Real Estate

From:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-13/manhattan-luxury-condos-embrace-federal-help-in-game-changer-for-sales.html

<<The Federal Housing Administration agreed in March to insure mortgages for apartments at the 98-unit Gramercy Park development, known as Tempo. That enables buyers to make a down payment of as little as 3.5 percent in a building where apartments range from $820,000 to $3 million.>>

Now, some simple calculus for you, folks. Buying an $820,000 property (that’s the very cheapest of these luxury apartments) at 3.5% one will have to make a $5K payment (mortgage plus condo-fees) every month for 30 years:

http://www.mlcalc.com/#mortgage-820000-3.5-30-4.375-3000-1500-0.52-8-2010-none

Why is the Obama’s Federal Housing Authority — which can not even properly house all the poor eligible for the Section 8 assistance (http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/housing-crisis-reaches-full-589653.html ) — busying itself with and tying their budget on people, who can afford to spend $5K/month on an apartment and are interested in living next to a pet spa?

If the housing market moves down only 3.5%, these new mortgages will be "underwater" — the condo-owners will owe banks more, than the properties are worth. This is when people usually tend to "walk away" from the properties — and is why a normal downpayment is at least 10% (usually — 20%). When people do walk away, the FHA (read, the taxpayers) will be on the hook for the rest of the mortgages… And rich people will not shy from walking away at all (now that we no longer throw dead-beats into jail):

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/rich-defaulting-at-highest-rate.html

Is it fair to suspect, this is done to further destroy Capitalism? After the staggering success with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who were told by the government to relax their rules:

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html

to allow people buy unaffordable homes resulting in the housing bubble and the subsequent crisis of financial system:

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2008-10-05-1.html

is the FHA now instructed to do a similar relaxation of rules to give Socialists another argument that "Capitalism does not work"?

Or is it simply a way to reward rich New York donors — both the buyers and the sellers of these luxury condos — for their support of the Democratic Party?

In a properly Free Market Capitalism, people who make a wrong bet — such as choosing to build a luxury building, when the buyers want a normal one — get punished by losing money. In Obama’s CRONY Capitalism, the government helps them out — at the taxpayers’ expense…
Correrafan! If you are referring to Bush’s use of Haliburton, well, that did not start with him (with Clinton rather) nor end with him (Obama keeps awarding the company no-bid contracts).

But I don’t recall anything like this thing on Bush’s watch — there is a completely new ground broken here, I think…

That can’t be true. He’s helping the working class. BAHAHAHAHA!!! It will be interesting to see what his followers think despite your many links.

I’ve been looking for a smaller home to buy. When I ran a search on what was available in my locale, I noticed one street that had quite a few homes for sale. This sent up a red flag to me – why would so many homes on one street be for sale at the same time?

If they were built 1999-2005 they might just have been sold to dead beats with subprime loans. I would not worry too much, it is just the process of them going back to being renters.

If the homes are older then that, yes, there very well might be something wrong in the neighborhood.

Roger Williams owns this company

What company are you talking about? Whose e-mail address is that? What is the question you’re asking us?

If you want to find homes for sale, try starting at a Web site like http://www.realtor.com

If you mean someone named "Roger Williams" with a comcast e-mail address is claiming he can tell you about homes for sale, it may be a scam.

I live in Coeur D’ Alene Idaho. Starting to house shop. I cant seem to find a good website with a home I am looking for. I want a home on 5 acres or so- Any one know where I could search?

I don’t know if they are good or not, as I haven’t tried them, but here are some:

http://www.cdarealtors.com/
http://www.coldwellbanker-idaho.com/
http://www.21goldchoice.com/
http://www.realtor.com/coeurdalene/nbregion.asp?st=id&source=web
http://www.lakecityteam.com/
http://www.lakeshorenw.com/
http://www.kwcda.com/

Hopefully these will help you.

I’ve heard people tend to remove their listings when it’s slow during the winter. Would that mean fewer homes for sale? Wouldn’t it make sense to leave it on just in case there’s a surge in buyers some some reason?

Some people do not want to go through the effort to keep their house "market ready" during the slow months and holidays. Traveling, visiting family, holiday events sometimes take priority. And some people do not want to move during that time of year. But if you do not have those issues, I would leave it on the market.

I am in the market looking to buy an old home, preferably over 100 years. However I can’t seem to find ANY. When I look at American real estate sites though there are thousands of listings. I need help finding old houses!!

Look around Saint John, New Brunswick.
Mawhinney Real Estate has alot of them for sale.

sale. What if the home we are selling is too much to afford with the new house and it goes into foreclosure? what will happen to the contract with the real estate lady if its within her time frame?

If foreclosure is started, you won’t be buying a second house. As soon as the lates and foreclosure hit your credit files, any thoughts of a new mortgage will quickly vanish. You’re going to have to find a way to sell the first house and then buy the next one. If you can’t find one really quickly, you may end up renting for a short period of time.

We will be moving out of state next May 2011 and are trying to be proactive.

List your home in Feb. Do not look for a new home till you have a signed contract unless you can afford to pay two mortgages