Rain City Guide

From the Wall Street Journal:
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and U.S. officials are expected to announce plans Tuesday to speed up the modification of hundreds of thousands of loans held by the housing finance giants, marking the latest effort to try and prevent more foreclosures, people familiar with the matter said.
The announcement could mark the government’s [...]

This morning, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has announced the 2009 conforming and jumbo conforming loan limits for 2009.  The conforming loan limit will remain at $417,000.  The jumbo conforming was reduced to 115% of median home value from 125%, with the passage of HR 3221.   Based on the new lower estimated home values, the 2009 [...]

Boy, you’re going to think I’m the Scrooge…and this article may not apply to most of you…but I want to reach out to those of us who rely on our credit cards to help finance the holidays.  You see, years past it was not uncommon for home owners to get into the spirit and purchase [...]

This morning I’ve been trying to update articles I’ve written on FHA in an attempt to have the information be accurate during this day and age of the ever-changing-loan-guidelines.  Please don’t rely 100% on information you find about mortgages on the web.  Programs and products are simply changing too often to keep up and information is [...]

Congress and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson are working this weekend to hash out details of the proposed $700,000,000,000 bailout during this amazing time in American history.  My brother-in-law is an adjuster for FEMA, spending months away from his home evaluating damaged property across the country.   FEMA Mortgage could be created to essentially do the same thing.
Now that Uncle Sam will [...]

Today stocks are rallying based on the events that were announced this morning: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s plan to temporarily guarantee money market funds; the Fed’s announcement to create a place for bad mortgage debt; the SEC’s ban on short selling specific financially related stocks.   Good news to the stock market typically translates to higher [...]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight that the time is almost up for Fannie and Freddie. That didn’t take long. No wonder the bill was rushed to President Bush to be signed at the end of July.
The plan is expected to involve putting the two companies into the conservatorship of their regulator, the Federal [...]

How lucky am I?  It’s a beautiful sunny 85 degrees in Seattle and mortgage rates, for the most part, are pretty much the same as what I posted last week (as of 1:00 today).   That makes for a real easy post! 
Well…almost.  As I price out mortgage rates with the various resources we have, there is [...]

Effective tomorrow (August 1, 2008) borrowers who convert their existing residence to an investment property or second home will be treated to tougher standards if they’re using a Fannie Mae loan.    Here are the new requirements:
Converting existing residence to a “second home”.

Borrower must qualify for both payments (this is not new).
Unless the borrower has at least [...]

Today President Bush signed a housing “rescue” bill HR 3221.  I’m really still absorbing all of this (I think it’s taking me a bit longer after my trip to Inman Connect).   Here are a few quick pointers:
The FHA risked base mortgage insurance pricing (which I’m in favor of) that was to be effective last week is now postponed until September [...]