Real Estate and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis: A Beginner's Guide

We hear about the subprime mortgage crisis daily, but are you too embarrassed to admit you don't understand what the fuss is all about? What exactly is this predicament the nation finds itself in? How did this debacle arise, and does it affect you? To answer these questions, let's start at the beginning... Understanding Mortgage Lending Traditionally, mortgages were financed by banks. This meant that a bank was limited in its lending based on the deposits they received from their ...

Plain Talk about Fancy Mortgages: Stick with the old-fashioned 30-year fixed.

The word “candidate” derives from the word “candid”, and politicians running for office this year have learned that voters prefer frank talk, not a sales pitch. The same is true for homeowners shopping for a mortgage. As we prepare for springtime â€" which is historically the best time to buy a home â€" it is appropriate to talk about ways to weed out the hype about exotic residential mortgages in favor of old-fashioned fixed rate loans. The most recent bull market in real estate was ...

The Right Time to Buy your First Home

There are many economic and market forecasts and predictions, however the bottom line is if you want to buy your first home—there is no wrong time. There is because the motivation to buy is not determined by regional market conditions or by location. Industry opinions, economic reports and investor speculation do not sway or predict when a particular individual will be ready to buy. For the great majority of folks, the most compelling reasons to buy a home are based on individual circumstances ...