where house prices will appreciate faster than incomes increase. This is purely the result of irrational exuberance. Prices cannot rise faster than incomes on a sustained basis, but prices can certainly go up faster than incomes when a bubble is inflating. Getting Out of a Real Estate Transaction Changing your mind on a stock purchase is relatively easy. Stocks are very liquid, and transaction costs are very low. However, changing your mind about a real estate transaction is not so easy. Real estate is very illiquid in a declining market, and the transaction costs are very high. Market Solutions for Preventing the Next Housing Bubble There is one potential market-based solution that would require no government regulation or intervention that would prevent future bubbles from being created with borrowed capital: change the method of appraisal for residential real estate from valuations based exclusively on the comparative-sales approach to a valuation derived from the lesser of the income approach and the comparative-sales approach. Both approaches are already part of a standard appraisal, so little additional work is necessary, other than appraisers will have to focus on doing the income approach properly. What Did Not Cause the Housing Bubble? To fully understand what caused the housing bubble, one needs to examine some of the purported causes that are not valid because these often lead to incorrect policy initiatives. Bad policy initiatives include interest rate regulation, hedge fund regulation, and loan-to-income regulation. Personal Problems Resulting From the Great Housing Bubble The economic problems caused by asset price bubbles often lead to personal problems in the wake of the deflating bubble. Statistics about unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy are impersonal. The events that result in any one of these outcomes was anything but impersonal: these things happened to real people who had very real emotional responses. Many people during the fallout of the Great Housing Bubble experienced all three. Any one of these outcomes can lead to depression, suicide, divorce and a whole host of traumatic personal problems. All of it was preventable if the bubble was not allowed to inflate in the first place. Take Advantage of a Buyer's Market When the market turned up in the late 1990s the market shifted. During the last decline, the buyers had an advantage. During the bubble the advantage went to the sellers. The seller's market went on for so long and became so feverish that people have forgotten (or may never have known) what it was like to see buyers in control of the action. What Happens in a Foreclosure? Foreclosure is the forced sale of a property owned by the borrower in order to satisfy the debt(s) secured by the property. Foreclosure laws are complex, and they vary from state to state. There are no federal laws governing foreclosures. The borrower is the legal owner of the property who has entered into a mortgage agreement with a lender to pay back all borrowed money, fees and interest due. How Does a Decrease in Home Ownership Rates Impact Residential Real Estate Markets? There is a strong correspondence to the growth of the subprime lending industry and an increase in home ownership rates. This is a direct result of lending money to those borrowers previously excluded from the housing market either because the borrower did not have the downpayment, or they lacked good credit. The collapse of the subprime lending industry in 2007 and the subsequent foreclosures on the millions of subprime loans caused a decrease in home ownership rates. Foreclosure Attorney Miami Foreclosure is the legal method through which the banks or debtors will sell the property of the property owner, in order to collect the debt Factors that Influence the Price Declines in Residential Real Estate Markets There are a number of factors that will influence the timing and the depth of the price decline. There are a number of psychological factors and technical factors in play. Akmanda’s Key To Financial Planning Credit Card, Loans, Real Estate Can money buy happiness? What are the ways to do Online Banking? Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Did Not Work In early October 2008, the Congress passed and the President signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The purpose of the bill was "to restore liquidity and stability to the U.S. financial system and to ensure the economic well-being of Americans." The law authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to purchase the toxic waste poisoning the balance sheets of lenders and other financial institutions. This measure was passed in response to an unprecedented seizure of the short-term credit markets. Banks quit lending money to other banks once it became apparent that few of them were solvent. This fear spread to all short-term commercial paper and threatened to bring down the entire financial system. It is unclear whether or not this new program will save the institutions holding the toxic waste. Hope Now? The Big Lies of the Housing Bubble The first of the numerous bailout programs was "Hope Now" introduced in October of 2007. As the name suggests, Hope Now was sold to the general public as a reason for them to hang on and continue making crushing payments for as long as possible. It was a false hope, but even false hope gave homeowners a little emotional relief, and it provided a few more payments to the lenders. According to their website, "HOPE NOW is a cooperative effort between counselors, investors, and lenders to maximize outreach efforts to homeowners in distress." The plan was to streamline the process of negotiating workouts between lenders and borrowers to keep borrowers making payments and ostensibly to stop them from losing their homes. The emphasis was on making payments and maximizing investor value in collateralized debt obligations. Very few people benefited from the program, despite government claims to the contrary, and no rights or benefits were conferred to borrowers that they did not already contractually have. There was much fanfare when it was first announced, but the program did far too little to have any impact on the housing market. Floplords - Flippers Turned Landlords When house prices stopped their dizzying ascent in the Great Housing Bubble, many speculators found themselves with large monthly debt service costs and no income to offset expenses. Many chose to quit paying their mortgage obligations and allowed the property to be auctioned at foreclosure. Many chose to rent the properties to reduce their monthly cashflow drain, and they became accidental landlords. In the vernacular of the time, they became floplords, flippers turned landlords. Primary Buyer Support Levels in Residential Real Estate Markets The two true real estate investor types, Rent Savers and Cashflow Investors, move in to a market and create a bottom when comparative rents come into alignment with the total cost of ownership. Rent Savers enter the market and begin purchasing real estate. It makes sense for them to do so because ownership becomes a savings over renting (hence the term Rent Saver). What Are the Two Kinds of Real Estate Investors? There are two types of true real estate investors: Rent Savers and Cashflow Investors. These two groups will enter a real estate market without regard to future appreciation because either the cash savings or the positive cashflow warrant the purchase price of the asset. These people are largely immune to the emotional pratfalls of speculators because the value of the investment to them is not dependent upon a profit to be garnered when the asset is sold. They will hold the asset through any price declines because they are not feeling any pain when prices drop. Since these investors will purchase houses even if prices are declining, they are the ones who move in to create a bottom and end the cycle of declining prices. How Does Leverage and Debt Impact Returns on Residential Real Estate? As a speculative investment, residential real estate has the potential to make or lose vast sums of money due to the impact of financial leverage (debt). Houses are typically leveraged at 80% of their value. During the Great Housing Bubble, this leverage was often provided at 100% by various lenders. When Will Housing Prices Stop Falling? House prices became very elevated relative to fundamentals of income and rent. Since these fundamentals underpin the housing market, prices will continue to fall until they come into alignment with historic norms. Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Resets Deflated the Housing Bubble The loan reset issue is not confined to those who bought late in the bubble rally of the Great Housing Bubble. Many borrowers are homeowners who refinanced to take advantage of more favorable loan terms. Most loans originated in the later stages of the bubble rally were adjustable rate mortgages. When these mortgages reset to higher payments, most borrowers defaulted, and their properties went into foreclosure. Subprime Foreclosures Burst the Housing Bubble The first sign of trouble for the housing market was the implosion of subprime in early 2007. Subprime borrowers stopped paying back the loans they were given due to loan resets and payment recasts. These defaults lead to foreclosures. During the bust, the vast majority of properties at auction went back to the lenders because the loan amounts usually exceeded market value. Properties purchased by the lender at a foreclosure auction are called Real Estate Owned or REO. The Credit Crunch Deflated the Housing Bubble Loan standards vary over time as the credit cycle loosens and tightens. Many borrowers in the bubble rally were qualified with low credit scores, very high combined-loan-to-values, high debt-to-income ratios, and little or no income verification. When the ensuing credit crunch occurred, all of these standards were tightened and many of those who previously qualified did not qualify under the new standards. If no other conditions changed, this tightening of standards would have forced many borrowers into foreclosure; however, this credit tightening caused a chain reaction sending market prices for residential real estate which were already falling into an even steeper decline. Reactions to the Housing Bubble Burst When a bubble in a financial market pops, it does not explode in spectacular fashion like a soap bubble; it is more comparable to a breached levee which releases water slowly at first. Once the financial levee is ruptured, the equity reservoir loses money at increasing rates. It washes away the imagined wealth of homeowners who bought late in the rally or used home equity lines of credit to fuel consumer spending until the reservoir is nearly empty and the torrent turns to a trickle. Ultimately, the causes of failure are examined, the financial levee is repaired, and the reservoir again holds value, but not until the dreams and equity of many homeowners are washed away. The Affordability Limit in Residential Real Estate Markets Affordability is the ultimate limit of any asset bubble. If prices are so high that no buyer can afford them, there are no transactions and thereby no market. The fear of many buyers in a financial mania is that prices will remain elevated to the absolute limit of affordability permanently. People who have this fear will put every available resource into getting a house before this happens. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as prices get bid higher and higher by fearful buyers. The Supply Curve in Residential Real Estate Bubbles The supply curve is the opposite of the demand curve: sellers will make very few units available at low prices, and sellers will make a great many available at higher prices. Wherever these two curves meet is where supply and demand are in balance and market transactions are taking place. The Guide to Pick-a-Pay Option ARM Loans The Option ARM is one of the most complicated loan programs ever developed. It was heralded as an innovation because it allowed people greater control over their monthly payments, and it provided greater affordability in the early years of the mortgage. It proved to be a complete failure as it experienced the highest default rates of any loan program ever recorded. Eighteen Common Lies Realtors Tell Realtors are agents of sellers, and it is not uncommon for them to exaggerate the income and appreciation potential of a given property to help sell it. It is a realtor's job to obtain the highest possible sale price for a piece of real estate. The most common ploy realtors use it to attempt to create a sense of urgency in a buyer. In a seller's market, prices are rising, and buyers already feel a sense of urgency. In a buyer's market, prices are falling, and there is no urgency on the part of buyers. This fact does not stop realtors from trying to create urgency even if the truth is cast asunder. Price-To-Rent Ratios as a Measure of Residential Real Estate Value Price-to-rent ratios represent the cost of a dwelling unit relative to the cost of a comparable dwelling unit. This ratio is also subject to the same variability exhibited by the price-to-income ratio. This is not surprising considering rent is generally paid out of current income, so incomes and rents tend to track one another fairly closely. Price-To-Income Ratios as a Measure of Residential Real Estate Value Price-to-income ratios represent the amount borrowed relative to the incomes of the borrower. There are many variables that impact house prices, and some of the variability in prices over time can be attributed to changes in these variables; however, since most houses are purchased with lender financing, and since lender financing is linked to income, the price-to-income ratio is the best metric for evaluating long-term housing price trends. The price-to-income ratio does not need to be adjusted for inflation as both prices and income will rise with the general level of inflation. Most of the fluctuations in the ratio are based on changes in financing terms, in particular interest rates, and of course, irrational exuberance. Price Measurements of Residential Real Estate Markets There is no perfect measure for any broad financial market activity, and real estate markets are one of the most difficult to measure accurately. There are a number of methods for measuring prices and price changes in residential real estate markets. These include the median price, the median price per-square-foot, and the Case-Shiller indices. Visualizing the Real Estate Bubble The Great Housing Bubble can be visualized with a simple thought experiment. Imagine a room with 100 people representing the pool of subprime borrowers. These are new entrants to the market. They were previously unable to buy due to bad credit, lack of savings, and other reasons. All of them are told they are going to bid on an asset that never goes down in value, and they will be given the ability to borrow unlimited funds (stated-income "liar loans") The only caveat is the borrowed money must be paid back when the asset is sold (not that they care, they already have bad credit). Imagine what happens? Are You Unsure If You Can Or Should Get A Mortgage? Did you hear that you can qualify for a mortgage, yet you don't think you would? Is A Mortgage A Good Or Bad Thing? Are mortgages simply a trap? Many people have been burned by the real estate market and the corruption in this industry over the past several years. Are You Ready To Get A Mortgage And Buy A Home? We all want the American Dream of owning our own home. If you're a potential first time home buyer, this prospect can be both daunting and exciting all at once. The CDO Market Solution for Future Housing Bubbles The solution to preventing future bubbles in the residential real estate market lies in the market for collateralized debt obligations and conforming loans insured by the government sponsored entities (GSEs). The GSEs created the secondary mortgage market in the 1970s, and the CDO market is the extension of this market bringing large amounts of investment capital to residential real estate. During the Great Housing Bubble the CDO market did not properly evaluate the risk of default on the underlying mortgage notes they pooled. Risk Synergy for Investors in Mortgage-Backed Securities One of the major failings of the credit markets in the Great Housing Bubble was the failure to take a holistic view and evaluate the systemic risks involved. A standard credit analysis reviews various risk parameters and attempts to rate the impact of each. The implicit assumption is that the total risk is equal to the sum of the parts; however this is not necessarily the case. Synergy is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and there is a strong synergy in default loss risk in collateralized debt obligations that became apparent during the Great Housing Bubble. The credit rating agencies failed to identify this risk synergy until after the fact. Mortgage Default Rates and Mortgage Default Losses There is risk of loss in any investment. Investors in residential mortgages do not necessarily lose money when a borrower defaults. In the event of a default, a property will be auctioned at foreclosure, and the investor is paid out of proceeds from the sale of the property. Only in the event that the sale of the property does not cover the outstanding balance on the mortgage does the investor lose money. Therefore, mortgage defaults do not necessarily create mortgage default losses. Explore The Changing Real Estate World Of Panama Panama for sure is taking full advantage of the recent real estate market and is earning quite good from its resources. As this is one of the most widely visited tourist spots therefore, tourism also is helping in developing this country. The website panamarealestateboom.com, says all about the real estate of Panama. Are Mortgage-Backed Securities Dead? One can argue that structured finance creates greater efficiency in our financial system because capital is freed to pursue other objectives. Although, it can also be argued, as Warren Buffet has, that derivatives, the product of structured finance, are "financial weapons of mass destruction." Both arguments stem from the same characteristic of these securities: excessive debt. How to Value a Vacant Home Building Lot The market value of an individual lot is equal to the revenue it could generate when a residential housing unit is built on it minus the cost of creating that revenue (construction cost, marketing, profit, and other costs). Sales revenue will largely be determined by what can be built on the lot and how much that unit would sell for in the market. The dimensions of the lot, building codes, and the local zoning ordinances create constraints on what can be built. Most often there is some variety in choices available to construct on a given lot. Each of these options has a revenue potential and an estimated cost. Builders produce the combination which yields the greatest profit. A Few Mortgage Tips To Help You Prevent Foreclosure If you fall behind on your mortgage payments, there are several steps that you can take to help prevent foreclosure. The Inflation Premium for Residential Real Estate Residential housing does have a cash-saving value, if financed with a fixed rate mortgage. Over time, the growth in income and rents increases the cost of housing for renters. The inflation of housing costs for renters is greatly lessened for homeowners using a fixed-rate mortgage because their housing costs are effectively frozen at the rate of their ongoing mortgage payment. Other costs of home ownership, such as property taxes, insurance and maintenance do still rise with inflation, but since the mortgage payment is about two-thirds of the cost of ownership, fixing this amount provides a large benefit. Over time, the savings accruing to homeowners from a level housing payment can be quite substantial. Applying the technique of discounted cashflow analysis, this savings over time can be evaluated. Negotiating Skills Make a Big Difference in Home Sale Profits The negotiating abilities of buyers and sellers and the overall market environment greatly impact the profits from real estate. Sellers almost universally believe their properties are worth more than the market will bear. People become emotionally attached to their houses, and because it is very valuable to them, they assume it is just as valuable to a person who is not attached to the property. Home Interest Tax Savings Are Always Overestimated When a borrower takes out a home loan, the interest is tax deductible up to a certain amount. For borrowers in the highest marginal tax bracket, the savings can be significant, and this can make a dramatic difference in the true cost of ownership. However, this benefit diminishes over time as the loan is paid off and the interest decreases, unless of course, the borrower has used a toxic interest-only or negative amortization loan. How Much Does a House Really Cost? When contemplating purchasing a home, one should examine all of the costs of ownership to budget properly for the expenses they will face. Most people simply focus on the payment, and soon after they purchase, they realize that the true cost of ownership is often 20%-30% greater than they expected. Buy a Home as a Place to Live A house should not be viewed as an investment. When investments go bad, it causes financial hardship and anguish. When the bad financial investment is a family home it ruins everything. The joyous memories that are supposed to be associated with a person's home instead become associated with the financial distress of a losing investment. Nobody wants that. Did Lenders Cause Their Own Credit Crunch? It seems lenders forget basic facts about lending every so often and create a new financial bubble. Perhaps they succumb to the pressure of the investment community or their own shareholders, or perhaps they just start believing their own "innovation" marketing pitch and forget the basics of sound lending practices. It’s Now Time For You To Get What You Want Who does not want money? You never know that tomorrow you may be in great need of money for repaying your debts, for supporting your medical expenses, for supporting your educational costs or for buying a car. Leave all your loan problems to yourmoneysource.net and be tension-free forever. Great News For The First Time Home Buyers! Are you planning to buy a new home? If you are a first time home buyer then don’t worry for the money required because new plans and financial programs are now there for you. Through the new 8,000 Tax Credit or to say, the first time home buyer tax credit, the first time home buyers are surely going to enjoy preferences. Everyone Wants To Live Here... Not! The Great Housing Bubble witnessed many foolish ideas and beliefs about real estate. Among the most foolish was the idea that prices went up because everyone wants to live wherever they are. When rational arguments fail to explain something, it is only natural that people will start making things up. what is Amortization? Amortization is the process by which your monthly mortgage payment is determined In an Amortized loan you make periodic or monthly payments. The Mortgage Payment The mortgage payment is the money you give to the lender or bank each month to repay the loan and pay the costs for borrowing the money. Closing Costs When you close or finalize a mortgage there are many fees, taxes and insurance costs that you will need to pay. These are called closing costs. What is a down payment The Down Payment A down payment is money that the buyer must pay up front to buy a home. Loan Modification Assistance It’s been a prolonged suffering of millions of Americans who still continue experiencing the tough bites of the worst financial times on the word of the United State’s history! Proud home owners across the country, who once had had the faith of relying upon the tough shoulders of the equity in their homes as a defense shroud, are to their dismay finding those mantles quickly fade or ebb away! Need Foreclosure help Don't let your banks or lenders threaten you with foreclosure. Www.westopforeclosureusa.com is here to help you prevent foreclosures. Foreclosure is not the ultimate solution to your mortgage payments. You can't just afford to give up all hopes and sit surrendered; think of the home - the home for the purchase and/ or acquisition of which you've employed all your blood-and-sweat; is it a possession to let go so easily. No, never can it be. And probably this is why the "Stop Foreclosure" department at westopforeclosureusa.com is here to stand by your side and help you fight all odds against foreclosure. Foreclosure Help The sites tender to aid homeowners in pecuniary privation to reform their loans and avoid foreclosure. Government Loan Assistance Google up and you'll come across hundreds and thousands of discussion forums, threads and blogs with a group of people bursting out their rage and concern over the fact that the plan seems to not just benefit the needy, but also the greedy. Here comes a set of new websites promising to track information related to Government Loan Modification programs; websites offering to help you overcome the crisis of losing your home from the cruel grudges of foreclosure. Second Chance Loans To Help You Correct Your Finances If you are in a condition where in you need to get up again after experiencing downfall in your finances; however, you cannot resort to making any major loan anymore, then maybe it抯 time to consider going for second chance loans. You would probably need a loan which is meant for individuals who have a bad credit status to enable yourself to fix things and rearrange your life. Mortgage Interest Rates - How Are They Determined? Mortgage interest rates are the single-most important factor determining the borrowing power of a potential house buyer. When rates are very low, a borrower can service a large amount of debt with a relatively small payment, and when interest rates are very high, a borrower can service a small amount of debt with a relatively large payment. What is the Option ARM Payment Rate? A negative amortization loan is any loan where the monthly payment does not cover the monthly interest expense. Interest-only or conventionally amortizing loans do not have this feature, and the monthly payments are based on the interest rate charged and/or the duration of the amortization schedule. Since the negative amortization loan breaks down this traditional relationship, there is a completely separate rate calculated for the minimum payment amount. Do You Understand the Three Types Of Loans - Conventional, Interest-Only, and Negative Amortization? There are 3 main categories of loans: Conventional, Interest-Only, and Negative Amortization. The distinction between these loans is how the amount of principal is impacted by monthly payments. Conventional loans pay off the debt, interest only loans neither increases or decreases the debt, and negative amortization loans add to the debt. Should You Worry About the Opportunity Cost of a Housing Downpayment? The initial equity in a home is equal to a purchaser's downpayment. If a buyer pays cash for a home, all equity is initial equity. There is an opportunity cost associated with downpayment money. This cost should be considered when someone considers buying residential real estate. Where Is The Epicenter Of The Housing Bubble? The epicenter of the Great Housing Bubble is located in Irvine, California. One of the primary causes of the bubble was the lowering of lending standards and the extension of credit to people who could not handle the responsibility: Subprime borrowers. The word "subprime" has become indelibly linked to the Great Housing Bubble. It is one of the causal factors that make the bubble unique, and the collapse of subprime is widely regarded as the pin-prick which began the bubble's deflation. Fifteen Common Lies Realtors Tell Realtors are agents of sellers. It is their job to obtain the highest possible sale price for a piece of real estate. The most common ploy realtors use it to attempt to create a sense of urgency in a buyer. In a seller's market, prices are rising, and buyers already feel a sense of urgency. In a buyer's market, prices are falling, and there is no urgency on the part of buyers. This fact does not stop realtors from trying to create urgency even if the truth is cast asunder. If You Are Underwater but Can Afford the Mortgage Payment You Should Hang On Anyone that can manage their payments should consider trying to hold on, even if the house value has dropped well below their purchase price. There are still a great many overextended homeowners and speculators who cannot possibly manage their payments, and for them trying to hold on until the market comes back is a foolish waste of time and resources. The market is not going to come back before they go under. However, for those who can make the payments, there emotional benefit of home ownership may be worth the financial hardship it entails. The Pent-Up-Demand Meme Is Complete Nonsense The realtor spin about "pent up demand" is complete nonsense. There is probably a lot of pent up desire for housing, but demand is measured in dollars, and there is a major lack of demand with the absence of lender funds, and a large and growing "pent up supply" of foreclosures. Regulating the National Association of Realtors Would Help Prevent the Next Housing Bubble The sales tactics of the National Association of Realtors should be examined and potentially come under the same restrictions as securities brokers through the Securities and Exchange Commission. Realtors routinely lie about the investment potential of residential real estate. People believe these lies and enter into transactions that often harm them financially. Regulating Loan Amounts Would Help Prevent the Next Housing Bubble The parameters of the forming limitations on the debt-to-income ratio and combined-loan-to-value are essential to prevent bubbles in the housing market and to prevent the banking system from becoming imperiled in the future. Loan amounts much be tethered to incomes and limited by existing property values. Without these limits, prices can take flight with lender capital. During the crash, lenders saw values drop below their loan amounts, and they lost a great deal of money. Strict Loan Documentation Standards Will Help Prevent the Next Housing Bubble One of the most egregious practices of the Great Housing Bubble was the fabrication of income by borrowers that was facilitated and promoted by originating lenders. Stated-income loan programs were widespread, and they were the cause of much of the uncertainty in the secondary mortgage market during the initial stages of the credit crunch in the deflation of the bubble. Basically, investors had no idea if the borrowers to whom they had lent billions of dollars were capable of paying them back. Professional Help to Modify your Loan In the domain of loan modification, the first and foremost question that invariably takes a tour across your mind is "Can I have my loan modified?" The answer to this question varies upon the recipients. And if you are addressing one such question to www.877youkeep.com, then the feedback in most of the cases is nonetheless than a clear and simple YES. Till date, there had been innumerable legends and myths with the lenders under the limelight, centering on their do's and don’ts during the loan modification process. Changing Appraisal Methods would Prevent the Next Housing Bubble Investor confidence in the market for CDOs and all mortgages was shaken during the decline of the Great Housing Bubble, and rightly so. Investors were losing huge sums, and nobody clearly understood why. There was a widespread belief these losses were caused by some outside factor rather than a systemic problem enabled by the lenders and investors themselves. Housing Bubble Economic Problems - Have We Seen the Worst? The foremost problem resulting from the deflation of the Great Housing Bubble was the imperilment of our banking and financial system. The bailouts emanating from Congress have mostly focused on keeping the banking system solvent. Considering most institutions were secretly bankrupted by the housing collapse, this was not small problem. The economic ramifications are severe, and 2009 will likely not be the end of the crisis. FAP Turbo Demystified There has been a lot of buzz about the FAP Turbo since its launch last November 25, 2008. The issues brought up were usual, ranging from scam scares to doubts about the forex robot’s efficiency. Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Private mortgage insurance is a great tool for those of us who do not have the typical 20% down payment. Housing Bubble Causes - Why Did It Happen? The Great Housing Bubble was caused by an expansion of credit that enabled irrational exuberance and wild speculation. The expansion of credit came in the form of relaxed loan underwriting terms including high debt-to-income ratios, lower FICO scores, high combined-loan-to-value lending including 100% financing, and loan terms permitting negative amortization. In a Buyer's Market the First Offer is the Best Offer The most counter-intuitive part of buying in a buyer's market is to make the first offer the best offer. Ordinarily sellers, or more accurately the seller's realtor, try to create a sense of urgency to buy the house. They want the buyer to think other people are looking, there is going to be a bidding war, and the buyer needs to get an offer in today. Realtors thrive by creating fear in buyers. Recourse and Non-Recourse Loans - What Is the Difference? When a borrower cannot repay a loan, the lender may or may not be able to sue the borrower to collect any shortfall. The key difference is whether or not the loan is classified as a recourse loan or a non-recourse loan. Distressed Sellers - Should They Attempt a Short Sale? A short sale is a property closing where the proceeds from the closing do not satisfy the outstanding debt on the property. The lender must agree to accept less money at the closing table for the closing to occur. From a credit perspective, there is little or no difference between a short sale and a foreclosure. Both a short sale and a foreclosure will show a series of missed payments and a secured credit line (or multiple credit lines) with a permanent delinquency and discharge for what is generally a very large sum of money. Both will have a strong, negative impact on the borrower's FICO credit score that will persist for many years. What to Do When the Sale Price of a Home Does Not Pay Off a Mortgage Once a price decline gets underway many buyers who were late to the price rally find they are in a property worth less than they paid for it. As prices continue to fall, many find themselves "underwater" owing more on their mortgage than their property is worth. When these late buyers want to become sellers, they cannot sell and pay off the mortgage balance with the proceeds from the sale. Then they have a real problem. The Housing Bubble - What Buyers Need to Know During the decline of house prices in the deflation of the Great Housing Bubble, price levels will fall to fundamental valuations of historic levels of appreciation, price-to-rent ratios, and price-to-income ratios. The nominal price declines may be impacted by inflation and monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, but inflation adjusted prices will fall precipitously. Unemployment and Residential Real Estate Markets Prior to the Great Housing Bubble, house price declines had only been associated with economic downturns and increases in unemployment. As people lost jobs, they lost their ability to make house payments, and many lost their homes in foreclosure. Unemployment is devastating to housing markets. Future Loan Terms and Residential Real Estate Markets One of the primary mechanisms for inflating the Great Housing Bubble was the widespread use of exotic loan terms including interest-only and negative-amortization adjustable rate mortgages. The appeal of interest-only and negative-amortization loans is the lower payments they offer, or their ability to finance larger sums of money with the same payment. These loan terms are unstable, and they may not be offered to future buyers. If these loan programs were eliminated, the financing sums would decline, and home prices would decline along with them. How to Decide if an adjustable rate mortgage is Right for You An adjustable rate mortgage, called an ARM for short, is a mortgage with an interest rate that is linked to an economic index. Housing Bubble Credit Expansion - Credit Inflated the Housing Bubble The Great Housing Bubble was inflated by a massive expansion of credit and the influx of capital into residential mortgages. The expansion of credit took four forms: lower interest rates, lowering or eliminating qualification requirements, different amortization methods, and higher allowable debt-to-income ratios. Buying and Selling Real Estate during a Decline Residential real estate markets generally move very slowly and trend in a single direction for long periods of time. Once these markets reach an inflection point, the direction of price movement changes, and the balance of negotiating power shifts from an advantage to one side to an advantage for the other. However, most market participants do not recognize this change for some time. Sellers continue to price and attempt to sell using tactics that worked during the rally, and they find they are unable to sell their properties. It often takes two years or more before sellers accept the reality of the new market and adjust their attitudes and behaviors to the new dynamics of a buyer's market. Foreclosures and Residential Real Estate Markets The number of foreclosures will affect both the timing and the severity of the deflation of the Great Housing Bubble. It is foreclosures that drive prices lower quickly. Foreclosures control the timing of the crash because they directly impact the must-sell inventory numbers: the greater the number of foreclosures, the greater the rate of decline in house prices. By early 2008, most real estate markets had already surpassed the peak set in the price decline of the early 90s of Notices of Default and Trustee Sales (foreclosures). Credit Crunch - Why Did We Have It? In 2007, the financial markets were abuzz with talk of a "credit crunch." It was portrayed as some unusual and unpredictable outside force like an asteroid impact or a cold winter storm. However, it was not unexpected, and it was not caused by any outside force. The credit crunch began because borrowers were unable to make payments on the loans they were given. When lenders started losing money, they stopped lending money: a credit crunch. It Is Different This Time... Not! Each time the general public creates an asset bubble, they believe the rally in prices is justifiable by fundamentals. When proven methods of valuation demonstrate otherwise, people invent new ones with the caveat, "it is different this time." It never is. The Down Payment A down payment is money that the buyer must pay up front to buy a home. When a person takes out a mortgage the lender or bank in almost all cases will require that the person borrowing the money make a down payment. Mortgage Loans for Bad Credit Having bad credit won't prevent you from owning your own home, but it will cost you tens of thousands of dollars more over the life of your loan. Your credit score changes as time goes by and bad credit can be corrected. Residential Real Estate Markets Crumble from the Bottom Up The real estate market can be visualized as a massive pyramid. There are very few multi-million dollar properties at the top of the pyramid, and a large number of relatively inexpensive entry-level properties forming the base. Like any structure, if the foundation is weakened, the structure may collapse. In the same way, housing markets collapse from the bottom up due to problems with affordability. Home Price Appreciation and Transaction Fees - Only the Realtors Get Rich Profiting from house price appreciation requires getting more money from the sale of a property than was originally paid for it and not having that profit cancelled out by moving costs, transaction fees, and a large spreads between the cost of ownership and the cost of rental during the ownership period. Buying and selling residential real estate incurs significant transaction costs that are not reflected in the price. It is quite common for properties to sell for more than their purchase price and still be a loss for the seller. However, even if the seller loses money, the realtor gets a commission. Six percent of an owner's house price appreciation goes to paying the realtor. Mortgage Interest Rates and House Prices Mortgage interest rates are determined in an open market and are subject to the forces of supply and demand. These rates are the sum of three main components: riskless rate of return, risk premium, and inflation expectation. The Great Housing Bubble was characterized by historic lows in the federal funds rate, risk premiums and inflation expectations which resulted in the very low mortgage interest rates. These low mortgage interest rates allowed people to finance large sums of money, and these larger bids helped inflate the housing bubble. Flip That House... Not! During the Great Housing Bubble, many speculators tried to make money through trading houses. The vast majority of these traders were not professionals but amateurs who thought they could be professionals. Most amateurs ended up losing money because they did not understand what it takes to be successful in a speculative market. Mortgage Equity Withdrawal - Are Americans Addicted to It? Much of the money homeowners borrowed fueled consumer spending and reinforced poor financial management techniques. It was common during the bubble rally for people to run up enormous credit card bills then refinance every year and pay them off. It is foolish enough to finance consumer spending, but it is even more foolish to pay for this spending over the 30-year term of a typical mortgage. The consumptive value fades quickly, but the debt endures for a very long time. Judicial and Non-Judicial Foreclosure - What Is the Difference? When a borrower cannot repay a loan, the lender may or may not be able to sue the borrower to collect any shortfall. The key difference is whether or not the loan is classified as a recourse loan or a non-recourse loan. If the loan is recourse, meaning the lender can go after any shortfall, the lender still must go through a judicial foreclosure in order to collect the deficiency.
[1] [2]

Authors

Sign Up
Submission Guidelines
Submit Articles
Why Submit Articles?
Member Login

Publishers

Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Link to Us
Contact Us
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds

Resources

Vedic Astrology & Software
ArticleGnosis
ArticleWisdom

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Reduce your carbon footprint!

Powered by Article Dashboard