From the category archives:

Real Estate

$Million+ House for $10 Raffle – Don’t forget the Taxes!

As reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, a Fort Lauderdale couple has decided that since their house that they purchased for $2.35 Million in 2005 isn’t selling, the next best thing to do is to raffle it off. They’re intending on raffling off 300,000 tickets for $10 each. It’s a pretty sweet looking house [...]

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Is it Ethical to Re-Lock your Mortgage Deal when Rates Drop?

With mortgage rates hitting record lows last week following the news that the Fed would buy up to $300 Billion in Treasury securities on the open market, there was a mad rush to lock in the best rates and inevitably, there was a fair amount of “mortgage envy” on behalf of borrowers who had recently locked. [...]

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Mortgage Rates Dropping to Record Low – Time to Refinance?

Mortgage rates dropped again last week to below 5% for conventional 30 year mortgages and will possibly break the recent record set in January when mortgage rates briefly dipped below 5% and then popped back up again. Fifteen year mortgages averaged 4.61% last week, down from 4.64% the week before. Based on recent market conditions and [...]

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Net Present Value: Why You Should Use it in Everyday Life

I was working on a Refinance this week and was confronted with various options: Different rate/point combinations, different lender fees, etc., and this got me thinking – I should just build a Net Present Value model to see which loan offered me the “best deal”. Without objectively assessing all the cash flows in and out, [...]

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Lowest Mortgage Refinance Rate Comparison by the Readers!

After perusing the web for the best mortgage refinance deal out there, it’s evident that the rates, points and fees required by different lending outfits are all over the map. Even worse, in corresponding with some loan officers on a refinance that I’m considering, I’ve found the practices to be rather deceptive (didn’t we learn [...]

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Toll 3.99% Mortgages – What’s the Catch?

Toll Brothers (TOL) announced today that they are offering 3.99% fixed mortgage rates for 30 year mortgages for homebuyers that meet certain provisions. A 3.99% interest rate is the lowest I’ve come across, as national mortgage rates briefly dipped below 5.0% last week, before dipping up again this week. Rates are widely anticipated to continue lower given the [...]

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Lowest Mortgage Rates Ever – A RecordÃ¢â‚¬Â¦and Opportunity

Mortgage rates hit an all-time low this week, presenting US homeowners and real estate investors with an opportunity to decrease their mortgage expenditures. It appears as though the Fed and Treasury are doing something right in their efforts to shore up the homeowner in the midst of the credit carnage. For those fortunate enough to [...]

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Case-Shiller Home Price Index Down 18% – How To Invest

Today, the much anticipated S&P/Case-Shiller home price index was released, showing a 2.2% decline in October and an 18% decline from the year ago period. The S&P/Case-Shiller index is essentially the most widely utilized arbiter of the broad US housing climate, as it utilizes home price data from 20 major markets throughout the U.S. Here’s [...]

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