Good Morning!  It is Sunday November 15, 2009

Happy Birthday to...

   In 2349 Methuselah (BCE)
   In 1316 John I, King of France

On this day...

   In 0309 Martyrdom of Sts. Shmona and Garia, the "Confessors of Edessa"
   In 0878 Death of St. Fintan of Rhienau
   In 1136 Death of St. Leopold, Prince of Austria
   In 1280 Death of St. Albertus Magnus
   In 1283 Guelfs and Ghibellines fight it out in Treviso, Italy,
           with victory going to the Ghibellines
   In 1315 MORGARTEN (Swiss defeat Hapsburgs)
   In 1380 Pogroms in Paris
   In 1492 Columbus makes the first recorded
           observation of the use of tobacco
   In 1533 Spaniards enter the Inca's holy city of Cuzco
   In 1591 Execution of Barnabe Brisson, President
           of the Parliament of Paris
   In 1626 The Plymouth Colony buys out its London investors
   In 1630 Death of Kepler
   In 1635 Death of Thomas Parr, of Alberbury,
           Shropshire, England, aged 152

If you do not currently own your own home and are renting, you may be missing out on the best opportunity in years to start building equity, tax benefits, pride of ownership—in other words, now is a fantastic time to be looking for a home. With the softening in the real estate market in most areas and the government’s recent attempts to bolster the market, interest rates have actually fallen and any renter in a stable job and credit situation should be considering jumping into their own home. Right now the market is flooded with available homes; a lot on new construction and a lot of existing homes sitting empty (over the last few weeks most of the existing homes I’ve been showing are vacant; talk about motivated sellers!!).
So how do you start? I’m going to begin a series of, oh, several posts on the steps you should consider when jumping into the housing market. Whether you are looking to buy your first home or have owned before, these steps can still apply. I hope you find this helpful.

Step 1: Lower or eliminate your debt

Its great to have a big down payment for a home, but its actually better to pay off your high-interest card debt, even if it means having less for a down payment. Don't have a clue how to start?
Credit card debt is expensive, with interest rates that easily double (and, in some cases, almost triple) the national average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Additionally, having a lot of credit card debt can really mess with how much you can borrow for a new home, as most lenders will not allow debt service—payments for student loans, car loans, credit cards, as well as your home payment—to exceed about 40% of your gross income.
Finally, if you have old credit cards that you do not use, discontinue them. Maybe you have an open account with a Sears card or a Dillards card that you have not used in years; even if it has a zero balance and no activity, it will still be considered “potential” debt as long as you have the card. Contact the issuer of the card and return it to them; you’re not using it, so why keep it?

Step 2: How much can you afford?

Okay, now you have to do a bit of paperwork. You will need to decide how much home you can afford to consider. It’s a lot of fun riding around, dreaming about homes; but if you’re seriously planning to buy there is no point in wasting time looking at homes for which you cannot financially qualify.
I suggest starting with a calculator designed to give you an idea how much you can afford. Most lenders will want to keep this to about 28% of your gross income. This calculator is provided by Ginnie Mae (the Government National Mortgage Association); there are a lot of others available on the ‘net, but most will give you the same figures.

"Mortgage applications to purchase homes in the U.S. plunged last week to the lowest level in almost nine years as Americans waited for the outcome of deliberations to extend a government tax credit", according to Bloomberg.com.

Rates for 30-year fixed dropped to 4.90, down from 4.97.  "At the current 30-year rate, monthly borrowing costs for each $100,000 of a loan would be $530.73, or about $84 less than the same week a year earlier, when the rate was 6.24 percent."

This should be good news for our buyers. With a LOT of good deals out there home ownership is still well within grasp.

Several years ago I came across an article about this really unique neighborhood development in Bend, OR, called "The Shire".  Following up, intentionally or not, on the mega-success of "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy, the homes and ambience of this development are Tolkien-inspired.

Well, the Eye of Sauron, in the form of our current economic meltdown, has struck the Shire. Having only sold one home in the Shire (according to the news release), bank ownership has set in. On the downside, a really cool idea has gone down; on the upside, anyone have $1.3 million to play with? If so, you can buy the development.

In the time of McMansions and cookie-cutter five-four-and-a-door homes, I think its a shame a novel (no pun intended) concept such as this has become stranded in Mordor.

I believe this editoral appearing in today's Lebanon Democrat lays out the duplicity of some of the "blue-dog Democrats". I was at the same Rotary Club meeting as Joe Adams, the author and managing editor of this piece; in fact, most of the questions asked of Cong. Jim Cooper were mine. I also have in my e-mail files a letter from his office that he "absolutely" would not support any healthcare bill with a public option (i.e., government-run healthcare).

The NAR has been foiled in the past in getting legislation passed to allow realtors to form groups to get group pricing for healthcare. I'm 61 years old and, at present and in the current slow market here, have no healthcare coverage. My disabled (both physical and mental) wife has recently been unceremoniously dumped from TennCare. Reform is needed!!!!!! But establishing another money-sucking black hole of taxpayers dollars will do nothing more than further stretch our already-overburdened healthcare system and buy votes for incumbent politicians (and I include both parties in that!).

The 2010 elections are less than one year away. Buy this button and wear it proudly!!!!!!

I saw this as the picture and caption on one of the political sites I frequent, Lucianne.com and thought both were well-worth passing along.

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you....Jesus and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

If you're in the Nashville-area and are interested in either learning about acting or in honing your acting skills, my wife is starting a new "Professional Acting" series at Cumberland University in Lebanon, TN, on Wednesday, Dec. 9. Her course of study consists of 4 levels, each 8-10 weeks, one 3-hour session per week with a competition at the end of the course.

Vikki has been a professional and for-fun actress most of her life, as well as a debate and speech coach, and is very, very good at what she does. If you have an interest, she can be reached at 615-443-5935.

Okay, I didn't serve in the military. I am not a veteran. I was of service age in the late 1960s. I did enroll in a Marine Corps summer program called Platoon Leaders Class (PLC) consisting of 2 fun-filled six week sessions a Quantico, VA, but I flunked the final physical tests due to an inability to do the required number of chin-ups. I later learned, in 2005, that this was due to tears in the left shoulder connective tissue from high school football; this kind of injury never showed up on X-rays, but now can be detected by MRI.

I drew a very high number the first year of the lottery, so I was never called to go play in sunny South Viet Nam. I was always happy about that---at the time. Now........I'm not so sure.

I both admire and envy those who can now say they laid it on the line for the rest of us. Sure, I would not have cherished the thought of kill-or-be-killed (especially the last part); however, those who served, regardless of whether they were Special Forces or a cook in a behind-the-lines position, ensured our freedom.

We're fighting a war today that some don't even want referred to as a war, against an enemy some don't want to refer to as an enemy who hate us for reasons some don't want to acknowledge. I hoped and prayed that "political correctness" would be buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center, but our collective memories, at least those in the rarified air of Washington, D.C., are painfully short.

I cry for the families of those massacred at Ft. Hood. It was not a "tragedy" as some call it--it was cold-blooded murder by a believer in a cause that would dearly love to put all of us to the sword, figuratively speaking.

God bless you veterans. Your willingness to put your life out there for the rest of us should cause us to drop to our knees every day and thank the Almighty for your bravery, your dedication and your self-sacrifice.

The Tennessee Association of Realtors is really great about sending out updates which always contains at least one Q & A. In the current still-tough market everyone is scrambling to get all the referrals they can. I thought this tidbit in the most recent TAR update was interesting:

QUESTION: We have a contractor in our area holding "information seminars" about his company and a new bonus plan that he is putting in place. To get agents to come to the seminars, he is "giving" a $20 gift card to each agent. Is this a RESPA violation? He is also "giving" a larger gift card to brokers if they can get their office to come to the seminar.

ANSWER: Under RESPA, "No person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback, or thing of value pursuant to any agreement or understanding, oral or otherwise, that business incident to or a part of a real estate settlement service involving a federally related mortgage loan shall be referred to any person." 12 USC 2607(a). It will all depend upon what this gift card is actually doing. If HUD or the court views it as a referral for business, then it is in violation of RESPA. However, it could also possibly be seen as a legitimate business practice.

NEVERTHELESS, we would be very cautious about this situation since HUD is cracking down on RESPA violations in this particular housing climate.

[SOURCE: TAR's Legal & Ethics Hot Line Attorneys]

 I'm a nut for medieval history, so I thought I'd share:

Good Morning!  It is Tuesday November 10, 2009

Happy Birthday to...

   In 1483 Martin Luther
   In 1668 Francois Couperin

On this day...

   In 0461 Death of Pope Leo "the Great"
   In 0627 Death of St. Justus of Canterbury
   In 1143 Death of Fulk of Anjou
   In 1241 Death of Pope Celestine IV
   In 1444 VARNA
   In 1444 Death of Wladislaus III, King of Poland
   In 1526 Election of John Zapolya as King of Hungary
   In 1549 Death of Pope Paul III
   In 1556 Richard Chancellor drowned returning from Russia
   In 1567 ST DENIS (death of Montmorency)
   In 1608 Death of St. Andrew Avellino
   In 1630 Arrest of Marillac
   In 1635 Saybrook, Connecticut settled
   In 1640 The "Long Parliament" accepts petitions against Archbishop Laud