A special message to my friends and clients
Posted On: August 30th, 2010 by James Posted In: FHA Mortgage • Financial Health • Mortgage Rates • Portland Real Estate • Refinancing
This is my plea to all of my clients past and present. Even if we closed a mortgage earlier this year, even if you think you are upside down on your homes equity, even if you think for some reason that this recent outbreak of mortgage refinance activity will not apply to you…. you have to give me a ring, or send an email. Many of you are invested in 401(k) plans, and mutual funds, and have been taking a beating from the plunge of the stock market since 2008, well…. think of the ridiculously low mortgage rates that are currently available as a way to BENEFIT from that same down market. (Because as stock markets shrink, money goes to bonds, and when bond yields get lower, so do long term mortgage rates!) Continue Reading – A special message to my friends and clients
The Return of PMI
Posted On: March 23rd, 2010 by James Posted In: FHA Mortgage • Mortgage Insurance • Mortgage Programs • Portland Real Estate
OK, so this is kind of exciting for all mortgage, real estate and general economic nerds. There are now not one but TWO private mortgage insurance (also known as PMI) companies who have taken Portland off their “declining markets” list!! The companies are PMI, and MGIC…. “James”, you ask… “why should I care about that?”. Well, I’m glad you asked. What it means is that buying real estate with less than 10% down just got a little more interesting.
Borrowers with top credit will now have options to buy with only a 5% down payment, and private mortgage insurance. This has not really been an option in the last 18 months, and these borrowers were all being pointed to FHA loans. And come April 5th, FHA loans are about to get more expensive as that FHA mortgage insurance is scheduled to INCREASE.
Continue Reading – The Return of PMI
New FHA Rules! (How Does This Affect Portland?)
Posted On: January 20th, 2010 by James Posted In: Government Actions • Mortgage Insurance • Mortgage Programs • Portland Real Estate
I’ve been hearing rumors about the FHA needing to increase its cash position and lower their risk profile for about a year now. I heard rumors that the down payment would increase from 3.5% to 5% down. All of these things make sense because the FHA is just being pushed beyond the brink of fiscal sanity right now. Now that the subprime mortgage universe has been sucked into a black hole, the only “low down payment” mortgage option, or “relaxed credit” mortgage option for borrowers has been the FHA mortgage.
Now, the FHA is not a bank, they are merely an insurance provider for banks. Other banks make the mortgage with knowledge that the FHA will cover a certain amount of possible loss incurred, thus alleviating a lot of the risk associated with making that loan to begin with. So, now that FHA loans make up over 30% of all mortgages being currently written, this pool of insurance is being massively stressed by all of the poor performance of mortgages of late.
Continue Reading – New FHA Rules! (How Does This Affect Portland?)
Attention Facebook Followers!
Posted On: January 9th, 2010 by James Posted In: Local Interest • Portland Real Estate
Hello and Happy new year to those of you who connect with Pdxhomeloan via the facebook “networked blog” feature. I am re-organizing my whole communications platform for the new decade!
What will be happening is, this website: Pdxhomeloan.com will be repurposed, and its blog functionality will be greatly reduced. I will be transferring all future blog posts to my new mortgage blog: www.oregonmortgageblog.com
Please get connected to me in this same way that you’ve come accustomed to by clicking this link to the networked blogs fan page, and following this rss feed.
I really value your willingness to communicate with me, and I’m always looking to deepen our conversation. Please give me any feedback good or bad, and I’ll do my best to make you guys the most informed real estate enthusiasts in Portland!
2010 Mortgage Rates Prediction
Posted On: January 9th, 2010 by James Posted In: Mortgage Rates • Portland Real Estate
Ok, I’m just going to go out there and do it. This is what the internet is all about right? People getting out there and putting out opinion and information and hoping that it gets read. Perhaps I could drive more traffic to my site if my views were more extreme! Well, I will start by saying that I am 35 years old, and have been in the mortgage business and a personal real estate investor (they happened at the same time) since 2003. I have 6 full years of experience under my belt for whatever its worth. I have spent many hours and thousands of dollars educating myself about exactly what influences our mortgage market.
What I have come to understand is that mortgage rates are directly influenced by yields on Mortgage Bonds. When the economy is doing well, most investors want to buy stocks because they are going up. When the economy is doing poorly, most investors sell their stocks and wait for improvement. When these stock sales happen, it is VERY common for the proceeds of these sales to be “parked” (invested) into the bond market. Bonds have much less risk associated as the returns are kind of guaranteed by the backer of the bond.
Continue Reading – 2010 Mortgage Rates Prediction
