The Top 10 Reasons

1. What is really crazy is that this article was posted on the Detroit News website today while I wrote an article about a new way to collect property taxes yesterday. In this article it states that the County Commissioner of Macomb County is suggesting to raise property taxes by almost 25% to make up for a ever growing defecit.

2. They are expecting to have budget defecits of almost $33 million in 2009 and $43 million in 2010. Really? The county that has a city that was rated one of the best places to raise a family (Sterling Heights) in the country year after year is that far in debt? How can this be so?

3. Of course the governments only plan of action is to raise property taxes to make up for the loss in revenue. It blows my mind why we

1. Right now around the country your home is taxed based on a percentage of what the value or home is worth based on what the county assessor thinks it is worth. As an example lets say your local county government has a property tax of 1% and your home was assessed at $300k. You would pay $300k x 1%= $3000 a year in property taxes.

2. This is a great system for the county when property values are going up because as your property value goes up the amount of money you pay in property taxes goes up. The county government does not look bad at all because they did not have to raise the percent to bring in more money, it was the market that did it.

3. For the most part people do not complain about paying a little more in property taxes because they have been

1. If you are thinking about buying a home soon you better be putting offers in very fast. On October 1, 2008 there will be new guidelines coming in to play that are administered by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. This new housing bill is going to put a major squeeze on people looking to buy a home after that date so you better get a move on. 

2. Under the new guidelines set forth by the FHA the minimum amount down payment will go up to 3.5%. It is currently at 3%. Not so much of a big deal but it does account for more money that you will have to come up with. On a $100k mortgage that is another $500 plus your closing costs.

3. FHA loan limits will decrease which will mean fewer people will be able to get approved on

1. First off there should only be one or two reasons why you would even want to refinance a home after closing on a home. The only time it makes sense to refinance in such a short time period after closing would be to take cash out of the home. Good luck doing it though. You will only be able to get approved on a new home loan is if the home was given to you in a will or a gift of equity (which is when a parent or relative gives you the house for 50% of what the value is).

2. Many parents will have paid off the house or owe little on it and decide to give the house to their kids to help them get started with their lives. Instead of charging the kids full price them give them a deal. Most will just sell them the house

1. Home loans are getting harder than ever to try to close nowadays with all of the changes going on in the mortgage industry. During the refinance boom years of 2002-2007 everybody could get approved on some kind of loan for the most part. Even if you tried to get approved on a normal conventional kind of home loan and could not get approved you could always fall back on a no income no asset loan (NINA) to close the loan. This loan was considered a sub-prime loan and came with higher interest rates but at least it could close.

2. By the time a home loan gets sent down to underwriting a mortgage banker or mortgage broker should already know whether or not your loan is going to get approved or denied. The majority of times your home loan will be approved from the second you talk to your mortgage

1. During the refi boom of 2002-2007 adjustable rate mortgages always had lower interest rates than fixed rate mortgages. In most cases they were considerably lower. As an example you could get a 3 year ARM with an interest almost 2% lower than a 30 year fixed mortgage. This was the same case for the 5 year, and 7 year ARM’s too.

2. There was so much talk about adjustable rate mortgages being for only sub prime borrowers but in reality most of the people that took out an ARM had good credit. They either liked the sound of the lower interest rate, thought rates were going to come down on the 30 year fixed before it adjusted, or just listened to their mortgage broker tell them that they would refinance them in a couple years before their rate adjusts (of course they will, more

1. Quicken Loans is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country. They are not mortgage brokers but instead what is called correspondent lenders. What this means is that they are large enough to fund their own loans but sometimes borrow their money from larger banks to write mortgages. Knowing that they are a larger bank you should feel at ease knowing your working with a direct lender.

2. Quicken Loans has always had high customer service ratings. This is one aspect of the company that is preached to their employees from day one. The management of Quicken Loans knows that you can go anywhere to get your mortgage so they try to go that extra step to make the application process that much easier.

3. Employees of Quicken Loans are not mortgage brokers but are considered mortgage bankers, just as if you were going to go to your local bank

1. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today they are going to create a new “Covered Bond Market” to help with the mortgage mess going on in the U.S economy. By going to a covered bond market it really puts the weight on two financial institutions not just one to make sure the loan is good.

2. Under the new housing bill what would happen is a larger bank would invest money to a smaller local bank, credit union, mortgage lender, etc to do the loans and in turn they would put up some collateral to receive the money.

3. The collateral would be any asset that the bank has on their balance sheets. So if the homeowner defaults on their mortgage and is put into foreclosure the larger bank that invested the money could choose from something on the smaller banks asset sheet to make up for the lost

1. Interest only mortgages really get a bad rap when it comgees to talk about home loans. Many financial experts talk about how bad they are because you never gain any equity in the home because you are not paying down the balance. They are right in this conclusion because you are not required to pay down the balance during the interest only period of the mortgage.

2. What many financial experts or gurus do not tell you is that you have the choice to pay down the mortgage if you want. The mortgage company is not telling you that you have to for a certain period of time. Typically most interest only home loans are a normal 30 year fixed interest rate mortgage where the first ten years of the loan are an interest only option period and then at year ten it turns into a 20

1. Oil prices are determined by a economic term called supply and demand. Right now in the world the demand for oil is higher than the supply. It’s not that the oil companies are not pumping the oil its that the people of Earth are consuming more than ever.

2. The rest of the world is trying to act like Americans and Americans are trying to act like them. Places like Russia, China, India, and Brazil are all buying cars of their own now and everybody is trying to get to the point where they own their own car instead of sharing the family vehicle like they use to. In the United States it is common to have every person in the house over the age of 16 to have their own car.

3. Oil companies are in business to make money. Don’t blame them for trying to do it. You are