One of the biggest challenges most Virginia first-time home buyers face is coming up with their down payment. An FHA loan exists in Virginia that can help stretch your home buying and down payment dollars.   It allows for a $0 down payment and ony 1% of the sales price is…

Recently, the U.S. Treasury announced some new measures to assist homeowners that are having trouble making their mortgage payments.  They specifically address two areas of concern with programs aimed at alleviating some of the roadblocks that these borrowers are facing. One of the focuses is on loan modifications.  This is…

Here is some national data on the number of distressed sales in Q2, and the types of homebuyers. This is from a survey by Campbell Communications (excerpted with permission). Source: Summary Report–Real Estate Agents Report on Home Purchases and Mortgages , Campbell Communications, June 2009 Click on graph for larger…

The Congressional Oversight Panel, which has been reviewing government efforts to rescue banks, released a report today, warning that bad loans and related securities remain a potential risk to the economy and small banks. Here are the key paragraphs (bold added): If the economy worsens, especially if unemployment remains…

From Crain’s New York: Shadow units cast pall (ht Nick) … In Manhattan in the first quarter, [condo] sales were halved from year-earlier levels even as more apartments flooded onto the market, leaving it choking on an 18.6-month supply of units. … As bad as those figures look, they may…

This is a common story in many areas … the following information is from San Diego. San Diego real estate broker Edgewood121 attended a presentation this week by San Diego County Assessor / Recorder / County Clerk David Butler on NODs and foreclosures in the county. The following is a…

Reverse Mortgages are one of the only profitable deal in this economic meltdown. Unlike real estate and other investment sectors, it is proliferating with each passing day. Reverse mortgages make use of home equity to generate regular income. It allows the borrowers to release their home equity in the…

This is the eleventh of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover , where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the twelfth chapter, finishing on page 218. The final entry,…

Here is a collection of real estate and economic graphs for data released in July … Note: Click on graphs for larger image in new window. For more info, click on link below graph to original post. ******************** New Home Sales in June (NSA) The first graph shows monthly new…

I have recently been teaching my 6-year-old son about misnomers. A misnomer is, of course, something that is inappropriately named. It started with my little boy asking why “babysitting” is called as such when he is most definitely not a baby. He thinks “kidsitting” should be added to the…