The Seattle City Council recently passed a ban on evictions during winter months in Seattle. I’m all for protecting people when the weather is hazardous, however winter in Seattle is often quite mild. I’m actually very concerned about this legislation and how it may impact the rental market. I’m betting we will see more people decide to sell their Seattle investment property and move to other cities that are friendlier to landlords. Especially once you factor that Seattle laws prevent landlords from being able to screen potential tenants (it’s first come/first serve despite criminal history) and that landlords can only collect up to 1 month’s rent (plus 25% of one months rent if they accept pets) which can be paid over six months. Landlords are really in a risky position if the property is under Seattle’s regulations. [Read more…]
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…]
What May Impact Mortgage Rates this Week: October 13, 2014 – Mortgage Rates are LOWER
Happy Columbus Day from Seattle – oh snap, I mean Happy Indigenous People’s Day. Regardless of which holiday you chose to celebrate, today is a Federal holiday and many offices are closed, including recording offices (no closings will be taking place today). Our office is open and I’m happy to help you with your mortgage needs. As today is a holiday, markets are closed. Here are some of the economic indicators scheduled to be released the rest of this week:
Getting a Mortgage during the Government Shutdown
How much this government shut down impacts mortgage loans depends on several factors, including what stage your mortgage is in processing, what type of mortgage it is and who the investor is. It’s possible that it may not impact your transaction at all. The more time our government is shut down, it may become more difficult or require more time to process a mortgage loan. The shutdown in 1995 lasted for a very long 21 days – let’s hope our representatives can get this resolved soon!
Refinancing Guidelines Need to Loosen Up for Housing Recovery
This subject has been gnawing at me for a while and I’m actually surprised I haven’t written about it here before. In order for the housing market to really start recovering, I believe that the underwriting guidelines need to relax. Whoa–you say, isn’t that what got us into this mess in the first place? Well, I’ll argue that it was more of folks being able to buy more than they could afford (via stated income) that drove up prices and put them into homes where they could never afford the the payments over folks who used home equity by consolidating debts or doing who knows what with the cash (hopefully they banked it…in a safe place). [Read more…]
