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Monday, January 12, 2009
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12 comments:
Very interesting article on interest rates currently in the WaPo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010901891.html
insights on the current interest rate environment
http://www.redfin.com/VA/ANNANDALE/4464-ELAN-Ct-22003/home/9717549
Does this qualify as a bargain in this area? This area currently serves a lot of Hispanic non-English speakers in the Braddock and Annandale Terrace elementary schools. Other than this, I only know that the area to the west of 495 is "better". Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Karthik
It looks like a good price, but I don't know the area, try using Franklymls.com and then arrange the spread-sheet by LP/tax assessment to see how large of a discount it is relative to the area.
Redfin's better for giving the results arrayed on a map, Frankly's better for giving you a sense of appropriate price, once you've identified the zip codes or school districts you want to restrict your search to.
(if my frankly link is wrong, it's correct on the frontpage of this blog)
Thanks for the info! Franklymls is much easier for research purposes.
Just found more great online calculators:
http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/housing.html
my favorite is the one that lets you compare two mortgage scenarios head to head:
http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools/kiplinger/home07/tool.fcs
Once you learn how to fiddle with it and intepret its output it's great.
8,900 Va. homeowners to see loan help after Countrywide settlement
The settlement will provide $218.8 million to allow troubled Virginia borrowers to keep their homes by freezing or cutting interest rates, refinancing or reducing principal owed, or converting to fixed-rate loans.
It applies to borrowers who received a subprime adjustable rate mortgage or pay-option adjustable-rate mortgage from Countrywide or its affiliates before Dec. 31, 2007, according to the attorney general.
contrarion,
So, with that settlement amount, BoA will remain solvent, right?
I'll be curious to see how many of those 8,900 borrowers are still in their homes to be "helped" by this money. Where by "helped" we really mean BoA giving money back to BoA on behalf of these borrowers... Hmmmm, still, better than nothing.
I know you all read calculated risk anyway, but this was too big not to post a link to:
Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle
Roubini's comments (as quoted by CR) are particularly scary:
"[T]he widespread use of the FHLB system to provide liquidity – but more clearly bail out insolvent mortgage lenders – has been outright reckless. ... A system that usually provides a lending stock of about $150 billion has forked out loans amounting to over $750 billion in the last year with very little oversight of such staggering lending. The risk that this stealth bailout of many insolvent mortgage lenders will end up costing massive amounts of public money is now rising."
So, with that settlement amount, BoA will remain solvent, right?
hehe, I seriously doubt it.
BoA has overdosed on derivatives (Enron), but still on life support in the ER.
here're some
pictures (courtesy of Mike Rosen of FranklyRealty) of a home on my 'why hasn't it sold yet' list I posted a couple days ago. after seeing the pictures, i guess, it makes a bit more sense why it's not sold yet. now i agree with those who commented and think it won't get a contract before this home.
mm,
I don't know, I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised by the pictures. And given the number of agent cards on the counter, it certainly has been seen by buyers. The one major reason the second one is better is because you won't constantly bonk your head in all the bedrooms. (and you don't have to back out onto a major road). But I prefer the first one's kitchen, and actually kind of like the heavy woodpaneled basement, because it's well-done, whereas the other one looks depressingly unlit, without the warm distraction of wood. I guess they were going for the element of surprise by not posting photos of it.
I like both of those houses. The first one will need some painting though :)
I'm with you on the basement Cara. I went to an open house near Ballston a week or two ago and the basement in the house was finished with exactly the same style of wood. I loved it. I'm a sucker for nice basements though, probably due to my being a programmer (we like caves).
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