Mortgage Calculator

A couple days ago I read a blog entry by Doug K over Forty Years on Two Wheels about what he thinks about inside his helmet while he rides. For some reason that struck a chord with me and over the weekend I was more aware of what I was thinking about then I’d venture I normally am and as I rolled through it all I couldn’t help but think that Doug was dead-on on so many levels. Perhaps the only thing he left out - which might be LA specific - is ‘damn housing prices are out of control’….

The Post Gazette has a great article called “Puts & Calls: It’s your housing bubble and I’m paying for it” that was published on Sunday. Here’s a great clip from the story:

But housing prices being what they are, it seems that most teachers (and there are certainly more than 1,000in the area) certainly could use some help. While I am generally not a big fan of Prince George's County government, this bold step is a positive one. I don't think it is a silver bullet, but getting teachers into the community they serve will only help the community and the education of the kids. In a county which consistently ranks near the bottom of state achievement scores, any step forward is a good one.

Mortgage Brokers are companies that originate loans with the intention of brokering them to wholesale lending institutions. A broker has established relationships with these companies. Underwriting and funding takes place at the wholesale lender. Many mortgage brokers are also correspondents, which is why many of them also claim to be mortgage bankers.

Add to that Brooks’ rather apt concept of the Bobo. As the tech sector exploded on Portland’s west-side, between Beaverton and Hillsboro, young professionals flooded the city, buying faux loft-style appartments downtown and turning the Pearl District, once a low-cost district where indie artists started galleries and microbrews set up shop, into a disgusting yuppie hang-out. Similar development along 23rd and 21st Aves. in northwest, Hawthorn and Belmont on the eastside, Woodstock in the southeast, and now Albina and Mississippi Sts. in the traditionally African-American areas of north Portland, have increased housing prices and displaced poor and middle-class families.

Oh, I’ll grant you that housing prices are high. They’re at nosebleed levels in some areas of the country, and still they keep climbing. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, national median home prices have climbed at an annualized rate of 8.2% from the fourth quarter of 2001 to the fourth quarter of 2004.

Oh, never mind. ABC’s This Week was inexplicable this morning, with Steph first talking to Barney Frank and others about housing prices. He spoke with Republican Representative Walter “Freedom Fries” Jones of North Carolina about pulling our troops out of Iraq. And he talked to Holloywood actor Brad Pitt, who recently split with JenBen and Bono.

I know, I know, it can be a tedious topic but this issue touches all of us. Would you agree that housing prices are a key economic indicator? I assume most agree that they are. Even if you are a renter, housing prices affect you. It’s simple supply and demand. The fewer people that can afford homes means higher demand for rentals. Higher demand equals higher prices.

No wonder housing prices are skyrocketing in California, Arizona and other states…we have millions of people who shouldn’t even be here in the first place, competing for homes against legal residents.

Didier Sornette's and Wei-Xing Zhou's analysis differs from just two years ago, when there was no sign of the faster-than-exponential growth characteristic of a bubble. Their conclusions are strengthened by their successful prediction of a housing bubble in the United Kingdom in 2003, where housing prices began dropping in July 2004. Their analysis is nifty, and the mathematics are simple and straightforward. Soon might be a good time to sell.

Calculated Risk displays a map from the paper showing the bubble states and the non-bubble states. According to the authors, Illinois (along with a good swath of the midwest and south) is a non-bubble state. Of course, there is good reason to be wary any time housing prices get above their fundamentals in large areas of the country. Even in areas where there is presently no bubble, the situation bears watching. There is a frenzied nature to the market in places like California and Florida that is unsettling indeed.

Timothy Middleton has a very interesting article on how to limit the damage from significant declines in housing prices. Tim talks about 7 ways to beat a housing bubble. Here are 2 of his points.

Another indication of a bubble is the growing disconnect between housing prices and rents. One reason demand for housing is so hot is that nearly one quarter of all buyers are investors. They're creating an unprecedented glut of vacancies that is driving rents down. Starting last year, for the first time since the Census Bureau started counting in the 1950s, the share of units that were vacant topped 10 percent annually. As a result, median rent in the United States dropped from $620 last spring to $608 in the first quarter of this year.

All loans have fees associated with them. There are home appraisals, paperwork fees, mortgage insurance fees, and additional "points" added to the cost of the loan. In general, the costs of taking out a reverse mortgage are higher than those associated with a traditional mortgage. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that the time period for receiving repayment of the loan is indefinite, typically depending on how long the borrower lives. This uncertainty is added into the loan in the form of additional fees.

The real heart of your question is, “Why do closing costs vary so much from lender to lender?” There are several reasons for this. Mortgage brokers work through “wholesale lenders” who actually provide the money for the loans. Each lender sets its own administration and underwriting fees to cover their overhead expenses. These fees are typically passed on to the borrower, and they range from $400 to $700, depending on which lender the mortgage broker is using. So that accounts for some of the variation in closing cost estimates....

Calculate the lowest mortgage and loan rates. This mortgage calculator will help you understand your monthly payments of your loan and explain how your

Foreclosure scams are on the rise especially in areas where housing prices have more values than its house loan . The States of Virginia, Maryland and DC have begun looking into cases of foreclosure scams in this area. Typically, scam artists would lure desperate homeowners with promises to pay their overdue loan and rent it back to the owners with the chance of buying the property back. Sounds good, right? But wait a minute, as usual...the devil is on the details.

My parents are finally looking to move into bigger and better digs. Unfortunately, so is everyone else. Housing prices have ballooned so much that even the Fed is questioning whether they should step in and burst the bubble.

Two mortgage insurance premiums are collected to pay for HECM: an up front premium (2 percent of the home’s value), which can be financed by the lender, and a monthly premium (which equals 0.5 percent per year of the mortgage balance). The lender’s loan origination charge can vary, but only up to $1,800 in such charges may be financed by HECM. Borrowers may be charged appraisal and inspection fees set by HUD; these charges can also be financed.

Average mortgage rates for single-family homes in the 10 largest metropolitan areas as of June 1 as compiled by bankrate.com. The rates are for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages for 80 percent of the value of the house. A point is a one-time fee equaling one percent of mortgage.

Housing prices are ballooning in some states. Nevada had the highest price appreciation of 31.2% in the 12-month period, followed by California and Hawaii, with 25.4% and 24.4%, respectively. Texas and Indiana showed the slowest price increases of 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively, Ofheo reported.