Economic stimulus package, has it helped?
By Mr. B | March 28, 2008
I read a great article about the new conforming loan limits today in the san Jose Mercury news. It echos everything I have been seeing from the lenders. I was hoping that the economic stimulus package was going to have a larger impact that it has. My phone has been ringing off the hook lately from people needing to get a debt consolidation loan. Many have a jumbo first loan and a small second they they want to combine and get a fixed rate payment on. With the values dropping in Santa Clara County, almost every one of them wants to convert their short term ARM to a 30 yr fixed rate with an affordable payment. With the current jumbo 30 year fixed rates being as ugly as they are, it doesn’t make sense for them to do it. With the new conforming limits these loans should be possible at much lower rates. The guidelines for the new loans are so strict, the impact we were hoping for may never happen. I can understand lenders being conservative on the loans they underwrite, but please…. Let’s bring back some common sense underwriting and let the qualified borrowers take advantage of the ecomomic package as it was intended.
Topics: Mortgage, Brokers, Mortgage Brokers | No Comments »
Interested in REO Properties?
By Andy | February 14, 2008
We have them go to www.MeridianCreek.com and click foreclosures. We have them in San Jose and the surrounding areas.
We have new REO’s coming to our website almost everyday so check back often.
If you are interested in working with our REO department contact me and we will make sure you are fully informed about our REO department opportunities, properties and properties that will be available shortly.
Andy Russo
Realtor/G.R.I.
Associate Broker
Senior Financing Consultant
Direct (408) 694-6805
Cell (408) 221-2397
Fax (866) 618-3886
Email Andy@MeridianCreek.com
Topics: REO Department | No Comments »
He signed it ! A step in the right direction.
By Andy | February 14, 2008
President Bush today signed off on the $168 billion stimulus package approved by Congress last week, which, in addition to tax rebates for millions of working Americans and business owners, includes a vital, but temporary increase in the conforming loan limit. The economic stimulus package will allow the Federal Housing Administration, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offer mortgages above the current conforming loan limit of $417,000 to as much as $729,750 in high-cost areas for loans originated between July 1, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2008.
“The actions of Congress and our president represent a significant victory for homeowners across the state and nationwide,” said C.A.R. President William E. Brown. “C.A.R. has long fought for increases to the conforming loan limit in order to close the gap for would-be home buyers in high-cost areas, such as California, and, with the spotlight now fully shining on this important issue, will continue those efforts and push for permanent changes beyond Dec. 31.”
Topics: Real Estate | No Comments »
Feds Announce Plan To Delay Foreclosures
By Andy | February 12, 2008
WASHINGTON - Homeowners threatened with foreclosure would in some instances get a 30-day reprieve under an initiative the Bush administration announced Tuesday.
Dubbed “Project Lifeline,” the program will be available to people who have taken out all types of mortgages, not just the high-cost subprime loans that have been the focus of previous relief efforts.
The program was put together by six of the nation’s largest financial institutions, which service almost 50 percent of the nation’s mortgages.
These lenders say they will contact homeowners who are 90 or more days overdue on their monthly mortgage payments. The homeowners will be given the opportunity to put the foreclosure process on pause for 30 days while the lenders try to work out a way to make the mortgage more affordable to homeowners.
“Project Lifeline is a valuable response, literally a lifeline, for people on the brink of the final steps in foreclosure,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said at a joint news conference with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
He said the goal was to provide a temporary pause in the foreclosure process “long enough to find a way out” by letting homeowners and lenders negotiate a more affordable mortgage.
Paulson said the new effort was just one of a number of approaches the administration was pursuing with the mortgage industry to deal with the country’s worst housing slump in more than two decades.
In December, President Bush announced a deal brokered with the mortgage industry that will freeze certain subprime loans — those offered to borrowers with weak credit histories — for five years if the borrowers cannot afford the higher monthly payments as those mortgages reset after being at lower introductory rates.
“As our economy works through this difficult period, we will look for additional opportunities to try to avoid preventable foreclosures,” Paulson said. “However, none of these efforts are a silver bullet that will undo the excesses of the past years, nor are they designed to bail out real estate speculators or those who committed fraud during the mortgage process.”
In coming days, lenders will begin sending letters to homeowners who might qualify for the new program. Homeowners won’t qualify if they have entered bankruptcy, if they already have a foreclosure date within 30 days, or if the home loan was taken out to cover an investment property or a vacation home.
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that at least 1.3 million home mortgage loans were either seriously delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of the July-September quarter.
Private economists are forecasting that the number of foreclosures could soar to 1 million this year and next, about double the 2007 rate.
Officials did not have an estimate of how many people might be helped by the new “Project Lifeline” program.
Democratic critics said the administration was still not doing enough to help with a serious crisis that has slowed the overall economy to a near standstill and raised worries about a full-blown recession.
In a statement, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said that last year she had called for a 90-day moratorium on subprime foreclosures. She said the administration has been slow to react to the unfolding crisis.
“The administration’s latest initiative is welcome news, but more remains to be done,” she said in a statement.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the finance industry and the administration were falling further and further behind in dealing with the growing crisis.
“This plan, while a step in the right direction, will not stem the tide of the millions of foreclosures we are facing in the coming months,” Dodd said in a statement. His committee will hold a hearing on the housing crisis on Thursday with testimony from Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The six participating banks are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. Countrywide Financial Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
They are all members of the Hope Now Alliance, an industry group that is trying to coordinate a response to the mortgage crisis. Officials urged homeowners to call the group’s toll free hot line number at 1-888-995-HOPE for assistance.
Topics: Mortgage | No Comments »
NAR Says Economic Stimulus Legislation Will Help Jumpstart Sluggish Housing Market
By Andy | February 4, 2008
WASHINGTON, January 29, 2008 -
The National Association of Realtors congratulated the U.S. House of Representatives and President Bush for their bipartisan actions to help families in need, the housing market, and the U.S. economy.
“We believe the economic stimulus bill approved by the House today is a good legislation in that it can quickly be signed into law, quickly be implemented, and therefore, would quickly have an impact on families and the nation’s economy. We are pleased that both the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSE) loan limits have been increased, even if only temporarily,” said Richard Gaylord, NAR president.
NAR has been actively engaged in promoting an increase to the loan limits for FHA and the GSEs for many months. “Our research highlights that increasing FHA loan limits will help an additional 138,000 Americans achieve the dream of home ownership and will allow nearly 200,000 homeowners to refinance and potentially keep their home,” Gaylord said. “In addition, NAR believes that increasing the loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will bolster the housing finance market, which continues to be severely stressed, by providing an immediate infusion of much needed liquidity to the nation’s mortgage market. While such an increase will not solve the full range of housing challenges, it will play an important role in improving the nation’s economy,” said Gaylord
An economic impact study conducted by NAR earlier this month estimated that increasing the GSEs’ conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated. “These are real results and can have an immediate and sustainable impact for families across our country,” said Gaylord.
“We are also pleased that the House made the GSE limits retroactive to July 1, 2007. This too will provide greater liquidity to the market by allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase more mortgages,” Gaylord said.
Additionally, NAR recognized the favorable tax treatment in the bill for certain commercial building improvements and noted the immediate positive impact this could have on cash flow.
While pleased with the quick action to pass the economic stimulus package, NAR urged Congress to complete broader FHA reform legislation. These reforms, including reducing down payment requirements and streamlining certain FHA processes, would make FHA more accessible to many more American families and further jumpstart the housing market. “We would also like to see the increase to the loan limits made permanent and we will continue to work with Congress and the administration to pass legislation that modernizes the FHA making it a more viable alternative, and permanently increases the loan limits for both FHA and the GSEs,” Gaylord said.
The National Association of Realtors, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.3 million members involved in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate industries. NAR is the leading advocate for homeownership, affordable housing and private property rights.
This information is provided by the National Association of Realtors
Topics: Mortgage | 1 Comment »
The Mortgage Meltdown explained in plain English
By Capt. Krusty | January 18, 2008
The Mortgage Meltdown explained in plain English
…and how to turn it around!
I found an article the other day on MSN that attempted to place blame for the current mortgage mess. The article tried to blame several individuals from former Chairman of the Fed Alan Greenspan to the head of Countrywide, Angelo Mozilo. I have read articles recently blaming the Mortgage Broker on Main Street USA, others blaming loose underwriting guidelines, and others still placing the blame on the American Consumer. The MSN article went on to explain that the truth of who to blame may never be known because the Credit Crisis is so complicated and so difficult to understand that we may never know exactly who or what caused it.
The crisis isn’t difficult to understand, and it’s not that complicated, it’s actually fairly simple. The entire meltdown was created by greed. Every day, ordinary, run of the mill, Greed.
Remember the Dot Com explosion of the late 90’s and the collapse in 2000? That was greed. We want so badly to believe it is possible to make a quick buck that we will force ourselves to believe anything. In the Dot Com debacle, companies named XYZ.com with a questionable business plan and even a more questionable product or service were suddenly worth a billion dollars! And many of these companies hadn’t yet even built a marketable product. Their stock was trading at astronomical values simply because somebody thought it was worth $1.00 per share so it certainly must be worth $2.00 per share on speculation. Suddenly the stock is at $40.00 per share, based solely on speculation because remember, this company hadn’t earned a dime of revenue yet. Soon everybody jumped in to a quickly growing stock and because of simple supply and demand, it shot to $200.00 per share.
The current mortgage problem was nothing more than greed. Over a period of four or five years Wall Street experienced increasingly fewer losses from risky loans. The big investment banks became bolder, and why not. Property values were increasing, the economy was good, and if they repossessed a property they could easily sell it for enough to cover their loan. As the good times continued Wall Street figured out that the bolder the guidelines the higher the interest rate they could demand so guidelines got even riskier. A borrower with poor credit, somebody who clearly had demonstrated that paying their bills (including their housing payment) on time had never been important or possible, could suddenly purchase a home without proving their income or that they had even a penny in the bank to cover contingencies. With good credit the sky was the limit. Borrowers could buy multiple rental properties along with a home for themselves they couldn’t afford if there was a single hiccup in the future. And nobody, the borrower, the loan officer, or the investor cared a bit because the housing values continued to rise.
As guidelines for mortgages eased, the demand for housing increased. More and more people started to believe they could become wealthy through real estate. The building industry took on a life of its own. In some markets, Las Vegas and Phoenix for instance, a huge percentage (25-35%) of the work force was involved in the building industry. The building of homes was creating its own economy.
Then came late 2006, the economy slowed down and mortgage guidelines got a bit more stringent. Some of the smart investors decided they were happy with their profits and sold their rental homes. As more and more homes went on the market, more builders found themselves suddenly with inventory and in a very short period of time. Prices began to fall and homeowners who had purchased their homes with 100% financing suddenly found themselves upside down. For the first time in years sellers couldn’t sell their home for a profit and often for what they owed. Foreclosures began to rise.
With a sudden spike in foreclosures in late 2006, investment bankers started to lose confidence in their mortgage cash cow. When Own-It ran into problems in November of 2006, Merrill Lynch cut their losses and pulled the rug out from under them. Others began to follow suit and the industry rushed to tighten underwriting guidelines for new loans. As foreclosures rose even more in early 2007, Wall Street backed even further away from their golden child.
Initially this was called a liquidity crisis. Mortgage Bankers needed more money to fund loans and handle buybacks but the stream of cash had dried up. Business was down and expenses were still up so layoffs were inevitable.
The mainstream media, always happy to find bad news to report jumped all over the crisis and the public perception worsened which served to make the mortgage and real estate market even tighter.
So here we find ourselves in the winter of 2008. In terms of business it is a cold and bitter winter for many. But have you noticed that some Loan Officers in your market are busy? Have you noticed that some Mortgage shops are hiring while others are going out of business?
Motion creates Emotion. It’s time to get off our tails and get moving. That funny looking silent box on your desk with the handset and the curly cord is called a phone. It is a two way device that, when not ringing, can also be used to dial your customers. I guarantee you that if you pick up the phone and start calling, you will find loans. Call everybody you know, those who you did loans for in the past two years, call people you know that you didn’t do loans for. Say this, “I am calling everybody I know. In light of the mortgage problems in our country, I am calling to make sure the loan you have on your home now is the right loan for your current situation”. Find out what type of loan they have, how many loans they have against their home. Can you put them in a better situation? If not, remind them that you live from referrals. Do they know anybody looking to buy or sell their home?
Motion creates Emotion. If you get started, you will succeed, and not just once. Once you began to make a few calls and do a little marketing, things will start to happen. Soon your entire outlook will change as things start moving in your pipeline again. The trick is to get started. Don’t even wait to finish this article, make a phone call right now. When was the last time you engaged your past clients and sphere of influence?
Here’s the good news. In the late 1990’s and even the early 2000’s, subprime was nearly non-existent. The only 100% loan available was VA, if you weren’t a Veteran the best deal going was FHA’s 97% loan. And there was no such thing as Stated Income or Stated Asset loans. It was full doc or nothing.
I don’t want to sound like the old guy who walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways, but we need to remember that a lot of us made great money in the 1990’s and before. This market will improve but until it does let’s work smarter, not harder. Make some calls, your past clients will be happy to hear from you. Set up a database marketing system, there are several good ones available. Get your nose out of the media and get back to work.
Prosperity is just around the corner!
Dan Sullivan is the VP of Sales and a Managing Director for Velma.com, a Virtual Marketing Assistant for Mortgage Loan Officers. He entered the industry in 1987 and has been a successful originator, a wholesale Account Executive for Countrywide, and previously led a marketing company. Dan has served on the Board of Directors for the Idaho Mortgage Lending Association and is a current board member of the Idaho Mortgage Brokers Association. You can contact Dan at 208-854-7905 or email him at dsullivan@velma.com
Topics: Mortgage | 5 Comments »
97.4% of homeowner pay mortgages on time!
By Capt. Krusty | January 15, 2008
“News” that never seems to make it into the headlines…
97.4% of homeowner pay mortgages on time!!!
(Scary foreclosures not as widespread as it seems…)
By Dave Walsh
Article Launched: 09/27/2007 07:05:50 PM PDT
SAN JOSE - Just how bad is our local housing market? If you believe the numerous news articles that are bombarding us on a daily basis, it’s getting really scary out there.
Let’s start with the top story featured in every type of local and national news outlet: U.S. Home Foreclosures Soar… (Mercury News 9/18/07).
The national and regional foreclosure and mortgage delinquency picture is largely the result of a very complex set of circumstances that has ended up making a significant negative impact on our local marketplace. Should we here in Silicon Valley be as worried and alarmed as the headline writers would have us be? Should we be fearful that the fallout from the sub-prime loan collapse and increases in housing inventory signal the long predicted downturn to the once robust Santa Clara County housing market? Or should we take a moment and truly reflect on the power the media has to create negative perceptions about circumstances that eventually impact our behavior?
Now I do understand that foreclosures in Santa Clara County of any amount can be disastrous for the families involved; and unfortunately, there are some really sad situations. Often time through naiveté, misunderstandings and little fault of their own, they became involved in their version of the “American Nightmare” instead of the “American Dream”. These are tragic, but I believe that they are a minor amount of today’s foreclosure news, especially in our local marketplace.
Yet the headlines continue to scream “danger”. All you have to do is pick up any major paper or log on to any news site to hear dire warnings that the rise of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures is signaling impending financial doom and gloom. If that message is broadcast consistently enough will it become truth? Apparently so. The negative perceptions have become so strong that many buyers are adopting a wait and see attitude, or even an expectation of a significant price drop. Consequently, instead of enjoying a healthy market based on opportunities they have lacked for several years, buyers are being led to believe that it is a dangerous time to jump in. Unfortunately, the adage that “negative news sells papers” is truer today than it ever has been before and people are much quicker to believe the negative than they are to accept positive. It is getting scary out there; too scary to trust what you hear and read.
The real story behind the headlines is actually some pretty good news. If you’re looking to sell papers, you quote the rising level of mortgage delinquencies and impending foreclosures. If you’re not selling papers, and you look closely at the data, you realize that it’s not as bad as the news sources would have you believe. In fact, for the overwhelming majority of homeowners across the country, delinquencies and foreclosures are not issues – they simply do something very un-newsworthy; they make their house payments on time and as agreed.
But how can that be!?! Can the headlines be wrong? No, not wrong, just not telling the whole story. A recent article in the Mercury News (9/13/07) by nationally syndicated real estate columnist Kenneth R. Harney explained it best;
“To begin with, remember that mortgage delinquency problems only affect people with outstanding loans, and more than 1 out of 3 homeowners own their properties debt-free. Of the remaining two-thirds of all owners with active mortgage accounts - the latest survey examined 44 million of them - prime loans that are 30 days past due or more constitute just 2.6 percent of all loans nationwide. In other words, among mortgages made to borrowers with good credit at application, 97.4 percent are continuing to be paid on time.”
Stop the presses! Did he say 97.4% of borrowers are paying their mortgages as agreed!?! Wow! That’s great news, but unfortunately, that will never be seen in a headline. Why? Because news papers don’t care to write articles about “good” news; it doesn’t sell papers. But there’s more good news…
Harney continued with “In some states, delinquencies among prime borrowers are far lower - just 1.35 percent in Oregon, 1.39 percent in Washington, 1.89 percent in Virginia and 1.9 percent in California. Prime-credit borrowers who took out fixed-rate loans in most states are performing even better than prime borrowers as a whole - just over 2 percent on average nationally, and barely over 1 percent in California, Oregon, Hawaii and Washington, are paying late.” Holy smokes! There’s a teaser lead-in that you’ll never hear on the nightly news; “Almost 99% of credit worthy borrowers in California are making their monthly mortgage payments!” Why not you ask? Because the viewers wouldn’t bother to tune in and advertisers won’t buy commercial time on programs people aren’t watching. Darn all that good news!
But surely there must be some way to keep those internet news sites writing shocking headlines? How about all those lowly “sub-prime borrowers”? They can’t be paying on time too can they? Unfortunately for the newsies, the overwhelming majority of them are. Harney reports that according to the survey “85.5 percent of sub-prime borrowers are still paying on time every month”. So, if I understand this correctly, even the majority of the “high risk” borrowers are making their payments on time and as agreed. In fact, in California, where borrowers with prime credit outperform most of the country in on-time payments, the same can be said about our sub prime homeowners; 87.4% of sub-prime homeowners in California are making on-time payments. I can see it now; “Yahoo news reports that 87.4% of high risk borrowers aren’t so risky after all”. Yikes! That’s almost enough positive information to make the web news sites to go back to Paris Hilton for their headline material!
What about the record jumps in new foreclosure filings you ask? Harney answers:
“Here again, you’ve got to look closely at the hard data in the survey. In 34 states, the rate of new foreclosures actually decreased. In most other states, the increases were minor - except in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, where they were attributable in part to investors walking away from condos, second homes and rental houses they bought during the boom years.”
“Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, says that without the foreclosure spikes in those states, “we would have seen a nationwide drop in the rate of foreclosure filings.” In Nevada, for instance, non-owner-occupied (investor) loans accounted for 32 percent of all serious delinquencies and new foreclosure actions. In Florida, the investor share of serious delinquencies was 25 percent, in Arizona, 26 percent and in California, it was 21 percent. That compares with a rate of 13 percent for the rest of the country.” So, investors who speculated that there would always be an endless opportunity to “flip” properties for a higher profit are deciding that giving the property back to the bank isn’t a bad idea in certain overbuilt markets. Harney sums it all up well with his concluding paragraph:
“The scary foreclosure and delinquency rates you’re hearing about are for real. But they’re highly concentrated - among loan types, local and regional economies, and are especially prevalent among investors in formerly high-flying markets who are finally throwing in the towel.” It’s hardly worth the effort of writing a decent headline.
Well, if the headlines can’t depress people with over the top foreclosure and mortgage delinquency “news”, then they’ll go after the obviously slowing local real estate market. After all, interest rates are rising sky high! Really? I hadn’t noticed. In fact, the California Association of Realtors August housing report states that “thirty year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 6.57 percent during August 2007, compared with 6.52 percent in August 2006, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 5.67 percent in August 2007 compared with 5.64 percent in August 2006.”
But homes aren’t selling at the same pace they used to! The market has slowed way down! Buyers are standing on the sideline and not willing to buy! The C.A.R. report says “the median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 55.5 days in August 2007, compared with 50.9 days for the same period a year ago.” Hardly much of a change in either of those significant data points don’t you think? I can see the Governor’s news conference now; “Freddie Mac is reporting a 5/100ths of a percent increase change in the interest rates since August 2006 along with a lengthening of the time it takes for an average home to sell by 110.4 hours.” Now that’s guaranteed to make viewers tune in.
If you are open to good news, there is plenty of it around. Were you aware that 1,117 residential properties closed sale in August of this year county wide according to REIL, our local MLS service? Clearly this is not setting all time records, but it’s still a healthy pace. In spite of the relentless negative housing news, 1,117 homeowners sold and 1,117 buyers bought. I wonder what they were thinking. Were they aware that “conventional wisdom” says that this is not the best of markets? Maybe they were all desperate sellers who had to sell or unsophisticated buyers too slow to know any better.
The reality is probably the same as it always has been in Santa Clara County. We are in the midst of a very “normal” market. There are great opportunities for buyers and the interest rates are still historically quite low. Sellers who have seen a long (5+ year) gain in appreciation have plenty of equity to cash in. The real question is how the public will respond to the endless negative housing market news that they are inundated with 24/7. Are our Silicon Valley neighbors sophisticated enough to see beyond the alarmist headlines? I hope so. Will they become part of the 97.4% of homeowners who buy intelligently, within their means, with fully documented underwriting criteria? I’d guess yes. Will they be buying homes with hopes of future appreciation like all of their predecessors? Definitely. Should the dream of homeownership still be alive and well in Santa Clara County? Absolutely! Will we be successful in getting the message out before it’s too late for buyers and sellers to take advantage of the opportunities that a healthy real estate market has to offer? I hope not.
Topics: Real Estate, Mortgage | No Comments »
Praise the Lord for Hurricanes and Tigers
By Mr. B | January 14, 2008
“PRAISE THE LORD FOR HURRICANES AND TIGERS”
Wow, finally a little breathing room. It took a 100 year storm and a Christmas day tiger mauling to get the media off our backs, and now with the national primaries looming around we think local media finally found something else to play with…at least for the time being. Our industry and all the ancillary support industries have really suffered a bad case of “media burn” in the past twelve months. For some unknown reason we started taking more frequent media” hits” than usual early in the year (2006) and it just kept building (feeding frenzy, or lack of some natural disaster ? who knows) Normally ( being an old marketing dude) my thinking would lead to “any publicity is good publicity”, however what’s been put out to the public by our local media had little relevance to our real world (No. Cal housing market) or the truth, and has scared “Joe Buyer” (the consumer) into hiding
Now, as Popeye would say: “facts is facts”…so how do things get so distorted?
Three schools of thought on that one;
1.) Look for the most negative point in an issue (‘because we know that misery sells rating) ; ignore the positive, and run with it. Example: Mercury news 9/18/07, Headlines (as well as every other major media outlet in the country) “U.S. Home Foreclosures Soar”. when in reality only 2.4%of homeowners with an existing mortgage have defaulted or been foreclosed on, which means that 97.6% of the individuals that have active mortgage accounts are making their payments on time and their loan is healthy (nice twist!).
2.)Excessive use of “buzz words” and lack of knowledge of what they actually mean by those reporting, and failure to check the reliability of the resource being used. KRON (local evening Television news-mid Sept 07) Subject was “recast” on adjustable loans after hitting the 110% threshold. The recast is a really complex subject and the criteria varies from lender to lender, but of course in this case ALL adjustable loans were being classified as “Subprime”and the explanation sounded like Abbot and Costillo’s “Who’s on First?” In another instance, involving “ethnic fraud”, the article quoted two “expert” sources. Upon looking a little deeper, one of the individuals had been fired several times for alleged fraud, and the other had actually lost their license for unethical conduct….nobody bothered to check. the sources for reliability.
3.) Regional data from another area of the country being applied to our market. My favorite offender is Kenneth Harney, syndicated columnist who’s from Washing-ton D.C. and writes for the “Post.” We work in a totally unique market, and unless you live and do business here the Bay area complexities cannot be compared to the rest of the country. I remember several years back an ad that advertised “craftsman’s cottage, built 1946 , 950 sq. ft. close to downtown Palo Alto for $1,000,000” Folks from out of the area thought it was a cute practical joke!
Dave Walsh, incoming Prez for SCCAOR wrote several great articles on the same subject, and we’ll get them posted here…enough on my soap box today.
We need a little boost from the local media , so help keep the pressure on.
A good start is here on the watch dog blog , give us your opinion, or toss out a new subject…whatever you do… keep the faith and stay positive!
Capt. Krusty
Topics: Real Estate, Mortgage | No Comments »
Welcome to RE WATCHDOG!
By Mr. B | August 20, 2007
Welcome to RE WATCHDOG. This sight was developed as a platform to share information about the” true” state (condition) of the REAL ESTATE and MORTGAGE markets in California, specifically, BAY AREA and SILICON VALLEY REAL ESTATE. For the past 23 months the media has kept our industry in the headlines by utilizing some slightly distorted facts about HOUSING and MORTGAGE LENDING to create some sensationalism and sell the headlines. We’ve seen issues on HOUSING FRAUD (ethnic steering), SUBPRIME LENDING, INTEREST RATE FLUCTATIONS, SLUMPING HOUSING MARKET ,FAILING LENDERS AND NERVOUS INVESTORS all of which took a negative tack toward our industry. Hopefully we can keep ahead of the curve with a clean accurate exchange of information. We encourage both the REAL ESTATE and MORTGAGE LENDING professionals, with their wealth of knowledge and wisdom AND the consumers with questions and comments.
Topics: Real Estate, Mortgage, Opportunities, Realtors, Brokers, TIC, REO Department, Mortgage Brokers | No Comments »