Mpls. Offers Biggest Home Buyer Carrot Yet Starting April 2, the Minneapolis Advantage program will provide $2 million to fund 200 $10,000 deferred loans to buyers of foreclosed homes in certain Minneapolis neighborhoods. The loan is forgiven if the homeowner lives in the house at least five years. Information about the program will be available...Read More
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a nice Q & A discussing eligibility requirements for the $8,000 tax credit. Hint: it’s more complicated than you think. Here’s the link: “Cracking a Valuable Home Buyer Credit“Read More
Banks Not Passing Along Rate Drop? After a dramatic drop late Wednesday, 30-year mortgage rates have leveled off at 4 5/8% at the moment. Given the size of the Fed commitment — up to $1 trillion in new cash aimed at mortgages — you’d expect rates in the low 4’s. Why hasn’t that happened (or...Read More
If you’ve been out of the loop the last 48 hours or so, the big finance-related news is the political firestorm precipitated by AIG’s bonuses, and the Fed’s decision to create $1 trillion in new money (by buying mortgages and mortgage-backed securities). On the blogosphere, there is a quick consensus emerging that the the public,...Read More
Discount Realtors and Mushroom CloudsUnder the category of, “everything you (maybe) wanted to know about blog ‘plumbing,’ but were afraid to ask,” two quick items: 1. All the ads around the periphery of this blog are “served” by Google’s search engine, based on key words. So, the reason this blog has links to so many...Read More
Housing’s “Big Two” Numbers Two numbers loom especially large in the national housing market right now: $8,000, and 4%. The first number is the tax credit available to eligible home buyers. Coincidentally or not, that’s approximately what annual payments come to on an average-priced U.S. home (now about $175,00). To balky Buyers who’ve been waiting...Read More
