Housing Bubble Blog

Mortgage Hacks

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000

I've noticed a lot of people these days starting or ending their sentences with "...In this economy..." Times are tough and many are concerned about how they're going to pay their mortgage. Let's face it, many won't be able to make that payment each month. Is foreclosure the answer? Maybe, but before giving up, check out these ways to Hack your Mortgage.

Sell your car. Seriously, what's more important, the car you drive, or the roof over your head? Sell your car and buy a bus pass. Selling your call will also save you a lot on other things like trips to the bar or random visits to the grocery store.
Cancel your cell phone. Get one of those 'pay as you go' phones. The monthly fee will be much less than the contract with your cell carrier. If not, then tell people to stop calling you.
Cancel your cable/satellite. Some people spend up to $100 on their cable bill. Ridiculous! Did you know that your local library has DVD titles? A library card is free.
Buy in bulk. This one is a no brainer and you should already be doing this. Groceries, not vodka.

I realize that many people may already be closely watching their finances, yet still unable to make their mortgage payment.

Here are a couple of options before considering foreclosure:

Refinance. With rates in the low 4's, it could possibly save you a few hundred bucks a month on your mortgage payment. Keep in mind that you will be paying closing costs when refinancing.
Rent your house. Why not move into a cheap apartment and rent your home to somebody able to make a monthly payment equal (or more) to your mortgage payment?
Forbearance. You may be able to work out a deal whereby the lender allows you to 'catch up' on your mortgage payments. Most banks don't want to have a foreclosed property on their hands and are willing to work out special terms for you to get back on track with mortgage payments. Pick up the phone and call your lender. Do it now.
Loss mitigation. This is another solutions just short of a foreclosure where a third party assists with negotiating mortgage terms between the homeowner and the mortgage company. Like a forbearance, loss mitigation is intended to help the homeowner with making their payments and ultimately keep their home. Often times this may mean that the loan is modified to accommodate the lender's ability to pay.

More ways to live frugal and Hack your Mortgage:
All Things Frugal
FatWallet Finance

The Simple Dollar

Dough Roller

Get Rich Slowly

Is Photoshopping a Shady Realtor Tactic?

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:38:00 +0000

Bankrate.com has a great story about photoshopped listings which serve to spruce up properties, hide the un-watered lawn, and remove nasty power lines. Would be buyers are duped into thinking the online property listing is in pristine condition.

Photoshopped, or are Realtors just bad photographers?

Source - Bankrate.

You know the economy is screwed when...

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:42:00 +0000

Foreclosure Guide

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:10:00 +0000

Two choices in this market.

1. Avoid Foreclosure.

2. Take it like a man (or woman) (or man, woman, and child with a boat).

Subprime Mortgage Crisis Explained

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Found this great image explaining the Subprime Mortgage Crisis.

Source -

Home sales, prices plunge in August

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:51:00 +0000

Go figure - The economy is in the toilet and the Fed. is asking for taxpayers to chip in $700 Billion.

"The median sales price fell 9.5 percent to $203,100, the largest price decline on records dating to 1999. As prices fall, buyers are taking advantage of steep discounts, especially in hard-hit markets like California, Nevada and Florida."

Source

Single Mom Selling House

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:33:00 +0000

Boy, these Realtors will resort to all types of shady tactics to sell houses. While this story may seem cute and make you feel some compassion for the 'single mom' (Deven Trabosh), you should also realize that she is a Real Estate Agent.

"Trabosh, a licensed real estate agent who hasn't practiced in years, knew
she would struggle to sell the home in the troubled real estate
market..."

More great housing market news

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:18:00 +0000

Home prices falling faster than the great depression.

"The latest S&P/Case-Shiller national house-price index, published this week, showed a slump of 14.1% in the year to the first quarter, the worst since the index began 20 years ago."

Builder offering buy-one-get-one-free deals on new houses!

"We thought, Why does it just have to be on Pop Tarts and restaurants? Why not buy one home, get one free."

Baby Boomer Bubble

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:54:00 +0000

Back in 2005, I wrote about how our 'Baby Boomers' were influencing the housing market. Well, now SFGate has a great article about the impending generational housing bubble.

Link to the SFGate baby boomer bubble article.

Foreclosure Map

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:37:00 +0000

1. Click on link.
2. Click on your state.
3. Zoom in to your depreciating asset.

HotPads Foreclosure Map

More Housing Market Trouble. KB Homes Feels the Pain.

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:16:00 +0000

KB Home's shares down. Way down.

"Net orders plunged from a year ago. Net home orders totaled 1,449, down 75% from 5,744 net orders a year earlier. The sharp decline came as KB took steps to consolidate or pull out of some markets."

Source - Money.cnn.com

Housing Bubble Video

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:04:00 +0000

Funny video about the Housing Bubble on YouTube

Housing News

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Consumer bankruptcies leap in February - Reuters

Deal May Protect New Home Buyers - ABC News

Latest Housing News

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Foreclosure bill faces Senate test

Existing home sales slip and prices tumble

Direct Lending Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:30:00 +0000

With mortgage interest rates dropping, we shouldn't be surprised to see a huge surge in refinancing. As of today, 30 year mortgage rates are sitting at just over 5%, but don't jump in just yet. A lot of families have been scammed by fraudulent lenders. I was browsing the web the other day looking for information on loan scams, looking for information that would help protect me as a home buyer. I came across a pretty cool site, Direct Lending Solutions with some great articles about consumer scams, interest only mortgages, and tips on about how to prevent foreclosure.

Direct Lending Solutions also has some good information about Mortgage Interest Tax Deductions. The article answers questions such as:

1. What is qualified residence interest?
2. Definition of acquisition indebtedness.
3. Amount of home acquisition debt.

Check out Direct Lending Solutions for more consumer awareness articles.

Housing Bubble Blog Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:34:00 +0000

I just had a great idea. Why not subscribe to my blog feed over there on the right-------------->

Just enter your email address and click 'Kaboom!' Pretty easy really. Then you'll have great housing bubble information piped directly into your email inbox.

Also, it would be nice if you could click the 'Technorati' button to add me as a favorite. I know, this is a shameless plug, but I'm trying to build a readership here.

Thanks,

Housing Boom

Countrywide in Trouble

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:01:00 +0000

Countrywide is the world's largest lender, but they're in credit trouble and they've lost $1.2 Billion during the last quarter.

Seems ironic.

"In the latest filing, the company said some 5.8 percent of the loans in its servicing portfolio were behind in payments by 30 to 90 days as of Sept. 30, up from 4.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.

About 23.9 percent of its subprime loans made to borrowers with shaky credit histories were delinquent, up from 16.9 percent, the company said."

CNN Mony

Dead Equity: Put it on Black

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:53:00 +0000

A frequent reader to my blog (obviously a devout christian) sent me this link to an article about investing your home's equity.

"Too many people simply look at their home as a place to live," says Sheila Delutri of Merrill Lynch Financial Advisors. What follows is a suggestion that homeowners actually withdraw the built-up equity from their homes and invest the proceeds in the stock market. "

Or, in other words, 'play the stock market with your house on the line'. By the way, who are these idiots who see their house as a 'place to live'?

Cmon' start pimpin' that sucker!

Should You Invest Your Home's Equity?

After reading the article I came up with some ideas for dealing with burdensome equity:

1. Pull out $50,000 and put it on black at the roulette table.
2. Max out equity and invest in telemarketing scheme.
3. Stop making house payments and buy Beanie Babies.

Sounds like pretty good advice.

The Best Places to Live. Whatever!

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 01:22:00 +0000

Just like every copy of Men's Fitness, Men's Journal, Details, Esquire, etc., CNN Money has published their guide to the 'The Best Places to Live' for 2007. It seems like CNN only gets the news right 50% of the time, so I'm betting that their list is garbage.

Let's take a look at their list and see where the hell CNN thinks I should live.

*Note - I became so aggravated that I had to cut the list of places in half, so I'll only be writing about 5 cities.

1. Middleton, WI - Middleton, Wisconsin USED to be a great place to live until CNN published their list and then a bunch of assholes from California moved there. I'm sure the residents of Middleton are petrified. Thanks a lot CNN.

2. Hanover, NH - The 2000 Census puts Hanover's population at 10,850. Sounds like a nice small town, right? Well, how about the 30 cemeteries in Hanover? 0.00276497696 cemeteries per person is a startling figure.

3. Louisville, CO - From Wikipedia

"From the time of Colorado's first strike in 1883 there were frequent labor strikes in Louisville, and the town was frequently placed under martial law. Mercenaries were hired by mining companies to spray machine gun fire across the line of thirteen saloons on Front Street, while the town's residents hid in their basements and tunnels."

How do we know that this wont happen again, Louisville?

4. Lake Mary, FL - Here are just a couple of quick news headlines from Lake Mary, FL:
- 7 Year Old Boy Takes Car on Joy Ride.
- Thieves Targeting High Priced Homes.
- Deputy Accused of Exposing Self.
Please. This place is obviously riddled with crime.

5. Claremont, CA - This is a city in Eastern Los Angeles, only 30 miles east of 'Downtown L.A.' Need I continue?

I think that I've just about had it with magazines and websites telling me where I should live.

You think the homeless have it tough

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:45:00 +0000

Everybody thinks the homeless have it tough. No place to sleep, no roof over their heads, wandering from place to place, but nobody talks about the Homes.
What about the Homes!

There are 2,000,000 - that's million man, empty homes (Source). Homes without residents. These 'Residentless' as I call them are often left for months (or even years) without residents.

I did a google search and found nothing in support of the 'Residentless'. Is it that people just don't care about these poor vacant homes, or are we spending too much time focusing on the 'homeless'.

Greenspan Opens His Big Fat Mouth

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:41:00 +0000

Almost two years ago, I was blogging about Alan Greenspan. I thought he retired. Alan Greenspan is commenting on the Housing Market quite a bit lately. The former Chairman to the Federal Reserve seems to have forgotten that he's not on the payroll. It also looks as if all he's saying is, "I told you so".

If I was Bernanke, I would be pissed.

Check this out- Nouriel Roubini's Blog blames Greenspan for essentially creating the Housing Bubble.

Home Builder Confidence

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:25:00 +0000

These poor home builders are simply losing their confidence. I'm not saying so, CNN is.
See -

"The nation's home builders' confidence in the battered market for new homes fell further in October, and a measure of their outlook remained at a record low level, according to the latest industry survey."- CNN Money

I kind of feel bad. It pains me to see the builders lose their confidence. I wish them all the confidence in the world - if there is anything that I can do to boost their confidence, I hope they will let me know.

Note to builders, please email me with ideas about how I can help you get your confidence back. EMAIL: contact_AT_housing-boom.com (*Remove _AT_ before sending email)

Sincerely, http://www.housing-boom.com/

Zillow Clones

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:49:00 +0000

Way back in 2006 :-), I was talking about Zillow. Still great, and definitely the pioneer for using the Web for home valuations, but greatness breeds competitors. I was able to quickly find 11 Zillow copycats, clones, or whatever you want to call them. Some are more local or specialized, but still basically provide the same service.

Try these Zillow competitors:

http://www.realestateabc.com/
http://www.cyberhomes.com
http://houseamerica.com
http://realestate.yahoo.com/Homevalues
http://eppraisal.com
http://redfin.com/
http://propertyshark.com
http://www.loopnet.com/
http://www.google.com/base/
http://www.terabitz.com/
http://www.foreclosureradar.com/

Great Housing Bubble Blog

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:37:00 +0000

One of the best 'Housing Bubble' Blogs out there, Patrick.net has a great explanation for why it's a terrible time to buy Real Estate in this market.

"Buyers borrowed too much money and cannot pay the interest. Now there are mass foreclosures, and senators are talking about taking your money to pay for your neighbor's McMansion."

Also, other great links to Housing Bubble articles, blogs, pictures, etc. at Patrick.net

Housing Market Status

noreply@blogger.com (author) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:44:00 +0000

Great article at Reuters - Current Housing Market Indicators.

New Home Sales

Existing Home Sales

Homebuilder Confidence

Home Prices

Building Permits

Housing Starts