Should I Refinance Now? Last November, when mortgage interest rates hit 4.25 percent for a 15-year fixed, my husband, Sam, and I hit the refinance button. We were seven or eight years into our 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), which had recently reset to about 3.35 percent. We knew that our total payment would rise [...]
Want to Buy a New House? Beware Developers Hawking Empty Subdivisions If you’ve been dreaming of living in a brand-new home that no one else has ever lived in, you’re in luck. Due to the fallout from the Great Recession, including the bursting of an enormous housing bubble, rampant foreclosures, and the lowest mortgage interest [...]
How to Save More Money at Home According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, some 55 percent of Americans have seen their household income fall or—in the case of those who have lost their job—evaporate. If you’re bringing home less than you were, there are only two ways to make up the shortfall: earn [...]
Is Now the Right Time to Buy a Vacation Home along the Gulf of Mexico? Week after week, the Gulf oil spill drama has dragged on, dragging down the fortunes of millions of residents and small-business owners with it. Meanwhile, Ken Feinberg, who oversaw the 9/11 fund payments, has been appointed pay czar for the [...]
Want a Principal Reduction Loan Modification? The New Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Rules You’ll Have to Live By Are you late in paying your mortgage? Are you about to be? Is your home worth less than the mortgage balance? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may be eligible for [...]
Is unemployment rising? Economists have been puzzled why so few jobs are being created now that the recession appears to be over. I don’t think it’s that surprising. This is the second post-recession period in a decade that has seen anemic job creation. Frankly, between the 15 million Americans who have already lost their jobs [...]
Selling your home requires getting as many buyers through the door as possible, and you want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to get their attention. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you need to drop your asking price right away. Instead, consider these home selling tips: Selling a House Tip #1: Make your house [...]
If your house is worth less than the mortgage amount, you’re underwater with your loan. And that means you could be facing a short sale nightmare. If you want to sell your house, unless you plan to come to the table with enough cash to make up the difference between what you owe and the [...]
Sharon called my radio show a few weeks back. Her real estate broker had taken her to see a HUD home (which is nothing more than an FHA foreclosure). She could buy the house with only $100 down, but she’d have to pay $9,000 in closing costs. The house was priced at just $102,000. Something [...]
If you’re unemployed and can no longer afford your mortgage, a new Making Home Affordable loan modification program might offer some relief. The new Unemployed Program (UP) starts August 1, 2010, and it requires lenders to reduce or suspend payments for at least three months for eligible borrowers. It is at the lender’s discretion to [...]
