Each week, TODAY real estate expert Barbara Corcoran looks around the U.S. to see what homebuyers can get for their money. This week she goes from California to New York in search of truly unique properties you can get for $450,000 or less.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Slash mortgage deductions for the rich? Fat chance- CNN Money
By Tami Luhby, senior writerFebruary 15, 2011: 8:08 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- President Obama's plan to limit two popular deductions for wealthy taxpayers will hit a wall of resistance from entrenched special interests.
The president once again proposed in his budget to curtail high-income earners' tax deduction for mortgage interest payments and charitable contributions.
Under his proposal, taxpayers in the 33% and 35% tax brackets would only be able to deduct their contributions and mortgage interest payments at the 28% rate. It would affect those with taxable income of $250,000 and up and bring in $321 billion over 10 years, according to the White House.
The Obama administration, as well as several tax and deficit commissions, have called for limiting or eliminating the deductions in the past. But the proposals have gone nowhere and the same outcome is expected this year.
CLICK HERE for full article.
30-year mortgages back above 5%
Washington Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 10:38am EST
Long-term mortgage rates continued to climb this week, with 30-year mortgages now back above 5 percent.
Freddie Mac says a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.05 percent in the week ending Feb. 10, up from 4.81 percent last week and the highest since April 2010. A 15-year fix averaged 4.29 percent, up from 4.08 percent last week.Adjustable rate mortgages also rose, with the average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage at 3.35 percent.
Read more: 30-year mortgages back above 5%
Washington Business Journal
Read more: 30-year mortgages back above 5%
Washington Business Journal
Washington Area Home Prices Up!- Wash Biz Journal Reports
Washington home prices up 8.1%
Washington Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 10:46am EST .
Sales of existing homes jumped 15.4 percent in the final quarter of 2010, while prices rose in more than half of the nation's cities. The Washington market posted one of the biggest year-over-year gains in prices, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Existing home prices were higher in 78 markets, including ten with double-digit increases.
Read more: Washington home prices up 8.1%
Washington Business Journal
Washington Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 10:46am EST .
Sales of existing homes jumped 15.4 percent in the final quarter of 2010, while prices rose in more than half of the nation's cities. The Washington market posted one of the biggest year-over-year gains in prices, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Existing home prices were higher in 78 markets, including ten with double-digit increases.
Read more: Washington home prices up 8.1%
Washington Business Journal
NY Times Feature: Life Without Fannie or Freddie
Imagining Life Without Fannie and Freddie
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: February 12, 2011
KUDOS to Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for some straight talk about the nation’s broken mortgage system.
A report to Congress from those departments, published on Friday, provided some long-awaited analysis by the Obama administration about what went wrong in housing finance — and how to fix it.
The report, entitled “Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market,” zeros in on the perverse incentives created by the nation’s mortgage complex during the years leading up to the panic of 2008. The Treasury’s recommendation that we wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and let the private mortgage market step in is spot on.
Still, it is not clear that such moves, sensible though they are, will be enough to prevent taxpayers from having to bail out institutions that back mortgages in the future. That is because the debate over how to put the Treasury’s ideas into effect will soon become a brawl. Powerful participants are already working overtime to keep taxpayers on the hook. CLICK HERE for Full Article
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: February 12, 2011
KUDOS to Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for some straight talk about the nation’s broken mortgage system.
A report to Congress from those departments, published on Friday, provided some long-awaited analysis by the Obama administration about what went wrong in housing finance — and how to fix it.
The report, entitled “Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market,” zeros in on the perverse incentives created by the nation’s mortgage complex during the years leading up to the panic of 2008. The Treasury’s recommendation that we wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and let the private mortgage market step in is spot on.
Still, it is not clear that such moves, sensible though they are, will be enough to prevent taxpayers from having to bail out institutions that back mortgages in the future. That is because the debate over how to put the Treasury’s ideas into effect will soon become a brawl. Powerful participants are already working overtime to keep taxpayers on the hook. CLICK HERE for Full Article
Thursday, February 3, 2011
White Flint, An extension of the 355 Corridor?
White Flint 2020 = Ballston 1990
Like a suburban string of pearls. (Delta Associates)
Delta Associates, the folks who bring you detailed reports every quarter on the area's economic fortunes, think all that will change with the redevelopment of the White Flint. The whole point of the town's award-winning sector plan is to create more of a "there" there, but Delta takes a more linear view in a new white paper, forecasting White Flint's future relative to its wealthy neighbors to the south.
Click Here to Read Full Article
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
NY Times Reports: Closing Costs Are not Set in Stone. NEGOTIATE!
Curbing Closing Costs
The New York TimesBy LYNNLEY BROWNING
Good-faith estimate rules, part of a tougher Truth in Lending Act that emerged from the mortgage crisis, mean that lenders must provide a clear picture of the costs involved in buying or refinancing a home. Yet consumers may not realize that some of those numbers are actually negotiable, mortgage experts say.
“There’s a lot of room for negotiation in the costs of closing,” said Barry Zigas, the director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group, “and consumers should examine every charge and not hesitate to challenge them and try to bring them down.”
Closing costs can run a borrower 3 to 6 percent of the price of a property, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2010, the average cost for a $200,000 purchase rose by nearly 37 percent, to $3,741, according to Bankrate.com, a financial data publisher; the average in New York State was $5,623.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE
The New York TimesBy LYNNLEY BROWNING
Published: January 27, 2011
BORROWERS have some weapons for keeping closing costs down, the result of recent guidelines requiring lenders to disclose certain fees, but perhaps the most underutilized consumer tool simply involves old-fashioned haggling.
Good-faith estimate rules, part of a tougher Truth in Lending Act that emerged from the mortgage crisis, mean that lenders must provide a clear picture of the costs involved in buying or refinancing a home. Yet consumers may not realize that some of those numbers are actually negotiable, mortgage experts say.
“There’s a lot of room for negotiation in the costs of closing,” said Barry Zigas, the director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group, “and consumers should examine every charge and not hesitate to challenge them and try to bring them down.”
Closing costs can run a borrower 3 to 6 percent of the price of a property, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2010, the average cost for a $200,000 purchase rose by nearly 37 percent, to $3,741, according to Bankrate.com, a financial data publisher; the average in New York State was $5,623.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE
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