This news slipped past the mainstream media. Original story from The Atlantic Although their performance was worse in the third quarter, it had more to do with derivatives than the housing market. Late Tuesday, U.S. taxpayers got some more bad news: Fannie Mae announced a big quarterly loss and requested another $7.8 billion from taxpayers. [...]

The California Department of Real Estate was in a writing mood and updated their guide “Using the Services of a Mortgage Broker”, or as they like to call it RE35A. Written in huge font, it won’t take you long to read it, but save your time. It explains negative amortization loans which don’t exist today, [...]

I came across this website with a nice way of visualizing the debt our politicians have accumulated. While this won’t help your mortgage it could hurt it one day if our country’s borrowing costs start rising. But as a friend of mine said, “The U.S. is still the only game in town so we are [...]

If you’re looking for something to do on a weekend have I got a project for you. The California Department of Real Estate has published a handy dandy guide to doing your own loan modification. This is certainly time well spent, if for no other reason then to have a huge bucket of financial reality [...]

I recently received several questions about whether or not someone financing a home today should get a fixed rate loan or an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM).  Also an old friend alarmingly pointed out to me how many ARMs are being done in this low interest rate period.  Notice the foreshadowing…..Don’t get an ARM.  While I [...]

Today we answer a listener’s question. The question is simply, “Is it a good time to refinance, what are interest rates at, and what must one consider if they have no equity and about refinances in general.” Listen to “Capital gains and Equity Sharing” If you have any questions you would like us to answer [...]

Today we welcome a guest blogger… Brandon Laughridge from MortgageLoanPlace.com Mortgage refinance applications continue to pour in nationwide as homeowners look to take advantage of falling rates. As a whole, mortgage applications in mid-September hit their highest level since May, with refinancing applications increasing 17 percent from the week prior, according to data from the [...]

On this week’s show we handle two interesting equity questions. The first is “You have a property that has substantial amounts of equity, you want to sell the property and move to another property, can the equity from Property A follow you to Property B without having to pay any capital gains? What other alternatives [...]

What’s the difference between a recourse and a non-recourse loan? and How much equity should one have in a property before considering a cash out refinance? This week we answer these two listener questions. A recourse loan allows the lender to try to collect the money they lose on a foreclosure or short-sale from the [...]

This week we answer another listener question; “How does one know if they’re paying just interest or they’re paying down principal? Would their mortgage payment be just the interest or would it be substantially more? Who decides what gets applied to the mortgage payment once the interest has been calculated and figured out by the [...]