The October 29th edition of The Tina & Drew Show opened with the Beastie Boys song “No Sleep to Brooklyn”. Congrats to Drew & his wife Jessica! They are now parents of a lovely daughter, Brooklyn Ebner.
In The News featured some mixed news. New home sales were positive but national home prices dropped to $204,000. There are always two views on this kind of news. If you are a seller, this is discouraging news. If you are a buyer and searching for your next home, this is very good news. Home prices on a national average are at historic lows. Locally, we have not had a price affordability index this low since 1994.
The latest Case & Shiller report made the news as well. For Seattle we are down 6% year over year, but flat for the last 3 months. To read the update report directly go to http://tinyurl.com/caseandshiller.
In Tips For Listeners, Tina highlighted the credit scoring factors and what not to do! Bottom line, if you are in the home buying process do NOT pay off old collections without consulting with your mortgage professional. Should you decide to pay off an old collection you risk the chance of your credit scores going down. Credit scores have never been more important to the home buying process. If you need advice on your credit reach out to Tina & Drew at 1-888-776-1090.
Tina & Drew had Dan Kellogg in Studio. Dan is an Attorney that specializes in estate planning, wills and trust. Dan gave the listeners the factors in planning and why it is so important. During the discussion, Durable Power of Attorney came up. No one is too old to benefit from this type of document. The planning process should take place sooner than later. You should really think about your estate and the value of your estate. We have an estate tax her in Washington and you may be subject to federal taxes as well. This type of proactive planning is critical to your family. Dan has provided listeners of The Tina & Drew Show a checklist. We encourage you to reach out to Dan directly at dankellogg@seanet.com or at his office at 425-227-8700.
During the final segment Tina & Drew discussed the revisions of the HARP program. The existing program allows home owners who have a mortgage that is owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae to refinance their home up to 125% loan-to-value. The loan also cannot have mortgage insurance currently. The updated version of the HARP program allows for unlimited loan-to-value. If you have had challenges in the past trying to refinance your current mortgage it may be time to revisit it now. The changes will allow for stream line underwriting and lower closing cost. Participation by the secondary market is vital for this program. It will take some time for the changes to be implemented. Tina & Drew will keep you posted to the changes and the upcoming opportunities in our current market place.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
