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Mortgage Blog covering all aspects of home buying and owning
May 2006 - Posts
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Today, I got an advertisement in the mail from my lender, "advising" me to buy mortgage insurance. After all, it's only $19.50 a month for $150,000 in coverage! Of course, the fact that I can get life insurance of far more for the same price from an insurance Read More...
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Well, it seems that the "hot" markets are starting to cool down, and the "cool" markets are either keeping pace with their historic moderate rate of appreciation or going up marginally. The crazy real estate ride may just be winding down. Did you know Read More...
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Well, Freddie Mac's most recent survey says that shorter term mortgage rates are just slightly lower -- but that doesn't take away the fact that since the beginning of 2006, rates are about a half a percentage point higher than they were. It's no surprise Read More...
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From the joys of outside beds (a few entries back), to the challenges of indoor ones... No kidding -- bed bugs are making a comeback! Here's the bad news: they often spread through hotels, and if you are a frequent traveller and have slept in a hotel Read More...
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Do you have insurance on your home? Most of us likely do, especially if we still have a mortgage. Any lender that doesn't require you to have insurance on your most critical asset won't be in business for long. But do you have enough insurance? Your lender Read More...
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I don't know about you, but we've become immobilized by our own confusion; we just let a great house pass us by, because we didn't want to pay the price that was being asked. Why? Because we're waiting for the market to fall. Or is that waiting for the Read More...
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Don't know what it means to be"zillowed"? Well, it's the natural consequence of the nation's growing obsession with real estate. In the same way that you can use the Internet to find out information on a celebrity, you can now use the Internet to find Read More...
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No surprise here: as mortgage rates go up, it's less and less attractive to refinance. As a result, the most recent Freddie Mac survey says that refinancing has dropped to its lowest levels in two years. It does make me wonder about those who have already Read More...
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Well, at first it was only the "hottest" markets that were slowing. But now, it appears that housing sales are slowing nationwide, according to the Wall Street Journal. How can we tell that the market is slowing? Well, there are a trio of factors that Read More...
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Have you discovered the newest game show sensation? It's a simple enough game; there are 26 cases with amounts of money between $1 million and $0.01. You pick one case which becomes "yours". You are also entitled to the amount of money in that case, but Read More...
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Now here's a completely accidental effect of higher gas prices: the housing market in your local suburban neighborhood could lose steam. After all, the cost of driving your SUV on your 1 hour commute could go way up. At that point, the reasoning which Read More...
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Okay -- we may finally have gone too far in the pursuit of making our outside spaces into "living" spaces. First, there were outdoor kitchens. Then, we had outdoor "living rooms". And now -- outdoor bedrooms! I have to admit that I've never been one for Read More...
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Who'd have ever thought that regular unleaded gas could be over $3 a gallon in many places, again, so soon after our first sticker shock with fuel? Some analysts are talking about a "new normal" with gas at all time high prices, and it's got me really Read More...
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Well, I don't know for sure, but it seems as if the zeal for a new home is dying off around here. The real issue for us is space, and we've decided we might just be able to create that space by refinishing our basement. So now we're looking at ads for Read More...
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Attending open houses is great fun for me; I like it for sport, much as I enjoy cruising the car lots to see if there are good bargains to be had. My wife, however, doesn't see it the same way. We've come to the point where she's saying we have to decide Read More...
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Well, it would seem that consumers in general now believe that there will be a housing bust -- and it's coming soon. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, over 70% of us believe prices will take a sharp fall; however, 56% of us are deluding Read More...
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