1 lb- ground beef
1 tsp- salt
1/4 tsp- pepper
1 tsp- cumin powder
1 tsp- garlic powder
2 tbls- Worcestershire sauce
3 tbls- chili powder
1 tbls- minced onion
2 cups- red wine
2- 28 oz can diced tomato
2- 6 oz can tomato paste
1- 8 oz can undrained mushrooms
2- 15 oz can undrained black beans
Longwood real estate and mortgage rate shoppers – beware. When it comes to low mortgage rates, you can’t always believe what you read in the papers, get in your mailbox [as you go through your mail standing over the garbage can] or hear on TV. Or, for that matter, what you see in official looking graphs!
A terrific example is the chart at right. Published by Freddie Mac, it shows the 30-yr fixed mortgage’s “going rate” by the nation’s mortgage lenders.
On December 30, 2008, that rate was 5.1 percent.
But 5.100% is only 1/2 of the information that matters.
FHA Loans + $7500 Tax Credit + High Inventory = Orlando Real Estate Deals
Phew – Made it through the holidays, and day-to-day life is setting back in. I love Christmas, for me it helps pull everything back into perspective for an approaching New Year. So now that the lights are back in the boxes and the tree is down, Lake Mary real estate and Longwood real estate buyers are wondering… “is the timing right for me to do something?”.
Well, if economic data enters into that thought process, now may be the ideal time. [Though most home buyers will miss it because they listen more to the mass media than a trusted industry professional.] For the 1st time in over 12-months, the sales of “gently loved homes” fell below the 5,000,000 unit trend line, which helps push the total home inventory higher by 0.1% – a national number, not local.
Based on the rate at which homes are selling nationwide, it would take 11.2 months for the existing housing supply to be exhausted. Here in Longwood / Lake Mary – the existing inventory would last quite a bit longer. This is even better news for the Longwood home shopper… especially the first time home buyer. [Click here for access to the 21 Most FAQ about the $7500 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.] When you couple the Tax Credit with the availability of Orlando FHA home loan financing, whoa – you got one powerful combo!
For Lake Mary home buyers, this is an opportune time to act [not wait] due to the negative news on housing. Here are the 3 main reasons:
Okay, so the subject line is long – but, believe it or not I cut it short. It could have been, “First Time Home Buyers can couple $7500 Tax Credit and Low Interest Rates and high inventories to buy Longwood Real Estate” We are seeing an unbelievable ‘perfect storm’ for buyers! Beware though – when it comes to mortgage rates, sometimes it’s better to “act now”… and no, that isn’t just salesmanship – its the difference between a rate in the 4% range and the 5% range.
Last Tuesday, mortgage rates plummeted to their lowest levels in four years. Now, I love when mortgage hacks are right for the wrong reasons – don’t you? Many have pontificated that it was because…
Well Good News for Lake Mary mortgage rates! The Federal Open Market Committee [maybe we will just call them the FED] voted to cut the Fed Funds Rate by at least three-quarters percent Tuesday.
The benchmark rate now rests in a range of 0.000-0.250%… and no, that doesn’t mean your mortgage will be at 0%. [Typically you will add 3% to that number to attain the PRIME Rate – which is what many Home Equity Lines, car loans, credit cards, and equipment loan are based upon.] In its press release, the FED ID’d 3 key sectors…
In a world that seems to be consumed with consumption – sorry for the play on words – and kids that are only interested in getting ‘things’ there are a few heart warming stories that warm the heart -doooh… i did it again. [I sound like Yogi]
A good friend of mine, and a solid family man, recently shared a story that should be shouted from the roof tops. Rather than me messin’ it up, here is Ted in his own words:
Caleb came home with straight A’s on his report card. Of course I was proud and yes I’m bragging here. I asked him what he would like as a reward expecting him to say Chucky Cheese, a new X box game, a trip to the movies (something big). Wow was I wrong. He said “dad, I wanna shave with you again” Are you kidding me? That’s it–shave with dad.Let me rewind. About a month ago, Caleb observed me shaving and asked if he could try it. I let him lather up with some Edge gel and then I handed him a disposable with the plastic still covering the blade. I guess he REALLY enjoyed the experience.This made me realize how something so small and insignificant to me (adults) can be a huge deal with our children. That 3 minutes of “SPECIAL” 1 on 1 attention that I spent with my son a month ago seemed so irrelevant at the time.The entire story reminded me of a quote.”Your children want your presence more than presents”
Ted is a normal guy just like you and me, but he just seems to invest in his family like the rest of us want to an try hard to do. He is also a local author! He wrote Springing Forward which can be found at Amazon.
If you have questions for Ted or would just like to catch up with an all-around-good-guy, you can reach him at springingforward [at] yahoo [dot] com
Chris Brown
All Around Good Guy
Trinity Mortgage
153 Parliament Loop
#1001
Lake Mary, Florida, 32746
For Lake Mary home owners that need a little bit extra deduction on their income taxes because of the ailing economy, this might be the little extra bonus you need. You see, for most Americans, mortgage interest paid on home loans secured by Lake Mary real estateis tax-deductible in the year in which it was paid.
With advance planning on your Lake Mary Mortgage, therefore, you can increase your deduction on mortgage interest for 2008 by…
Finding the best Longwood mortgage interest rates can be tricky business… locking them in before the market swings makes it even more so!
Each Wed., the Mortgage Bankers Association [MBA] releases its Weekly Applications Survey which gives a detailed look at the new mortgage applications done over the last seven days.
A recent interest rate report will reveal what most of us already know — dropping mortgage rates created an onslaught of mortgage movement in Longwood and Lake Mary, Florida.
If you’re among the many Americans taking advantage of Florida’s low rates, don’t forget that when…
When we hit the day after Thanksgiving, shopping takes over… at least historically nationwide[ surprise!] and, this year, analysts are paying extra attention to sales figures since the news has been so negative about the economy.
Dubbed “Black Friday” in reference to red ink representing loss and black ink representing gain, today’s start to the Christmas [again… I am not afraid to call it Christmas] Shopping season and it is believed to be the day that retailer balance sheets finally cross over to profitability. [I never quite understood why you would stay in a business that wasn’t profitable until the 12th month of the year… but… okay.]
But the accounting connotation of the phrase “Black Friday” wasn’t its original usage — it’s a media-coined term.When the phrase was first used in Philadelphia in 1975, it was in reference to the day after Thanksgiving being the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year.There’s other Black Friday trivia out there, too:
Did you know?
Black Friday is neither the largest, nor the most profitable, shopping day of the year. Contrary to popular wisdom, it’s the 5th biggest, not the first. The two weekends before Christmas are usually the “biggest” series of days.
This is not meant to be a political post, but merely a post about truth andImage Ref: 9906-09-8 – Harvest Thanksgiving, Viewed 18184 times how it is not being taught in the public school system. It is no mystery that the public education system is failing our children, but I think only a small part falls at the feet of the front line… it is more of an institutional and union issue in my mind, but I digress….anddddd… this isn’t a rant post.
Like him or not, and I know that some of my readers will not be able to get past this, Rush nailed this True story of Thanksgiving. We are taught that the Pilgrims were an incompetent group of boobs and were saved by the Indians… revisionist history at best. Brace yourself… you may never have heard this before and i encourage you to seek out the FACTS yourself if you doubt the balance of this post.
The Mayflower set sail in the summer of 1620. On its deck it carried a group of just over 100 people [including 40 Pilgrims] led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs.
Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from?
Lake Mary First Time Home Buyers… perk up. We all know what inflation is and the ugliness that can go with it. Most of us know that deflation is the opposite of inflation…. but don;t know much more than that.
In fact, business TV and newspapers have inflated deflation [sorry for the play on words… but I like doin’ that] as a hot topic this week and, since Monday, Google has tracked 13,000 mentions of it. Make this 13001.
Deflation is a recurring cycle in which the prices of goods and services fall. Suh-weet… falling prices that is so cool, right? Well, um, not really. Why? Human nature.
When prices are declining across manyindustries at the same time, IT CAN SHUT DOWN THE ECONOMY!
If you think about it…
Find out the ugly truth of deflation by finishing the blog post here:
If the presence of inflation causes mortgage rates to rise, then the absence of inflation should cause mortgage rates to fall. And, in most markets that’s true.
Today, it’s not.
Despite a deep, month-over-month dip in consumer prices not seen since 1947, Altamonte Springs mortgage rates not steady by any stretch of the imagination… they are still as volatile as ever!
The main reason why rates are fluctuating so, is that the Cost of Living didn’t just ease last month — it plunged.
So you wanna deal on Longwood Real Estate. I completely understand… I do to, in fact with the gloom they are painting for retail this Christmas [and Yes, iI am one of the ones still willing to CALL it Christmas] I have thought about scooping up a deal on one of those super-duper flat-screens… but I digress. Back to your needs… not mine. =0)
When it comes to housing info, there are always 2 questions to think about:
How does this impact Longwood real estate buyers?
How does this impact Longwood real estate sellers?
Since these are commonly on opposite sides of the see-saw, housing data is rarely negative or positive on a universal level — one group of us is going to see a benefit.
Today, it’s home sellers. [Sorry buyers, the longer you sit on the sidelines, the greater the chances you are going to miss it. For those seeking Orlando FHA loans… that may be even more pronounced as the guidelines become more restrictive next year with higher down payment requirements and lower loan limits.]
It is important for Florida Home buyers to know that Florida FHA loan limits are going down for 2009. For 2008 Seminole County loan limits, it is a HUGE drop. The new loan limits per county are as follows:
Foreclosure – especially in Florida is a hot topic among the press lately and it is interesting to see a staggering number of the sales in today’s market are comprised of foreclosures and/or short sales… especially in South Florida. It’s hard to turn on the TV or open up a paper without seeing a sensationalized story about it.
But what’s even more interesting about the foreclosure situation is that they appear to be consolidated in certain areas of the country. Of the four primary states… two of those were head and shoulders above the others. [Woo hoo… we never do anything half baked here in FL!] Okay, sorry, that wasn’t funny.
Drum roll please: California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada take the cake. Something worthy of note about these states is that they share some similar characteristics:
They all have relative [no pun intended] popularity with retirees
Popular with real estate investors
They have had large home value jumps during this decade
Everyone else… yeah… they are normal. the other 46 states account for the remaining 48.8% of foreclosures, or a mere 1.06% average per state of October’s foreclosures.
Now, this isn’t meant to make light of the impact of these foreclosures on the economy — nope. Foreclosures…
How come everything in Orlando gets cheaper when everyone is worried about their job and don’t want to spend any money!!
Okay, so it is a rhetorical question and the answer is somewhat obvious, but how cool would that be if, everything got cheaper and you just got a raise!?
I feel your pain.
Well, on the first Friday of every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the ‘jobs report’… officially called the ‘Non-Farm Payrolls report.’ Well, the October’s data is trending with the rest of 2008. See the pretty graph? Don’t let the green fool you.
After dropping another 240,000 jobs last month like a newbie at a craps table, the economy…
Well Good News for 
For Lake Mary home owners that need a little bit extra deduction on their income taxes because of the ailing economy, this might be the little extra bonus you need. You see, for most Americans, mortgage interest paid on home loans secured by 
Finding the best 
When we hit the day after Thanksgiving, shopping takes over… at least historically nationwide[ surprise!] and, this year, analysts are paying extra attention to sales figures since the news has been so negative about the economy.
Lake Mary First Time Home Buyers… perk up. We all know what inflation is and the ugliness that can go with it. Most of us know that deflation is the opposite of inflation…. but don;t know much more than that.
If the presence of inflation causes mortgage rates to rise, then the absence of inflation should cause mortgage rates to fall. And, in most markets that’s true.
So you wanna deal on 
How come everything in 
Orlando Real Estate and the Mortgage Chili Blog 