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
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…
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…
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:
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…
SO how are the evil mortgage products doing? Huh, they may actually be better than the fixed products? Maybe they aren’t evil after all… just different.
It is true that some of the wrong people got bad advice from some neophyte mortgage ‘professional’, but the good news is that those folks are back waiting tables.
The interest rate against which adjustable-rate mortgages [ARMs] change is continuing to fall — This could very likely be the evidence we need indicating that the worldwide banking system is starting to stabilize.
On any ARM, the initial “start rate” remains fixed for some period of time [typically 3 – 5 – 7 – or 10 years], and then adjusts according to some pre-determined agreement. It is more a hybrid than it is a pure “ARM”.
For a conforming mortgage, an ARM will typically adjust once per year after that initial locked period, based on this formula:
Conforming mortgage guidelines are the Home Loan Rule Book for Longwood real estate, Lake Mary real estate… and well… pretty much anywhere these days. This Orlando Home Loan ‘Rule Book’ helps in delineating between applicants that get approved for an Orlando mortgage and those that do not.
Well, the rule book just got a little bit tougher.
Do they go to a special school to ‘speak FED’??? Good Lord, fellas… we gotta be able to understand this stuff to be able to respond appropriately… or is that not what you want? LMAO
Well, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to cut the Fed Funds Rate by .5% today. The benchmark rate now stands at 1.0%. THIS DOES NOT LOWER MORTGAGE RATES
In its press release, the Fed got busy addressing the main issue at-hand, stating that economic activity has “slowed markedly”. Ha… ‘markedly’… have you ever used that word in your life? Well, my readers are notably smarter than I am, so you probably have! Anyway, they pointed to three main causes:
Consumer spending…
Read the whole Blog post at THE Orlando Real Estate and Mortgage Chili Blog:
NEWS FLASH: THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA is not your friend. Okay, maybe the subject of this Orlando Mortgage Blog Post is a little extreme, but it does prove my point. Sensational sells. Unfortunately, truth doesn’t always carry the same punch if it is not. Despite turmoil on Wall Street, despite the drum beat of doom from the media…the real estate sector continues to deliver good news.
Last month, led by a 22% surge from the West Region, new home sales went UP by 2.7% from August’s numbers. Okay, so the “West region” isn’t exactly Orlando Real Estate news, but the trend is important. Waiting for the bottom? You just might miss it if you don’t perk up and get pre-qualified now.
[A “new home” is a newly-built residence, i.e. a brand-new house.]
The surge in New Home Sales volume is aligned with the other good news we’ve seen from in the real estate market.
Lets count down the good news for real estate that you HAVEN’T HEARD in the last two weeks….
The TOP 4 countdown:
#4 …
Read the Top 4 ‘good news’ stats and more in my blog post:
Ugh… for current home owners with soon-to-adjust adjustable rate mortgages [ARM], the recent financial market upheaval worldwide may lead to a personal catch-22.
This is mainly because most conforming ARMs made after 2003 are based on an index called “LIBOR” [London Interbank Offered Rate… this is the rate that banks charge one another] and LIBOR is up an uncharacteristic 2 percent since September. Ooof.
Historically, LIBOR has tracked the U.S. treasury market, plus about 1/2-percent. This suggests that banks are only slightly less likely to default versus the U.S. government. That communicated that banks, at thte time were only fractionally less likely to default than the US Govt.
Well guess what?
Banks aren’t that confident in one another anymore. Oops. Now you have seen a diverging trend between the two indices. Wow, that makes me feel smart! [Breathe Chris, breathe….]
Today, that spread is around 4.500%.
The LIBOR spike is hurting homeowners with ARMs because adjusted rates on conforming mortgages are often calculated by adding a margin of between 2.250% and 2.750% to the current 12-mo. LIBOR rate.
The big group at risk? You guessed it…sub-prime mortgages, their margins are even more steeperer. [There’s my awesome grammar again! Smart felling from before… it’s gone now.]
In general, ARMs are not bad in and of themselves, so be weary of News anchors that try to pass off they know what they are talking about… they are just reading this 10 minutes before their broadcast and know likely less than you do if you have a good mortgage professional.
Your mortgage professional, the good ones at least, likely explained that ARMs are typically lower rates because you are taking some of the risk yourself. Unfortunately, current market conditions are worse than could have been imagined 3-5 years ago. If you still have 18 months or more on your ARM, you are in a better position than those with less than that, but to be sure, if you have any questions, call or email your loan officer, or a CMPS like me, to talk about how LIBOR may impact your adjusted mortgage rate and payment.
For many of us… I personally have an ARM as well, it’s less expensive to refinance into a new home loan that to just let the adjustment happen… especially if you can qualify for an FHA loan.
Orlando Short Refinances are a relatively new phenomenon and all the chips haven’t fallen yet as to how these are going to shake out… that being said, they may be an alternative to the ugly process of a short sale. [Which is anything BUT short!] It is important that you know that I am staying on the cutting edge along with a couple other high-profile loan officers from around the country. To get in on the front end of the wave, Apply for a FHA Short Refinance here.
As an Orlando mortgage broker that has weathered the storm of the mortgage meltdown, I have unique insight on the need for bad credit repair in today’s “New World” of Orlando real estate financing. As the mortgage ‘box’ has gotten smaller and smaller, something simply needs to be done to keep people in a position where they can get into homes.
Lenders have increased score requirements [at least for the time being], so how do these masses of people qualify for homes in the short term?
The answer, ethical Credit Repair! As a licensed mortgage broker, I had always distanced myself from credit repair because I felt that it was
A rip-off and a waste [or even worse, illegal]
Going to cost the consumer $3000!
Neither of these options were acceptable to me. The rip-off was out for obvious reasons, and the cost of $3000 wouldn’t work because in most cases, if they had $3000… they wouldn’t be in the scenario they were in! Hello…
That is where FLCreditFix.com came in. After doing some digging around, I found a place that is quite reasonable in their service offering and I have seen some pretty spectacular credit repair results.
Now, no one can guarantee that any one item will be taken off your credit report… but Florida Credit Fix, through their affiliation with Fix Credit Biz, does guarantee their service so if you do not see a significant improvement in your credit… you get your money back. 100% Refund if your Bad Credit isn’t improved upon.
As a Mortgage professional, it became somewhat of a no-brainer in order to be able to help people get back into the mix and get decent terms on a mortgage again.
When you couple Credit Repair with Orlando FHA Loans, people are simply able to get back into the housing market and buy a beautiful home again.
Written by Chris Brown, an Orlando Loan Officer. For more information about purchase loans or refinances on primary residences or investment properties, please contact me directly @ 407-377-0500 x 210.
Okay, [my signature beginning for the return readers] given the stock market’s recent plummet, it is not at all surprising that oil’s free-fall has got very little attention. That doesn’t make it any less relevant though.
Since peaking at like $146 per barrel, oil prices are off by a HUGE amount. Friday, it was at $77.70. [Note the graph is GAS prices, not oil.] For those, like me, that went to public school… that is almost HALF.
Falling gas prices are an important positive for the U.S. economy [have you heard that recently from the media?] because less money spent on Exxon’s elixir means that more money is saved per household for everyday items including food and other staples. Don’t forget the cost of energy affects almost every level of the things we need and buy.
Did you know that consumer spending makes up two-thirds of the economy.
Therefore, falling gas prices may reduce the odds of a forecasted recession. Because Americans are notoriously poor savers, hellooooooo…negative savings rate????…. the extra cash-on-hand is likely to get spent which, in turn, will push the economy forward through the upcoming holiday shopping season. Yeah, it is close… time flies huh?
So, just asinflation [if you remember from a previous post] can bad for Orlando mortgage rates, so can an impending recession… duuhhhhhh. And while recession won’t always cause mortgage rates to rise, right now, it’s one of the factors driving rates higher in this “new world”. Falling gas prices may help keep that scenario ain check.
Written by Chris Brown, an Orlando Loan Officer. For more information about purchase loans or refinances on primary residences or investment properties, please contact me directly @ 407-377-0500 x 210.
With the simple statement, Buy-Low, Sell High… what should people be doing now? Um, isn’t it obvious? To the smart, forward thinkers it is…
Real estate buyers are jumping back into the Orlando housing market and taking advantage of Orlando mortgage rates.
Each month, The National Association of REALTORS® [NAR] tracks homes that are under contract [to sell], but haven’t closed yet… hence a “pending sale.” It also publishes a monthly report to show the statistical data.
This report is important because it’s purpose is to predict future home sales activity. [I love simple logic.] History shows us that 80% of homes under contract will “close” within sixty days, and the vast majority of the remaining will close within 120 days.
If Pending Home Sales are up, it’s believed, actual home sales will be up, too.
Cause, meet Effect.
Effect, meet Cause.
In August, Pending Home Sales jumped 7% nationally. This returns us to levels not seen in over a year.
The report’s strength leads us to believe that buyers are returning to the housing market when added to the trend that started in March. This is reallyyyyy good news for sellers because more buyers on the hunt means more demand for homes which, in turn, leads to higher sales prices… or at least stabilized prices.
The Pending Homes report is not a faultless predictor, however.
For one, it’s not measuring an actual sale — just the expectation of one. It also does not include new construction… only existing properties.
Bottom line, the strong change in the trend in August tells us that home buyers are re-engaging at a ramped-up pace and finding that “now” is the time to buy real estate.
When buyer demand rises, the real estate market, as a whole, isn’t usually very far behind.
Written by Chris Brown, an Orlando Loan Officer. For more information about purchase loans or refinances on primary residences or investment properties, please contact me directly @ 407-377-0500 x 210.
Finding the best 
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.
So you wanna deal on 
How come everything in 
Conforming mortgage guidelines are the Home Loan Rule Book for 
sells. Unfortunately, truth doesn’t always carry the same punch if it is not. Despite turmoil on Wall Street, despite the drum beat of doom from the media…the real estate sector continues to deliver good news.
Since peaking at like $146 per barrel, oil prices are off 
“You buy when there’s blood in the streets”
Orlando Real Estate and the Mortgage Chili Blog 