FED Chairman asks banks to “forgive” mortgage debt

Here’s an article that we found on the superb website, The Consumerist.

Principal reductions and prudent loan workouts are Mr. Bernanke’s recent language. If banks make things like this happen for millions of consumers, that could be a cool thing. The folks at www.youwalkaway.com may not have as much business, but they are scalawags anyway!

The Mobile Digital Pen

An infrared, ultrasonic pen that works with a receiver to virtually transmit notes from paper, to PDF. You can then manipulate the notes by post, email, send via IM, print, or even delete.

That is sexy, especially for a handwritten, hard copy business like real estate purchase and sales.

I just read an article about buying real estate, NOW, written from a national perspective, and I’m including a nifty graphic from a TIME magazine article with this post that should interest you.

I’ve noticed that many of the clients that I’m working with are watching the market and looking for certain timely advantages. There is a lot of evidence to say that our Buyer’s market will continue for months, but in the Intown submarkets, Buyer showings are steadily increasing, week by week and pending sales - contracts on the top 20% of the available properties - the best of the lot - are piling up.

I like the momentum that I’m seeing, and with that increased demand, and the more steady sell off of inventory that we are seeing, I expect that when the market turns, today’s bargains will be yesterday’s missed opportunities.

While it is conceivable that home prices may drop further, it is likely that these decreased prices will be accompanied by increased financing costs due to rate increases by the Fed. The rate increases aren’t just speculation. Just a couple of weeks ago, in early February, the fixed mortgage rate jumped a full half-percent, making it the fastest rate increase in 20 years.

The table below demonstrates how even as home prices may drop, monthly mortgage payments basically stay the same, due to increased interest rates: Read the rest of this entry »