I’ve said this many times before: The mortgage meltdown and subsequent credit crunch should have surprised no one. Years of escalating home prices created the demand for more affordable mortgage products and the industry responded with various products such as interest only loans, option ARMs and loans with negative amortization.
More: continued here

read full story of "Mortgage Bill is an Overreaction"

According to recent figures released by the Commerce Department, the multifamily market lifted total housing starts 3.0 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.229 million units as the downswing in the single-family housing market continued. Total starts were down 16.4 percent from a year earlier.
More: continued here

read full story of "Multifamily Construction Make Sense for Builders — in the Right Markets"

Both the White House and the Federal Reserve have announced that economic growth will slow down in 2008. Unemployment should tick up only slightly, but remain under 5 percent. But if you’re watching where interest rates are going, the metric to watch is inflation.
More: continued here

read full story of "Slowing Inflation Good For Mortgage Loans"

More than a few people have been unpleasantly surprised by the document and transfer fees charged when there is a sale of property that is subject to one or more homeowner associations (HOA). It’s not that buyers and sellers don’t expect some fees to be charged. Rather, the problem is that they are likely to [...]

read full story of "HOA Transfer Fees May be High, But Law Does Not Limit"

On Capitol Hill this week, it looks like all the work on real estate, housing and mortgage issues is getting done in the House, while the Senate can’t seem to get its act together to pass even a single bill.
More: continued here

read full story of "Washington Report: Senate Absent and Ineffective"