Fannie Mae (the bloated, greed-driven organization that hasn’t served a viable purpose in decades) is now requiring higher credit scores and lower debt-to-income ratios for borrowers. I’m all for tighter underwriting guidelines within the mortgage industry, and better regulation to boot. But I don’t think it should be coming from Fannie Mae.
But before I fly [...]
Economy | Brandon | 
December 5, 2009 7:45 am | 
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Pop Quiz: Try to name at least two industrialized nations in the world where people have to declare bankruptcy because of their health care costs. Do you give up? That’s because it’s a trick question. There’s only one industrialized nation in the entire world that falls into this category … the United States.
“Medical bankruptcy” is [...]
Economy | Brandon | August 25, 2009 11:59 am | Comments (0)
Put the words Obama and mortgage modification into the headline of your website, and you’ll get the attention of a lot of people. Who knows — you may even get some of their money, too. This tactic is used by a lot of mortgage modification scams lately. But after you finish reading this post, those [...]
Economy | Brandon | August 20, 2009 8:09 am | Comments (0)
The popular Cash for Clunkers program may be suspended indefinitely. I know, it’s not a real estate topic. But it’s within the realm of personal finance, and it’s an interesting subject. So here’s what you need to know about it:
In June of this year, the government launched a program commonly known as Cash for Clunkers [...]
Economy | Brandon | July 31, 2009 7:20 am | Comments (0)
In May of 2009, home prices in the United States rose for the first time in nearly three years. This is based on an index of 20 major cities in the United States. As you might imagine, this has the real estate world and all of the news circuits buzzing like bees. But what does [...]
Economy | Brandon | July 29, 2009 3:44 pm | Comments (0)
Nationwide, property values have fallen as a result of our housing crisis. Of course, this is a generalized statement. There are plenty of cities that have held steady, such as Round Rock, Texas where I live. If you live in an area that has seen big drops in property values, you might want to pay [...]
Economy | Brandon | July 20, 2009 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Though the Home Buying Institute Q&A service, I’ve received a lot of questions about home loan modifications — most of them from homeowners struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. I’ve noticed a trend. A lot of mortgage companies are not living up to their “big talk” about home loan modifications for their customers. [...]
Economy | Brandon | 8:17 am | Comments (0)
A lot of homeowners are curious to know how much their homes are worth in the current economy, and it’s easy to understand why. The subprime mortgage crisis has caused home values to drop all over the country. In certain areas, such as California and Florida, values have dropped considerably. Millions of homeowners are underwater [...]
Economy | Brandon | March 25, 2009 12:08 pm | Comments (1)
Organic farming could very well become a thing of the past. That is, if House Resolution 875 gets passed into law. Introduced by Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin and others (and created by powerful lobby groups), this bill would essentially outlaw organic farming by requiring the use of chemical pesticides.
Do you like having organic options [...]
Economy | Brandon | March 21, 2009 12:59 pm | Comments (3)
Who is eligible for the stimulus package and where do we go for help? This is a common question among home buyers and homeowners across the U.S. right now, and it’s easy to understand why. There have been a lot of plans, programs and acronyms announced in recent weeks, and most of them fall under [...]
Economy | Brandon | March 10, 2009 9:17 am | Comments (0)