Entries by The KCM Crew

A 14% Home Mortgage Rate?

We have written on the long term impact that the new mortgage guidelines known as ‘Qualified Residential Mortgage’ (QRM) will have on the cost of financing a home. However, it seems that these expenses are already beginning to creep into lending. The QRM guidelines are much more rigid than those used in the last year. Though […]

Assets and Your Mortgage Application

When lenders evaluate mortgage borrowers, they look at four things: income (the ability to repay), credit (the willingness to repay), collateral (appraised value and property condition) and assets (cash in the deal and cash reserves after closing, mostly). Of the “four legs of the table”, assets are the least discussed, and yet may be the […]

Why Do People Actually Buy a Home?

It seems that every time we talk about real estate today the conversation immediately goes to the financial aspects of buying a home. Where are prices headed? Where are interest rates headed? Should I wait to try and get a ‘better buy’? Should I wait until I can get a ‘steal’? The odd thing about […]

Oct 1 – Another Bad Day for Real Estate

One of the ways the federal government tried to “rescue” housing was to raise the Conforming Loan Limits – which is the maximum loan that can be sold to FannieMae, FreddieMac and GinnieMae (for FHA loans). By raising loan limits, liquidity was provided to mortgage lenders enabling them to lend at competitive rates in most […]

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The Only Thing “Lousy” Was the Advice!

We read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday titled A Home Is a Lousy Investment. It was written by Mr. Bridges, a professor of clinical finance and business economics at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. The essence of the piece is that owning a home is not […]

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Bringing the Sale Across the Finish Line

Today, we are honored to have Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D. — Florida International University (FIU) and Editor of the Journal of Housing Research as our guest blogger. To view other research from FIU, visit http://realestate.fiu.edu/. – The KCM Crew The negotiation of a sales agreement is a very difficult process. A well drafted sales agreement almost cinches a […]

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Unemployment’s Impact on Housing

What impact does rising unemployment have on the real estate market? Actually, it is quite simple: Rising unemployment creates uncertainty. Uncertainty creates fear. Fear creates paralysis. Paralysis prevents people from moving forward with their lives. Don’t allow fear to stop you from getting on with your life. Realistically look at your personal situation and decide […]

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The Devil Is in the Details

Distressed Property InfoGraphic

CoreLogic information on Shadow Information:

http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/researchtrends/shadow-inventory.aspx

LPS information on inventory/sales ratio:

http://www.lpsvcs.com/LPSCorporateInformation/ResourceCenter/PressResources/MortgageMonitor/201105MortgageMonitor/LPSMortgageMonitorMay2011.pdf

RealtyTrac information on discounts on short sales and foreclosures:

http://www.realtytrac.com/content/news-and-opinion/foreclosure-homes-account-for-28-percent-of-q1-2011-sales-6586

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Let’s Get Chicken Little

You all know the story…young chicken, fearful of the worst, runs around declaring that “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”. In today’s real estate market, there are many people (professionals and amateurs alike) with opinions that make buying real estate sound like throwing money away. One thing I have learned in life is […]

Have We Forgotten Something?

Over the past few weeks and months, the media,  so-called experts and most of our friends and relatives seemed to have almost soured on buying a home at this time. With fear of a fragile economy and high unemployment rates, who can argue with caution? When the pervasive sentiment among even real estate and mortgage professionals […]

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Housing Market Casting a Smaller Shadow

The inventory of future short sales and foreclosures which will be coming to the market is known as ‘shadow inventory’. Future real estate pricing will be determined by the number of these distressed properties which eventually reach the market. These properties sell at major discounts: short sales at a 10% discount foreclosures at a 35% […]

Are You About to Expire?

A listing contract on a house for sale has a termination date. If the house reaches this date without being sold, it is called an ‘expired’ listing meaning it is no longer for sale under the previous contract. The end of June historically is a time when many listing contracts come to termination. There will […]

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House Prices Through 2015

Everyone seems to have an opinion on where home prices are headed. Housing bulls are saying prices may start rebounding as early as later this year. Some housing bears are saying that prices may still drop another 10-15%. What actually is going to happen? No one knows for sure. However, Macro Markets, a financial technology […]

Simple, Yet Deep

The KCM Crew, Dean Hartman and I attempt to write a quality post each and every day on this blog. However, perhaps the greatest insight ever delivered on this blog was in a comment posted yesterday by Nathan Hosier: “We can remain afraid to buy and let all of the great deals out there pass […]