August 29, 2005

Why use a mortgage broker?

What a Mortgage Broker Does? Why Go to a Broker? What a Borrower Should Know? How the Broker Makes Money? How to Prevent Hidden Charges? The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time:
(c) 2005 Charlotte.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Posted by QiRealtyEditor at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2005

Picking mortgage is part of overall financial plan

Picking mortgage is part of overall financial planSo you're ready to buy a home. Let's focus on first things first: Be sure that you have a good overview of your financial health -- and don't think of your mortgage separately.
The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time: (c) 2005 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Posted by QiRealtyEditor at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2005

U.S. Home Prices Not Like Japan's in 1980s

With U.S. housing prices staying strong in many parts of the country, some analysts are comparing the appreciation trend to similar growth in Japan in the late 1980s, when a property bubble formed and eventually burst. But most analysts aren't sure that's a good comparison.

More than 10 years after the Japanese slowdown, land prices are still on the decline; and banks have just recently begun to pull out of a land-related, bad-loans crisis.

Although both Japanese and U.S. property industry growth are tied to low interest rates, economists note that there are some significant differences between Japan's plight and the U.S. market, including that the real trouble overseas came from commercial-land speculation.

While speculation in the American market is beginning to pick up, analysts say, there has not been a major land-grab by corporations. Additionally, Japan's residential prices skyrocketed faster and higher than in the U.S.

Source: Wall Street Journal (07/11/05); Moffett, Sebastian
Article from Realtor.org.

Posted by QiRealtyEditor at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2005

Housing Bubble Regionally? In the Bay Area?

According to Yahoo Finance, a Yale University economics professor presented his paper last week on regional housing bubbles. He surveyed some US cities for housing bubble related behaviors of the public. On one of the question on the expected home appreciation, respondents in Los Angeles were saying 22.5% while those in Milwaukee said 13.4%.

Second question try to get a sense of how frequent people are dicussing housing market. Two-thirds of the Los Angeles respondents said the discussion is frequent, as compared to only a sixth of the Milwaukee respondents.

How is the bay area's housing market? Is it in a bubble? When is your last time to discuss the "crazy" market?

Posted by QiRealtyEditor at 10:07 PM | Comments (3)