Mortgage Calculator

This list of the highest-paying Google advertising keywords is exciting for its very dullness: if there’s one thing that’s become clear it’s that in 2006, the most aggressive users of keyword advertising are asbestos lawyers, ambulance chasers, and mortgage brokers.

In terms of the directory, I’ve added the following categories: Appraisers, Construction, Escrow, Handymen, Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Photographers, Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Lawyers, Real Estate Technology, and Title Companies. But the beauty of a wiki is that if I missed your line of work (assuming it is within real estate), simply edit the page and add your profession. (By the way, I haven’t added separate webpages for any of the people in the directory yet, but if you’d like to add a page to expand on yourself and the services you provide, feel free to create a page by putting your name in brackets, as in [John Doe].

Sometime in the future, this shooting star is going to correct itself. There is no way this can keep going forever. Vancouver is now the 3rd less affordable city in North America to live in. Housing prices has gone up so fast that income can’t keep up. You want to know which Canadian city has the most expensive housing price? I’m living in it. When I brought my first place I felt it was very expensive. Now I think I got a great deal! So I’m not scare to pay some pretty ridiculous prices for real estate at this time because I don’t see prices correcting themselves until about 2009 – 2010. So, for the next few years, I’ll be in buying mode.

More disturbing for us all is the federal deficit. It’s draining money from our economy, and raising interest rates. So, housing will cost more in the future, as will your mortgage loan.

Sure LA would be better with less smog (even though we have far, far less than we did 25 years ago. It would be better with less traffic, less crime, and fewer homeless. I'm sure we would be pleased if housing were less expensive, and water more plentiful. But guess what, if all of those things were true, you wouldn't be able to count the constant influx of people who would be driving housing prices up, adding to congestion and smog, etc.

Annette Haddad of the LA Times wrote an interesting article on real estate investors. I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging emails and speaking with Annette and can tell you she knows her stuff. The link is here, but I don’t know how long it’ll stay active. I’ve copied the full article below.

I say narrow-mindedly, because I have had an epiphany. I realize now that it is indeed unfair for sellers to benefit from such a pricing bubble. However, I think the politicians are wrong for looking at oil, since that bubble is only small potatoes. I propose we start with the much bigger bubble: In housing prices. In a time of housing shortages, it pains my heart to Americans profiteering from artificially high prices. Besides, oil companies actually do something useful with their windfall profits, like finding more oil; home sellers will just blow their proceeds on a big screen TV or something.

Freakonomics made me think about my business and all the people that I interact with on a daily basis from clients to home offices. Economics is a funny thing in that not a lot of people understand it. It is especially alarming to me that the financial advisors and planning industry is terribly misinforming the general public about what they should be doing financially. Most financial planners, much like stock brokers, real estate agents, life insurance agents, mortgage brokers and countless other “professionals” are misleading their clients in ways that are seriously detrimental to their financial health. There is so much garbage out there that is flat out wrong that it is no wonder there is so much consumer debt and lack of education out there. Unfortunately there just isn’t time right now to dispel some of the myths of traditional financial planning, but I will begin to illustrate, from an economic point of view, so of the fallacies that are hurting the American public. Some of the problems that I have in mind are taxable compound interest, “Buy Term and Invest the Difference”, Credit Card Debt, Term and Permanent Insurance, Dollar Cost Averaging, 15 year Mortgage’s just to name a few.

But like everyone says - the Bay Area is the best place in the world to live! Isn’t it worth giving up living to live here?

A few months ago, he traveled from his Harvard office to the Massachusetts State House, near Boston Common, to discuss with the leaders of the State Legislature a research project he had just completed on the local housing market. Between 1980 and 2000, four of the five cities in the U.S. with the fastest-growing housing prices were in Boston’s metropolitan area: Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and Boston itself. (Palo Alto had the second-fastest-rising prices over that time.) Glaeser and several colleagues considered two explanations.

I’ll add one more wrinkle into the mix. If housing prices level off and the annual rise in value dips below 4%, whose plan would be more beneficial to everyone? Obviously you would have to say Robey’s. If the assessed value isn’t increasing by at least 4%, there is no benefit to Feaga’s tax cut plan whatsoever whereas Robey’s plan would at least provide a concrete lowering in the amount of taxes owed, regardless of the value of the home.

I’ve seen how much entities like mortgage brokers are willing to pay for leads. It’s no wonder that phishers have such a financial incentive to engage in activity such as this.

When my sister was in college (PWI) her sociology professor told the class the plan in the Bay Area, but it can be seen everywhere, was for the minorities who had taken over the cities to move out to the suburbs. The plan eventually would see skyrocketing gas prices making it tough for folks to travel back into the city from those suburbs. While minorities were buying in the ‘burbs the white people would buy cheap inner city homes, move back and eventually be back in control of the city. Housing prices in the city would skyrocket making it difficult for minorities to get back in.

Amazing as it sounds, California housing prices continue to climb. Nationwide, housing prices have started to drop but this is not true for California. Californians continue to pay higher prices for the same home. Homes that were built and sold for under $50,000 are now selling for over $300,000.

Chapter 7: Shopping for and securing the Best Mortgage Terms

Today’s lofty prices can mean saving tens of thousands of dollars more for a down payment than in the past. But, it’s still a dream of many young adults to buy a first home.