The Orlando Condo Blog

Heya. Changes are a’brewin’ in the mortgage industry. You need to be aware of what’s happening, as it affects you directly. Clients with FHA Case Numbers assigned on or after April 9, 2012 will see an increase to both the upfront mortgage insurance premium and the monthly mortgage insurance premium. The upfront mortgage insurance premium [...]

Local realtors are seeing houses pop onto the market and have a double-digit number of offers in a matter of hours. In fact, looking at a macro level, the National Association of Realtors reported that the inventory of homes for sale has dropped to the lowest level since march 2005. Yet we’re not seeing house [...]

Remember last newsletter when I said that Orlando was ef­fectively underwater?  Well, analysts have one-upped me in a humongous way, boldly stating that half of homes backed by a mortgage are effectively underwater.  By their train of thought, homeowners who owe 85% or more of their home’s value are effectively underwater because they lack the [...]

National existing home sales dropped 3% in September according to the National Association of Real­tors.  Conversely, housing starts jumped up 15% and beat estimates in the same month.  Yet another grab-bag of mixed indicators.  To strike a more intimate nerve with us Central Floridians, CoreLogic recently released analytics indicating that the total mortgage debt in [...]

A recent Federal Reserve study elucidated the fact that about 2.3 million homeowners could have refi­nanced last year had lending standards not been so strict or had they not owed more than the home is worth.  You don’t say.  Well I’ll be goll-derned.  You mean to tell me that this whole mortgage situa­tion would be [...]

Wanna hear something crazy?  I have some good real estate news to report.  Like, a good sum of good news.  Good vibes, bro.  I feel like a hippie after Woodstock: all engorged with positivity and in des­perate need of a burger and a bath. Second quarter bank earning are pegged to indicate an expansion of [...]

Treasury secretary Tim Geithner and his posse have proposed three strategies for winding down Fan­nie Mae and Freddie Mac, the gargantuan governmentally sponsored version of Terri Schiavo if she was a mortgage securitization giant.  I can’t say I blame them, as our banking system exploited the poor GSEs to near-death.  The downside of this is [...]

 is like Chuck Norris vs. A Velocirapt​or… Jobs, jobs, jobs.  Job creation is the big concern for the United States right now.  With it, a chain reac­tion fixes everything.  People start spending more, home prices start to rise again as demand increases, wealth returns to the American public, cherubs dance naked in the streets whilst [...]

Well, here we are.  2011.  The packages have been torn open, enjoyed, and are now all but forgotten.  All of us are about 10 pounds heavier.  The hangover from New Years Eve has faded, but the shame of your actions remains.  And since we’re about a week into the year, about 50% of all New [...]

Every so often, I try to make a point through these newsletters.  This is one of those instances.  Bear with me.   I’m feeling overtly positive right now.  Very ‘glass is half full’.  Not necessarily any kind of justified positivity incited by stupendous macro-economic data, just viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses.   Let’s talk [...]