Could you survive one month without income?

With the government shutdown pushing over a month long, some federal employees are having to juggle another missed paycheck. Yesterday during an interview with CNBC, US Commerce Secretary Ross is quoted stating:

“So the 30 days of pay that some people will be out – there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it and we’ve seen a number of ads from the financial institutions doing that… there really is not a good excuse why there really should be a liquidity crisis,” he said. “True the people might have to pay a little bit of interest.” [Read more…]

Why is My Mortgage Payment Going Up?

If you live in the greater Seattle area, you may be receiving a notice from your mortgage servicer stating that they need to adjust your mortgage payment because of an “escrow shortage”.  We actually just received such notice from our mortgage servicer. [Read more…]

Higher Property Taxes Impacts Everyone

If you live in King, Pierce, Snohomish or many other Washington state counties, you have some sticker shock when you see your 2018 property taxes.  King County is reporting that the average home will see their taxes increase by 17%.  The City of Sumner in Pierce County may see a whopping 22% jump to their property tax. [Read more…]

Dr. Carson sworn in as new HUD Secretary

Yesterday, Dr. Ben Carson was formally sworn in as the Secretary of HUD. Secretary Carson, from HUD’s press release, stated:

“”I am immensely grateful and deeply humbled to take on such an important role in service to the American people,” said Secretary Carson. “Working directly with patients and their families for many years taught me that there is a deep relationship between health and housing. I learned that it’s difficult for a child to realize their dreams if he or she doesn’t have a proper place to live, and I’ve seen firsthand how poor housing conditions can rob a person of their potential. I am excited to roll up my sleeves and to get to work.” [Read more…]

Will the recent FHA Mortgage Insurance Reduction be Trumped?

HUD Secretary Castro proudly announced the reduction of FHA’s annual mortgage insurance premium just a week ago as his parting gift of tenure before having to leave his position. There has been a lot of discussion on if this will be an action that Trump’s new administration will roll back. [Read more…]

President Obama to announce drop in FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums

2013-08-06_0653Tomorrow President Obama is expected to announce a reduction in the mortgage insurance premiums for new FHA mortgage loans.

From Bloomberg News:

As part of an effort to expand homeownership among entry-level buyers, President Barack Obama will announce a cut in Federal Housing Administration mortgage-insurance premiums during a speech in Phoenix tomorrow, according to three people with direct knowledge of his plans.

The annual fees the agency charges to guarantee mortgages will be cut by 0.5 percentage points, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the White House hasn’t yet made the announcement.

[Read more…]

FHA’s HAWK Program Delayed

Osprey_muralFHA’s HAWK (Homeowners Armed with Knowledge) program, which was designed to help home buyers receive reduced mortgage insurance premiums, has been delayed for at least one year as the program was excluded from the 2015 budget.

[Read more…]

What May Impact Mortgage Interest Rates this Week: October 7, 2013

mortgageporter-economyAs the government shut down continues, Congress has the debt ceiling the contend with by October 17, 2013, or our country will lose the ability to borrow. It almost seems “subprime” to me that our country has to continue to increase the amount of funds we borrow because our country went out to dinner and two glasses of wine (as President Obama explained it in a speech last week). Mortgage rates continue to be at lower levels. Once the government is back to work and the debt ceiling issue is resolved, in my opinion, we may see mortgage rates pop up.

[Read more…]