All Posts Tagged With: "interest-only"
Mortgages & The Unnecessary Crisis
July 14, 2008 should be remembered as a notable date in the long history of mortgage lending. The federal government gingerly stuck its regulatory foot into the warm waters of consumer advocacy and for the first time enacted rules which would protect borrowers. Not all borrowers, of course, and nothing that would materially disturb the [...]
31Dec2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Is It Time To Buy Less?
It has been a most-interesting few weeks in one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets, the area just outside my front door.
As someone now in the process of selling, I am elated by current market conditions: As long as the check clears I heartily approve of interest-only loans; I believe the availability of [...]
The Beauty of Interest-Only Loans — And The Beast
There’s no doubt that the newest trend in real estate financing is the interest-only loan, a trend which needs to be examined with care by anyone who prefers to avoid poverty.
An interest-only loan is both what it seems and not what it seems. It’s interest-only debt for some or all of the loan term, [...]
Should We Return To Straight Mortgages?
My grandfather was always proud of the way he financed his home. Family lore says he bought a row house on a dirt road — in Brooklyn! It was an immigrant’s dream, financed with an interest-only “term” mortgage that lasted three to five years. At the end of the term you either paid off the [...]
17Sep2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
What’s a mortgage “teaser” rate?
Many ARMs are offered with a “teaser rate,” a low interest rate available at the start of the loan for a few months or a year.
From the borrower’s perspective, it’s important to know how long the teaser rate will last (longer is better), and whether it is a fully-amortizing rate — that is, [...]
Toxic Loans: The Coming Storm
(Presented before the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO), April 7, 2006, at Jacksonville, FL.)
It’s been a very good century for real estate, at least so far. According to the National Association of Realtors, the typical home that sold for $139,000 in 2000 was worth $208,700 in 2005.
Not only have home values [...]
25Aug2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Real Estate Exit Strategy: What If There’s No Way Out?
One of the great wonders of modern life is the ability to borrow — and borrow and borrow and, well, you get the idea.
I always tell folks there is no shortage of either lenders or loans, the real question concerns borrower preferences. If a borrower is sufficiently “motivated” then there are always loans to [...]
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