National Debt

An interesting and thoughtful analysis of the national debt that various countries have, how they are going to pay for it and the affects of that debt on their economies.   Lengthy but worth the time…..

You know, 20 years ago, we didn't need Straight Talk in the mortgage world.   Everyone did the right thing and everything moved along......

Now we do.   Would you like to work with a lender who will tell it to you straight?    Would you like to have someone looking out for what's best for you?

Would you like to work with a lender who has to blog under a pen name - because their bank doesn't like what they are saying?

If so, call us at 330-536-3623 or send an e-mail to info@straighttalkaboutmortgages.com and we'll have one of our team of lenders get back to you, typically within 4 hours during normal week days.

Kenny H.

Patience is a Virtue….

and we’re making very good progress on the upgrades and changes here at Straight Talk.    But they are taking longer than we’d like.

Please be patient.   It will be worth the wait.

You know, 20 years ago, we didn't need Straight Talk in the mortgage world.   Everyone did the right thing and everything moved along......

Now we do.   Would you like to work with a lender who will tell it to you straight?    Would you like to have someone looking out for what's best for you?

Would you like to work with a lender who has to blog under a pen name - because their bank doesn't like what they are saying?

If so, call us at 330-536-3623 or send an e-mail to info@straighttalkaboutmortgages.com and we'll have one of our team of lenders get back to you, typically within 4 hours during normal week days.

Kenny H.

Straight Talk will be quiet for the next few days…..

As we are undergoing some structural changes, some site changes, and some ideological changes as well.   Stay tuned and thank you for your patience.

In the mean time, if you have any mortgage or finance related questions, send them to Info at Straight Talk About Mortgages.

You know, 20 years ago, we didn't need Straight Talk in the mortgage world.   Everyone did the right thing and everything moved along......

Now we do.   Would you like to work with a lender who will tell it to you straight?    Would you like to have someone looking out for what's best for you?

Would you like to work with a lender who has to blog under a pen name - because their bank doesn't like what they are saying?

If so, call us at 330-536-3623 or send an e-mail to info@straighttalkaboutmortgages.com and we'll have one of our team of lenders get back to you, typically within 4 hours during normal week days.

Kenny H.

Pending Home Sales Plummet

November’s pending home sales (in other words signed purchase agreements) fell a dramatic 16% compared to October of this year.   A couple of thoughts:

• I think the numbers for October were artificially inflated by the “scare tactics” that were used by many to encourage first time buyers to buy before the tax credit ended at the end of November.   Once that window was past (by the middle of Nov. you weren’t going to make the Nov. 30 deadline no matter how you tried), that let a lot of steam out of the market.
• Sales were up 15.5% compared to November of 2008.   That’s good, right?   Yeah, that’s good, but let’s think back to November of 2008.   We thought the financial world was falling apart and it was Armageddon of the Financial Type.   It’s no wonder things were bad then.   Saying that things are up from November of 2008 is sort of like saying that someone with a 101 fever is doing well – because last week he had a 104.5 fever.   True, he’s better, but he isn’t healthy yet.

I’ll have more as the news justifies.

Tom Vanderwell

Calculated Risk: Pending Home Sales Decrease Sharply

From the NAR:

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 16.0 percent to 96.0 from an upwardly revised a 114.3 in October, but is 15.5 percent higher than November 2008 when it was 83.1.

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The Lost Decade – for employment and net worth…..

A couple of interesting points to the graph that the Washington Post put together:

• GDP was up by 17% in the 2000’s.   That’s good, but a far cry from the numbers that the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s did.    By the way, GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product and it’s basically a measure of how much is “created” by our economy.
• Job growth in the entire decade is at 0.   That means that we’ve seen no net job growth in the last 10 years.  I know that the state that I live in has seen a negative job growth in the last 10 years.
• The household net worth (when adjusted for inflation) is negative for the first time since the 1960s.

So, if you look at your own situation and say, “It’s been a tough decade,” I think it’s safe to say that you aren’t alone.

Tom Vanderwell

Technorati Tags: Lost Decade, Job Creation

Government Loan Modification Program – Delaying the Inevitable?

An interesting and thought provoking article in the New York Times about the mortgage modification program that the government has been pushing as their “remedy” to the housing problems.    A couple of main points:

• It has failed to provide permanent relief for struggling homeowners and has therefore raised false hopes and encouraged people to avoid making the difficult decisions that they should be making.
• By delaying people from making the difficult decisions, the government is prolonging the housing market’s necessary adjustment and working through the pricing adjustments needed to get back to the point at which incomes and house prices are in line.
• With the unemployment situation as it is (I think it’s over 7 million jobs lost since this all started?) there are a lot of people who are in homes that they can’t afford any more.   The sooner we, as an entire housing and mortgage industry, can adjust to that fact, the more quickly we can return to health.

I think there are two things that this article doesn’t take into consideration:

• One of the main reasons that the modifications aren’t working well is because they aren’t substantial enough to get to the point of people actually being able to afford to keep their house.    Whether your interest rate is 2% or 8%, if you don’t have enough income to make the payments, it’s not going to matter.    It’s called principal reductions.   Without principal reductions, the loan modifications aren’t going to work.
• The “justification” of giving breaks to some people when they are struggling but not others?   According to the last statistics that I saw, 85% of the loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have are making their payments on time.   So how do you mesh those two statements?    How do you mesh the problems with those who don’t have problems?

Tom Vanderwell

Mortgage Modifications Are Seen as Adding to Housing Woes – NYTimes.com

The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good………

Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes…….

Some experts argue the program has impeded economic recovery by delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate, enabling money to flow more freely through the financial system.

The Treasury Department publicly maintains that its program is on track. “The program is meeting its intended goal of providing immediate relief to homeowners across the country,” a department spokeswoman, Meg Reilly, wrote in an e-mail message.

But behind the scenes, Treasury officials appear to have concluded that growing numbers of delinquent borrowers simply lack enough income to afford their homes and must be eased out.

Mortgage Market Year in Review – The Big Three

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Jim the Realtor

I like Jim the Realtor’s analysis and insights into the housing market that he’s in…..

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