Ar_home_b_search
 



spokane home loans: Do Spokane Borrowers Need A Return Of George Bailey’s Building And Loan? - 12/21/10 07:40 PM
Besides being a great family movie for the holidays, “It’s a Wonderful Life” appeals to me in a loan geek sort of way. Central to the story is the near failure of George Bailey’s building and loan business. I began my lending career in 1989 at Sacramento Savings Bank, and while the business of lending money had changed dramatically since the 1940’s one key characteristic still remained at that time – Savings and Loans and other small community banks still lent money directly from their vaults (customer’s savings accounts) to local residents they knew. The key words were “local” and “knew.” … (1 comments)

spokane home loans: Why FHA Loans Are The Program Of Choice For First Time Home Buyers - 08/27/09 06:52 PM
One of the most popular first time home buyer programs is the HUD FHA loan. The best part is you don't have to be a first time home buyer - anyone that qualifies can use this program.
The only limitation is that the base loan amount can’t exceed $271,050 (at least in the Spokane area – higher limits apply in higher cost areas like Seattle and the Western part of our state) which equate to a home price of about $280,000. That does not mean you can’t use the program to purchase a more expensive home, it just means you will … (4 comments)

spokane home loans: 2009 FHA and Conforming Loan Limits - 11/10/08 03:15 PM
2009 Conforming And FHA Loan Limits
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that the conforming loan limit will remain $417,000 in 2009 for most areas. They have designated some areas as "high-cost" where the limits are equal to 115 percent of local median house prices and cannot exceed 150 percent of the standard limit, which is $625,500 for one-unit homes in the continental U.S.
The only counties in WA that have higher limits than $417,000 are San Juan County at $483,000 and King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties at $506,000.
In Idaho, only Blaine County and Teton County loans can … (3 comments)

spokane home loans: Would You Walk Away From Your Home And Mortgage? - 10/09/08 09:24 AM
Seems every day brings to light another bizarre angle to this incredible mess - today I was made aware of the web site You Walk Away. Are they legit and can they help distressed homeowners?  I have no idea!
I can tell you that if you are considering "walking away" from your home you had better consult both an attorney and a CPA. There are gigantic legal considerations and potentially expensive IRS implications as well when you abandon your home and mortgage.
I'm sure most of our brethren East of the great state of Arizona are wondering "why in the heck … (4 comments)

spokane home loans: Tracing WaMu's Collapse - Part 2 (The no income verification loan) - 10/08/08 03:38 PM
This is a continuation of my thoughts around the article Tracing The Collapse of WaMu published in the Spokesman-Review.
In the mid 1990’s American Savings Bank and Great Western were niche lenders known for two products – the negative amortization loan (Option Arm is the “common” name for this product) AND the no income verification loan. I worked at a competing S&L in California at that time and am very familiar with those products.   My bank did not offer the products but my loan clients would frequently ask me about these competing products.
Until the mid-1990’s both loan programs were utilized … (0 comments)

spokane home loans: Tracing the collapse of WaMu - 10/05/08 04:07 PM
A couple of items in today’s Spokesman-Review article on WaMu’s collapse offers clues not only to WaMu’s demise but to the current lending mess in general.
The first item is WaMu’s purchase of American Savings Bank and Great Western in the late 1990’s. I worked for a competing bank during those years and I had frequent conversations with borrowers who wanted to refinance their home loan for NO other reason than to get away from WaMu’s loan servicing department. It was common knowledge in the industry that WaMu was totally choking on the integration of the other banks’ loan portfolios with … (2 comments)

spokane home loans: Surprise: 'Toxic' Mortgages Are the Best - 09/26/07 10:20 PM
First, a disclaimer - I copied the title of this post from an article in Business Week (source provided below).
It will be interesting to see how much press this article gets in light of the recent hysteria over "toxic" mortgages and how their use is the cause of the current mortgage and housing crisis.
In short, the artilce cites a new study by professors at Columbia and New York universities conclude that the "best" mortgage is a fully negative amortization ARM loan - better known as the Pay Option Arm.
The study is 65 pages long but here's my two cents - if … (6 comments)

 
Mikeandrebecca_600_x_760_ Rainmaker_large

Michael Mullin MLO 11911 ~ Banker/Broker FHA, VA, USDA, Conventional Loans

Spokane, WA

More about me…

First Priority Financial, helping home owners in WA and CA

Address: 5978 Hwy 291, Suite 3, Nine Mile Falls, WA, 99026

Office Phone: (509) 252-9151

Email Me

Enter your email address to receive future articles:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Get the Michael Mullin ~ Spokane WA Home Loans | Blog widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!Clicky Web Analytics

Clicky

Spokane Real Estate - Trulia


Listings

Links

Archives

RSS 2.0 Feed for this blog

Find WA real estate agents and Spokane real estate on ActiveRain.