Interest-only loans are 30-year fixed-rate loans that artificially lower monthly mortgage payments upfront by deferring principal payments over a period of time, typically seven to 10 years. Indeed, adjustable-rate mortgages and interest-only loans accounted for nearly two-thirds of mortgages in the second half of 2004, said the Mortgage Bankers Association.Many of my clients in the Charlottesville/Central Virginia area are opting for interest-only mortgages, for one of two, and sometimes both, reasons…. The second reason is that the first 48-96 payments are usually mostly interest anyway; why not take advantage of the lower rates, if they are short-timers from the time they close?
Date Archives June 2005
Inexperienced Agents in Charlottesville
Record numbers of new real estate agents and a rising number of complaints – and worse – against the industry have veterans alarmed about whether these novices really know how to buy and sell a house…. “There’s an overwhelming number of new people with inadequate training and that means there are more ethics complaints and more lawsuits…. the industry has an often-repeated standard that 20 percent of the agents do 80 percent of the work, which doesn’t leave a lot of business for newcomers.”When the tide turns, it will separate the wheat from the chaff,” Harrington said.
Regional traffic numbers
Thinking about where you are going to move? Check out some traffic analysis here.
How did real estate prices get so high?
We all know that real estate prices are higher in urban than in rural areas, and highest of all in the affluent residential enclaves of our largest cities. But, how did these high prices get to where they are?
Cvilleradio.org
Curious about Charlottesville’s music scene? Check out Cvilleradio.org – playing local music apparently 24/7. They offer streaming and podcasts.
“Graduation”
It’s my daughter’s “Graduation” today from Fifth Grade at Crozet Elementary. Whoo-hooo.
Interesting – commissions too low?
And the big jump in home prices have only reverberated consumer complaints of forking over 6 percent of their home’s value. This morning, however, a prominent MIT professor, Philip Greenspun, has published a short commentary questioning if REALTORS® aren’t being paid enough:People who sell $1 million condos often complain that paying a 6 percent standard commission is too much. Economists who have studied the real estate market, however, find that in some ways the commission is too low because realtors don’t work very hard to sell clients’ houses compared to their personal houses.