Unless you have steadfastly avoided the news for the past year, you have probably heard about the “credit crunch” affecting the US financial system. This crunch, a result of years of speculative lending fueled by innovative but untested securitization strategies and massive leverage, is finding its way into the wallets […]

If you are one of the rare quarterlifers who owns a home, chances are you bought into the low end of a booming housing market that is now flat, if not declining.  Perhaps by now a nicer home in your neighborhood is within reach financially…but you would need to sell your starter home to afford […]

Chances are that when you are ready to buy a home, you will need to obtain a mortgage and that you will utilize the services of a mortgage broker.  Unfortunately, most folks are woefully under prepared and/or misinformed about what a broker does and how to obtain the best loan.  So here are a few […]

I found out today about a program offered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called “Good Neighbor Next Door.”  The program allows qualifying folks (namely, law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and schoolteachers) to purchase qualifying HUD foreclosures at 50% below list price.  All you have to do is maintain the home as […]

Earlier this month, the 109th Congress passed a bill allowing many American homeowners to write private and government mortgage insurance off of their income taxes starting in 2007.  The new deduction helps reduce the barriers to home-ownership for many first-time and/or low-income homebuyers….making this new deduction a special gift to young Americans!
What does all this mean?  […]

Recently, there has been a lot of talk in the media and blogosphere relating to the large number of people in trouble with their mortgages.  BusinessWeek recently published a very biased article on the woes of homeowners who took zero-down mortgages entitled Nightmare Mortgages (read the National Association of Mortgage Brokers’ response here), Housing Panic […]