Florida Mortgages and The Price We Pay - 01/20/11 11:07 AM
Nothing wrong with learning lessons, some of them just come at a tremendous cost...like $13.6 billion.
The FHA's annual independent financial report spouts all sorts of happy statements like "it is stronger today than it was last year" and about how the "FHA's capital reserves held steady" and stuff like that.
All good news, but there's also the seedy underbelly about how the seller-financed down payment assistance loans produced $6.6 billion in claims (and  counting!!) and could actually wind up costing the agency in the neighborhood of $13.6 billion. That's some neighborhood!
Mercifully outlawed by the FHA, the seller-financed assistance program … (0 comments)

Fannie Mae and The Wild West - 01/18/11 09:22 AM
As you can imagine, I monitor all sorts of financial charts, graphs, and stats as they relate to mortgage rates and the impact they will have on my clients. And sometimes you read new data that sends a Starbucks Mocha Grande size surge through your veins...that's when you see a big number on a little LLPA (Loan Level Price Adjustment) table.
This latest insanity matrix is basically showing that the cost of borrowing money has just increased again. And it is no longer the higher risk clients (the ones with the lower credit score and challenged credit history); we're talking about … (3 comments)

Florida Mortgages: We Need to be Weather-Proofed - 01/10/11 10:37 AM
I've been meaning to write about this great post by Holden Lewis of Bankrate.com because he serves up a tremendously appropriate analogy about today's mortgage financing system and how it's just not designed for stormy weather. I'm not an advocate of change for the sake of change, or having an itchy trigger finger when it comes to responding to situations...see HVCC, THE quintessential over-reaction almost ever...
But putting shock absorbers into place that can move when the market fluctuates gives us the infrastructure that will get us the farthest. In the mid 2000's, we travelled to an insanely crazy place in … (0 comments)

Florida Realtors and The Word on the Street - 01/04/11 08:19 AM
Lori Crawford is a well respected Florida Realtor with an extraordinary reputation. She specializes in Pinellas and Pasco counties. Since I believe in the "boots on the ground perspective" for a dose of reality in today's market place, I asked her to provide her state of the market assessment. Please welcome her as today's guest blogger.
It's clear that this market is like no other. While it may seem that there are deals like never before, caveat emptor is the phrase that pays. For example, in regard to the purchase of short sales, many buyers are under the impression that these … (3 comments)