Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told the U.S. House Budget Committee yesterday that tight mortgage conditions are preventing a stronger economic revovery because their adverse effect on home buyers is keeping inventory levels high, damping appreciation, and holding back new construction. “Although low interest rates on conventional mortgages and the drop in home prices [...]
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One of the best things about any Super Bowl telecast is the ads. And this year advertisers will pay a whopping $3.5 million for 30 seconds of air time for the largest television audience all year. Century 21 will be the only real estate franchise advertising for the big game and will debut three ads during [...]
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When the first-time home buyer tax credit was enacted in 2008, in the aftermath of the housing crisis, it was structured as a no-interest loan and taxpayers who used it had to pay it back over time (in annual installments through your tax return). In 2009, the credit was amended to eliminate the pay-back requirement. [...]
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President Barack Obama today fleshed out a proposal he announced in his State of the Union speech last week to help boost the housing market by helping more underwater home owners than are being served now by lenders. In the details he released today, the President said he wants to make the federal government’s existing [...]
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The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and a research institute of the University of North Carolina just released the results of an exacting study on how borrowers would fare under different QRM scenarios and they don’t look good. Let’s hope CRL made its results available to federal regulators and lawmakers so they have a picture [...]
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If you’re given a choice to either invest $1,000 in a two-year bank certificate of deposit or bury that money in your backyard, don’t spend too much time thinking about it, because for all practical purposes you’ll come out the same either way. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) say you’ll earn [...]
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How easy would it be to launch the initiative to help underwater home owners that President Barack Obama talked about in his state of the union speech on January 24? Policy experts speaking with politically active REALTORS® in Washington this week said it would be relatively easy to create the program if an agency like [...]
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By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine A subject we've talked about a great deal here on the Speaking of Real Estate blog got some play during the Republican presidential debate last night in Jacksonville. (Transcripts are available here.) A question was asked of the four candidates about how to phase out government-sponsored enterprises Fannie [...]
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By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS® I wrote my first blog post about the real estate and mortgage industries on Jan. 27, 2005. Much has changed, but several truths about blogging have remained pretty constant: 1. Knowledge is learned, expertise is imparted. Take all the training you want. Read every book. [...]
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President Obama in his third State of the Union speech last night called on Congress to pass a plan to help millions of underwater home owners refinance into loans with historically low interest rates by charging banks a fee to help expedite these transactions. “I’m sending this Congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner [...]
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