Other Recent Articles
Foreclosures Rise In Most Metro Areas
Foreclosures continue to plague American cities. The latest data from RealtyTrac shows that shows 154 of the 206 U.S. metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more posted year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity even while foreclosure activity decreased in nine of the 10 metros with the highest foreclosure rates.
Four states — Florida, California, Nevada and [...]
Did Condominiums Really Start In Rome?
Did Caesar and Nero really rule in a city filled with condominiums?
Search through the Internet and the unavoidable answer is largely yes, but in fact there were no condos along the Tiber or near the Coliseum at the height of the empire.
Don’t believe it?
Get out your copy of the Oklahoma City University Law Review, [...]
Credit & Underwriting Standards Tighten for VA Borrowers
VA loans have weathered the foreclosure crisis better than their major lending counterparts. But they certainly haven’t been immune to the overall tightening that’s taken hold of the industry.
The result is that these highly flexible and forgiving loans aren’t quite as forgiving as they once were.
Tighter Underwriting
More restrictive credit and underwriting standards have no doubt [...]
Foreclosure Rescue Victim Awarded $700,000
Like a small number of states, Maryland has a tough law to protect homeowners against what are called foreclosure consultants or foreclosure rescue consultants. The idea is that “foreclosure rescue” is allowed in Maryland — but only if certain conditions are met.
Now a court has awarded more than $700,000 to a homeowner facing foreclosure under [...]
Foreclosure Trends Show Little Love In 2010
Foreclosure filings dropped 7 percent in June when compared with a year ago, but that’s good news only in a relative sense. Once again, foreclosure filings topped 300,000 in a single month. According to RealtyTrac June was the 16th month in a row we’ve seen such a high level of foreclosure activity.
Other results from RealtyTrac [...]
What’s A Private Transfer Fee In Real Estate?
Usually when we think of a real estate sale we think that the interest of the seller ends with closing. It is, after all, called “closing” for a reason.
Now, however, some sellers are trying to maintain a financial interest in a property for decades after it’s been sold, not with a mortgage or a loan [...]
Responsibility: But Didn’t The Borrower Sign The Mortgage?
It hardly seems unfair. Aren’t borrowers responsible for the loans they take out? It’s not like someone is held at gunpoint and forced to accept the worst loan lenders can concoct.
That’s the thinking of a considerable segment of the population, a segment represented in some of the email I receive as well as in the [...]
American Homes Keep Getting Bigger
HUD has come out with a new housing survey and not surprisingly it finds that “U.S. homes today are bigger with more bedrooms and bathrooms than 1973.”
HUD’s 2009 American Housing Survey (AHS) also tells us that most families with young children live within a mile of a public elementary school. The most common home heating [...]
Are Broker Warranty Kickbacks Okay?
For some time there has been a nifty little side business in real estate: Your friendly broker offers a homeowner warranty program to reduce buyer worries about possible repairs.
Such warranties may or may not be a good idea — you have to look at what’s included, what’s excluded, the up-front cost, the cost per [...]
The Real Meaning of July 4th
Each year on Independence Day the U.S. is filled with parades, fireworks and hot dogs. July 4th is a great day to celebrate.
The founding of the United States was a tremendous change from the governments and institutions of the time. Based in part on the writings of such philosophers as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, [...]
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