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Testimonials for Authentic Real Estate

Five Real Estate Trends to Watch for

If the housing market were human, it would look like just wrestled a few alligators, after running an obstacle course through a snake pit.   The market is beaten and bruised, but still trying to emerge from the recession, which is why Greg Rand, a 20-year real estate veteran and author of Crash Boom (www.crashboom.com) from Career Press, wants people to know about five new trends that could help them beat the housing blues. “One of the key elements of a free market is chaos,” Rand says. “Chaos is how the markets figure out how to move forward. The important thing to

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Bill Proposes Major Mortgage Shake-Up by This Summer

Two lawmakers, a California Republican and a Michigan Democrat, are set to unveil legislation Thursday to replace mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with at least five private companies that would issue mortgage-backed securities with explicit federal guarantees. The measure is a compromise between conservative Republicans who have advanced bills to build a mostly private mortgage-finance system and Democrats, who say the government shouldn’t abandon the mortgage market. Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the government in 2008 as rising mortgage losses wiped out thin capital cushions. Taxpayers are on the hook for $138 billion to keep the

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House Hears Debate Over 20% Down Only for Home Purchases

U.S. regulators “must be mindful of the trade-off” between borrower equity and access to credit as they consider new rules for mortgage risk-retention, Acting Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Bob Ryan said. Higher down payments won’t necessarily reduce default risk and could keep creditworthy consumers from buying homes, Ryan said at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on mortgage risk retention. “This definition has the potential to create false- positive situations,” Ryan told lawmakers. The Financial Services capital markets panel is reviewing a proposal calling on homebuyers to have a 20 percent down payment and unblemished credit to qualify for so-called

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