A “LIBOR ARM” sounds vaguely related to a frozen shoulder. It’s not. Pronounced “Lee′-bore,” it stands for the “London Inter-bank Offered Rate,” a widely used benchmark (or peg) for setting mortgage rates and other debt. Meanwhile, “ARM” stands for “Adjustable Rate Mortgage.” Definition, Please What does all that mean in practice? A homeowner with a...Read More
Housing Market Finance, Then & Now “If you don’t have a job — or are afraid of losing one — it doesn’t matter how low interest rates are.” –Ross Kaplan Long before there was a housing bubble (seemingly, 3 lifetimes ago), there was a credit bubble. As a result, seemingly anyone who could complete a...Read More
The Mindset of Buyers, Sellers, and Their Agents . . . in Three Words Want a 3-word summary of the current state of the housing market and people’s mindset? Here’s mine by category: Buyers: “Wary.” Not all but many Buyers now are nervous about what they perceive to be elevated housing prices — and what comes next....Read More
Flight to Safety No, I don’t think a nuclear conflagration would be good for the U.S. housing market (or anything else). And, there’s no denying that ongoing North Korea – U.S. saber-rattling may have a chilling effect on nervous home Buyers. But, in the meantime, one of the predictable side effects of major geopolitical uncertainty...Read More
30-Year Mortgages Below 4% for 1st Time Since Election According to Edina Mortgage’s Steve Mohabir, long-term interest rates for well-qualified Buyers are once again below 4%. So much for the fear of skyrocketing rates derailing the housing market any time soon (the bond market has also rallied as interest rates have dropped — repeat, dropped — the...Read More
Traps for the Unwary in an Environment of Rising Interest Rates In the vast majority of Financing Addenda I’ve seen — along with the Inspection Contingency, the two critical Addenda in a Purchase Agreement — the Buyer’s agent fills in the blank above with the word “market.” When rates are stable or falling . . . no problem....Read More
