Mortgage Calculator

A friend and client of mine is a mortgage broker in South Florida. He’s feeling the heat of news stories from the likes of the one I’m about to parse for you. I’ve been on a rant lately about debt and how the housing market will be a slow, non-newsworthy unwinding that could take a few years to play out and take the rest of the economy with it. So naturally, when I first see a story like this one I see it as support for my position, however, I want to make it clear that I never felt the mortgage brokers were at fault.

last night was one of those rare summer evenings warm enough to walk around in a tshirt and actually feel like you live in california, not some foggy, wind-swept archipelago in patagonia. but then, it is the hottest the earth has been in 2,000 years, so perhaps perchance this portends better weather for sf. but lets hope not, because it's the bad weather that's kept people away and housing prices in the affordable 3/4 of a million dollars range [insert bitter sarcasm].

If you me a predictable monthly income and feel reasonably certain that your job is secure, you may want to consider putting down as much as 20%. It will certainly bring you smaller monthly payments, instant equity, an investment in that neighborhood’s growth, and you’ll avoid paying mortgage insurance (PMI).

An economist in Boston, Alan Clayton Matthews, knows a great deal about the Massachusetts economy. Some years ago, we were talking about the story that out-of-sight housing prices were strangling economic growth—i.e. there was a housing shortage. Alan said that worrying about the housing stock per se was the wrong way to think about things. Potential residents—the Creative Class?—weren’t looking for just housing. They were looking for housing in communities with good schools.

All in all, we have similar challenges to other cities of similar size. The gap between the haves and have-nots is too wide and growing (especially with all of the new development increasing housing prices).

A person from Groton asked "why housing prices in MASS are so high, and why we let developers get rich with the Chapter 40B boondoggle?"

Mr. Patrick - There is no silver bullett to solve this problem. "We don't build enough clustered multi-family rental housing."

Because San Francisco is so ludicrously expensive, at 25 I am looking for two to three random roommates to move in with by July 1st. I can’t afford a studio, I can’t afford a one bedroom, and sweet baby jesus I can’t even afford a TWO bedroom with one other roommate. That’s just how ridiculous it is.

He talked about finding motivated sellers by placing newspaper ads. He also suggested putting together a “power team” of people from code enforcement, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers.

On the divorce front, apparently Paul's lawyer has changes to make to the settlement before I'll see it again. I'm hoping that comes soon. I've got mortgage brokers lined up, paperwork started and everything ready to go to get it done before the ink has even completed drying on the settlement.

From my viewpoint out here in the countryside, I see the two nearest cities, Lacey and Yelm, growing at a great rate. There are new housing developments everywhere as people seek lower housing prices than those in the big city (Seattle) and the local smaller cities seek to increase their tax revenues. But a common worry is that the available supplies of fresh water from aquifers cannot sustain the rapidly growing populations. The cities are thinking about imposing development moratoria and publicly wonder where the drinking water will come from in the future.

For what it’s worth, part of the reason the housing here is so damned expensive is that we got a big influx (as in, about half the population) from California a few years back. These folks came armed with cash and didn’t need to depend on the local economy to buy their homes. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the local economy took one look at housing prices and snorted its drink all over the place. (Isn’t that a lovely picture?)

He also said housing prices affect gangs just like anyone else, with local members moving to the East Bay and the Central Valley for cheaper housing and commuting to the county to sell drugs.

Well if you are in the market for a home here in southern Maryland you better have a winning lottery ticket. Housing prices in the area have gone through the roof. Even in the average blue collar housing developments the prices have become out of reach for the average Pax contractor.This is just one more aspect of the the cost of living growing out of proportion with respect to the wages earned by contractors. The amount of the increase in home prices is well above the nation average. Click on Maryland and see for yourself on this page.

Fannie and Freddie subsidize the real estate mortgage market by buying mortgage loans originated by banks and other lending institutions. They also package mortgages and sell them to insurance companies, pension funds, and other financial institutions as mortgage-backed securities.

Use the mortgage calculator to work out each of the options that your lender quotes you. Some mortgage lenders will allow 0-2 discount points, with variations for different mortgage terms, but other lenders will allow more discount points up to a set maximum. What you want to avoid is being in either a break-even or paying more than you would without the discount points.

Here is the crux of the problem. Interest rates keep skyrocketing. Why? Our economy is slowing down, housing prices (at least where I live) are slowing…but the rates…the rates just keep climbing. The fed keeps raising them in hopes of reversing inflation. For nearly two years the fed has been hiking rates. Anyone try to buy a house lately? Did you get an interest only loan? Now you are stuck paying whatever the rates demand. Sure it was a great idea two or three years ago when rates were rock bottom, when our economy was showing signs of recovery from the fiasco of the 2000 election. What, you didn’t think there was a correlation? Please.

This is not just a frivilous little tool for fun’s sake. MySociety plans to use this technology to relate housing prices and travel times and calculate travel costs based on constraints of the users. Prices are often not incorporated into the calculations for estimating the model for choice in transportation and I believe, that this may have broader implications for community demographics and housing availability.

More than $106 million in home loans collapsed in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties in the first quarter of this year alone, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of data collected by RealeSTAT.com, a local commercial firm that gathers foreclosure and default records. A little more than $68 million in mortgages defaulted in the first quarter of 2005.

Despite signs of a slowdown in sales, housing prices are still rising, and more than expected.

But sometimes, it’s just too expensive to put community first. Housing prices have soared throughout the country. But what if we co-owned a multi-unit home, and moved in with friends? What if we committed to living within walking distance to our friends and church?