In the 2008 real estate-linked recession, home values dived, but many prospective buyers were shutout and many consumers were marooned in homes they could not sell. Regulators forced lenders to impose draconian restrictions on qualifying consumers for mortgages. Appraisers were intimidated by regulators into low-balling estimates of home values, infuriating the owners. That led to […]
Coming Land-Rush in Housing?
Home sales have begun to recover from the depths of the great recession. In the year from mid-2013 to mid-2014, home sale prices rose 5.6% and they are expected to rise another 5% in the next year. At the time of writing, 30-year fixed mortgages in the Tampa FL area ran 3.99% for borrowers with […]
It’s Comparable, Comparable, Comparable
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that they will be loosening the penalties they impose on mortgage originators. A deluge of mortgages defaulted during the great recession, resulting in the current regulations designed to help resist a repeat. Much of the tougher rules govern percent of market value that can be mortgaged, income to debt […]
