Mortgage Calculator

A look at how policies related to mortgage insurance and other housing factors influences where houses are built.

In the Washington Post, Michael Grunwald has an article on how issues of affordable housing are being increasingly felt in the suburbs. One of the advantages of post-World War Two suburbanization has been a marked increase in relatively affordable housing–albeit highly subsidized by the federal government. As scholars such as Kenneth Jackson have argued, federal government policies related to mortgage insurance, highway construction, and various tax deductions have been historicaly skewed towards suburban development at the expense of inner-city investment.

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If you need a real estate agent, might want to ask a mortgage broker.

I took some business cards and stopped to talk with everyone that I thought could help out with my business and met some nice people. I met a couple of mortgage brokers that are kind of new in the business and said they do not have any realtors on my side of town yet and they promised to send me some leads.

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A realtor's view on mortgage rates and the real estate bubble.

The rub is that prices rose far more than could ever be justified by declining mortgage rates. That’s where the bubble kicked in. Today’s relatively low rates are not, and never were, a reason why prices would keep rising. Once real rates drop and stabilize, the impetus goes away - again, the gain is a one-time, not a recurring, phenomenon.

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Can banks compete with mortgage brokers?

At the other end of the spectrum mortgage brokers are now the preferred contact point for larger transactions, and people would rather spend time getting impartial advice from them and not their customer banking service rep.

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Home insurance increases have a smaller, but similar impact on housing prices as mortgage rate increases.

My prediction? The huge jump in home insurance costs that have forced Floridians to put homes on the market will force these same homeowners to drop their already inflated asking price, just to get out from under the insurance ax that is poised and ready to drop.

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If you can program Excel, it makes a great mortgage calculator.

The best mortgage calculator is Microsoft Excel. Try the function PMT and you will be amazed by the result.

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