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There has been a lot of bad press over the past year about real estate values declining, home loans being hard to get and foreclosure troubles with homeowners and lenders.  I have to admit it’s a very challenging time in the mortgage lending business.  In times of trouble there are also opportunities that present themselves […]

Source: ShutterstockWell, it’s really Millages. Millages. Millages.
I’m interrupting our series on Oakland County luxury homes today to bring you a post about property taxes. I was perusing a report on 2007 Oakland County Millage Rates and decided to see where we would find the highest property tax rates.
The winners:

Lathrup Village, where the homestead millage […]

Yesterday President Bush signed the economic stimulus bill into law. One of the key points in the Bill for the real estate industry was an increase in conventional loan limits.
The conventional loan limit has been set at $417,000 for the past 2 years. Loans over this amount are Jumbo Loans and are generally subject […]

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Just a friendly reminder that if you are concerned about your latest tax assessment, NOW is the time to be working on an appeal. Each municipality has it’s own review […]

The Federal Reserve Board cut the federal funds rate today by three quarters of a percent – the largest single reduction since 1990 and the first between meeting rate cut since September 2001.  The Fed wasn’t scheduled to meet to discuss interest rates until next week and it is quite unusual for them to reduce […]

Turmoil and challenges generally result in change and there sure have been some significant changes in mortgage lending over the past year! I’ve been working in this business for over 15 years and have never witnessed anything like it. However, it’s not all bad. Sure some loans are not being made that […]

The government may actually do something here that’s actually going to help us! We can all agree that one of the reasons why the real estate market is so soft right now is excess inventory. Foreclosures are only adding to this problem as banks list and sell distressed properties below market prices. Slowing foreclosure rates […]

There has been so much talk this year about foreclosures and it seems like most people really don’t understand the foreclosure process.  There is also an alarming mindset right now in that a lot of people seem to be willing to just throw up there hands and say “I’ll just give it back to the […]

I don’t know if it was naivete or wishful thinking. Yesterday I had a call from a consumer who was looking for homes for her mother. She had found something she thought was suitable and she wanted to see it that night. I had never met her before, so part of my […]

I doubt that there has EVER been a better time to make an investment in Michigan real estate. Opportunities abound, and smart investors will be rewarded.
Not long ago, I heard about an out of state “investor” who made his first real estate investment in Michigan. He was sold a high end home in […]

The Federal Reserve Board met today and reduced the Federal Funds rate by ½ % but what does that mean for mortgage rates? The Federal Funds Rate is the rate of interest that banks are charged for short term loans and has a direct impact on the Prime Rate. Many variable […]

Right out of college I worked as a commercial loan officer for First of America Bank in Kalamazoo. Every loan decision in every area of the bank was made manually, by a human being or a committee of human beings if it were large.
One spring, the residential mortgage department was buried in applications […]