The jargon of home mortgages

The jargon of home mortgages

The language of mortgages can be downright confounding. To help you better understand your lender, here are brief descriptions of the terms that are likely to be used by a loan officer:

Appraisal: The lender hires a professional to estimate the value of the home you want to buy. The professional compares the home to those in the neighborhood that resemble it in size, number of rooms, etc., and reports an approximate figure. That amount is used in determining whether you qualify for a mortgage.

Closing costs: At the same time you take title to your new home, you also pay fees and other expenses owed to your lender. These can include points, a title insurance premium, roof and termite inspection fees, and the like. You receive an estimate of the amount due before closing and often a final figure just before the closing date.

Boom May Be Spilling Over To More Affordable Housing Markets

Boom May Be Spilling Over To More Affordable Housing Markets

Estacada, an isolated community of 2,500 residents, 25 miles southeast of the booming Portland real estate market, is on tap to build 450 homes this year with another 1,000 lots likely to be approved in the next few years.

In West Virginia, home sales soared 21.7 percent in mid year, in part, because home prices in some West Virginian cities were nearly half the national average and that attracted spill over demand from the Washington, D.C. area, one of the nation’s hottest housing markets.

Old housing market bubbles don’t die, they just spill over into adjacent markets. As home prices and sales in many large booming real estate markets flatten, there’s growing evidence that much of the housing market boom is alive and well. Only the locations are changing.

Tips on handling foreclosure and pre-foreclosure situations

Tips on handling foreclosure and pre-foreclosure situations

Dear Bob: Our house is in the foreclosure process. Due to my husband’s unemployment and disability, we can’t afford the mortgage payments and are now two months behind. We have received several offers from investors who want to buy our house. And we want to sell because chances of finding a good paying job in our area are slim to none. My brother has offered my husband a good job in a distant city but first we have to deal with our house. The problem is it is worth less than the mortgage balance. The result is nobody will buy it until after the bank forecloses. We talked with a Realtor about listing it for sale, but when he found out our mortgage balance, he said “No way.” His estimate of our market value is about $10,000 below our mortgage balance. He suggests a “short sale” and insists on the lender’s approval before he will accept our listing. What is a “short sale” and is it good or bad for us? – Kathryn H.

Bal Harbour gives preliminary OK to $1 billion hotel project

Bal Harbour gives preliminary OK to $1 billion hotel project

The $1 billion St. Regis-Bal Harbour Hotel and Residences, which one of its proponents touted will be “absolutely the highest-class hotel in South Florida,” has gained tentative approval of a zoning change from the Bal Harbour Village Council.

The council’s 4-1 vote Jan. 5, following a sometimes contentious public hearing, means the proposal will be brought to a final vote, tentatively set for Feb. 21. The Sheraton, 9701 Collins Ave., would be demolished to make way for 240 luxury condominium hotel rooms and 271 residences on the 7.32-acre parcel.

Have you overimproved your home?

Have you overimproved your home?

Home improvement spending is frequently justified because it adds to a home’s value when it’s time to sell. And it often works out great. But there are dangers to look out for.

“A lot of people who overimproved did a cash-out refinancing when rates were at a low, expecting housing prices to continue going up and up,” says Sal Alfano, editorial director for Remodeling Magazine in Washington. “But in some places, like the Midwest, prices have already stopped climbing.”

With an average kitchen remodel alone costing $44,000, it’s easier than you might think to turn the cost-versus-value equation on its head.