If you have not been considering a real estate transaction recently, this may come as news to you, but the price for mortgages is on the rise. The question, however, most often posed by borrowers in these volatile times is whether the salad days of the sub-4.5% mortgage rates are well behind us. The answer [...]
December 10, 2010
Mortgage Rates Skyrocket on Tax Cut Compromise
This week was bad for rates, really bad. If you are not in the industry, it is impossible to describe what happens when you see rate increases like we saw this week, so I will once again defer to history to illustrate what occurred. “It’s fire and it’s crashing! It’s crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get [...]
November 4, 2010
HUD Revamps Requirements for FHA Condominium Project Approval
Life just got a whole lot tougher in the wonderful world of condominiums. HUD recently announced that they are requiring all condominium projects undergo re-approval. This literally means that every condominium development that successfully underwent the previous process will no longer be approved and they must reapply for approval to be eligible for FHA loans. [...]
September 24, 2010
Cook County’s New Foreclosure Mediation Program
The Circuit Court of Cook County Reaches Out to Help Homeowners Facing Foreclosure According to a recent Chicago Sun Times article, “Foreclosure filings catapulted 66.4 percent in Cook County in August from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac’s latest report. . . and [f]ilings in the Chicago metropolitan area spiked 36.1 percent in August from [...]
September 23, 2010
Wonderful Time-lapse Video of Summer in Chicago
A gorgeous look at Chicago in a 3 minute time-lapse video.
August 25, 2010
Three Programs for Drowning Homeowners
There is a great misconception that there are no options for struggling homeowners. The reality is that major players in the mortgage lending market, specifically Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD (The Department of Housing and Urban Development), would like to avoid foreclosures whenever possible. As a result, they have created loan programs designed with this end in mind. [...]
August 10, 2010
Major FHA Changes Coming on September 7th
FHA (Federal Housing Administration) insured loans are headed for a big change. For those unfamiliar with FHA mortgages, these loans are insured by the government, which allows for flexible approval guidelines. This insurance is paid for by the borrower as an upfront premium collected at close and as a smaller premium collected on a monthly [...]
July 16, 2010
Negotiating – A Lost Art
Today’s chaotic market presents pricing, communication, marketing and mortgage challenges that vary with each transaction, each listing, and each buyer. However, one often overlooked component common to every transaction is the lost art of negotiating. I call it a “lost art” because many sellers focus solely on marketing and advertising when choosing an agent, and [...]
July 12, 2010
5 Things to Know When Buying a Condo
The condominium is a great type of property. It provides the joy of ownership with minimum amount of maintenance, but it is also a type of property that strikes a bit trepidation into the heart of lenders. Think of it as the difference between running the 100-meter hurdles versus a simple 100-meter dash. You get [...]
June 29, 2010
Home Valuation – Who, What, and How
I recently spoke with a long-time client who is considering refinancing their home to take advantage of today’s low interest rates. The client had called her mortgage banker to start the process. Her northwest Chicago home was purchased in May of 2004 for $590,000, not quite at the peak of the market, and several years [...]
June 18, 2010
Chicago High-End Real Estate on the Upswing
Despite speculation that the luxury residential market in the city of Chicago, $1,000,000+, will experience a slight down-turn as consumers sit-back and wait to see what happens with the stock market, the statistics paint a different picture. This information was taken from the Multiple Listing Service showcasing that the first-half of June could turn-out to [...]
June 14, 2010
Time is Ticking for Lenders to Meet the New Licensing Requirements
It should be no surprise that the collapse of the housing market drew the attention of regulators to professionalize the lending industry. Let me go on record as saying that this is not a bad thing for the consumer. Like Wyatt Earp cleaning up the streets of Tombstone, the government has created new requirements to [...]
June 9, 2010
When to Lock Part 2: The Right Lock Period
So, now hopefully you have enough understanding of the market conditions that contribute to mortgage pricing and securing a good rate. Stocks are down and investors are fleeing to the safety of the bond market, which has driven down mortgage lending rates. When this happens everything points to a lock. Keep in mind the timing. [...]
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Written by: Doug Katz - January 7, 2011
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