Archive for the 'Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance' Category
Whatever Became of the Dream Home?
3 Comments Published August 4th, 2008 in Buyer Information, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.I’ve been seeing an interesting phenomenon this year. Seems like some home buyers are so driven to “get a great deal” that they’re buying homes they aren’t even that excited about living in! I’ve been financing houses since 1990 and for the most part people are generally buying houses to improve their quality [...]
Breaking News: Tax Credit for Home Buyers!
4 Comments Published July 29th, 2008 in Buyer Information, Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance, Taxes.I think we can all agree the housing market needs a little kick in the pants right now! Well, your Federal Government to the rescue. This week congress passed a Housing Rescue Bill which will attempt to do a number of different things from foreclosure avoidance assistance, tax credits to some home buyers [...]
Guideline Change for Rental of Current Home
8 Comments Published July 3rd, 2008 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance, Seller Information.Breaking News!
Fannie and Freddie are changing the rules on how payments on existing primary homes are treated when a buyer is purchasing a new home and plans to rent out the old house. In the past, we have been able to offset the payment on their existing home by showing a lease [...]
Listing Agent More Valuable Than Ever!
2 Comments Published May 22nd, 2008 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.There has been a lot of buzz out there this year about how mortgage brokers created the current crisis in mortgage lending. Say it isn’t so! Well, it isn’t.
Mortgage brokers can only work within the framework of guidelines set up by the investors (banks) who buy loans from them. The bank sets down rules for [...]
4 Things Luxury Home Buyers MUST Know in Today’s Market
4 Comments Published April 1st, 2008 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance, Luxury Homes.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 [...]
What My Crystal Ball Says about Michigan’s Real Estate Market
6 Comments Published February 27th, 2008 in Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.I hovered over my crystal ball all night last night trying to figure out what the universe has in store for Southeast Michigan real estate. That darned thing was cloudy until about 3am but by that time I had had about 3 martini’s and things started to happen (besides the headache and blurred vision!). [...]
Update on Increase in Conventional Loan Limits: What Does it Mean for Metro Detroit?
1 Comment Published February 14th, 2008 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.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 [...]
Surprise Fed Rate Cut
0 Comments Published January 22nd, 2008 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.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 [...]
Important Changes In Mortgage Lending
8 Comments Published January 10th, 2008 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.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 [...]
Government Intervenes to Slow Foreclosures
0 Comments Published December 6th, 2007 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.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 [...]
Breaking News: Mortgage Rates at 2 Year Lows
1 Comment Published December 6th, 2007 in Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.Great News! Mortgage rates are as low as they’ve been in over 2 years!! 30 Year Fixed rate loans have been as low as 6% this week for conventional loans up to $417,000 with zero points (2 points would buy you down to 5.5%). Some of you will also be thrilled [...]
The Foreclosure Process in Michigan
8 Comments Published November 3rd, 2007 in Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance.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 [...]




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