It’s been a while since I’ve posted a good link roundup, and since I’ve seen a number of related stories pop up in the last couple of weeks, I thought it was a good time for one. While the housing market was definitely on fire last year, with respect to bidding wars and home price…
Category: National
National News
FHA: Foreclosure One Year Ago? No Problem!
I received tips from two different people in the last few days about a recent change in FHA underwriting standards announced in a letter titled “Back to Work – Extenuating Circumstances” Quoting from the letter: As a result of the recent recession many borrowers who experienced unemployment or other severe reductions in income, were unable…
Can Banks Seek Deficiency Judgment in Washington State?
Over the weekend the Washington Post published a story about former homeowners who find themselves owing money on a home they lost to foreclosure years earlier: Lenders seek court actions against homeowners years after foreclosure. It’s a process called “deficiency judgment,” and it’s not really news to anyone who has paid attention to housing over…
Déjà Vu: Mortgage Interest Rates Panic
Looks like it’s that time again… Recent headlines have described an increase in mortgage interest rates from 3.35% to 4.0% with hyperbole like “Mortgage Rates Soar,” and “Soaring U.S. Mortgage Rates.” If this sounds familiar it’s because we heard the same nonsense when rates moved from 5.0% to 5.3% in 2010. These types of articles…
Rising Homeownership May Lead to Rising Unemployment
There was an interesting article in the New York Times last week that caught my attention: Homeownership May Actually Cause Unemployment Homeownership is a good thing, for the individual and for society. Or so American governments, whether Republican or Democrat, have long believed. The benefits have been cited repeatedly in justifying the existence and expansion…