AllAboutCary.com

According to the NAR, in any case. Check it out furniture Bulgariahere. I would tend to agree, all things considered!

According to the Daily Tar Heel, that is.

This is a great article that will explain some of what is going on, and why. It is interesting that many of the same folks who complain about the banks lending to marginal borrowers were leading the charge that led to them doing it in the first place. C’est la vie, I suppose!

The truth is that right now is a GREAT time to get a mortgage! Just not if you are a deadbeat with no money.

Chief Executive Magazine says that North Carolina is the third best state for business in the US. For more details, click here.

North Carolina is number one in Site Selection Magazine’s US Business Climate Index. See the full article here.

There is plenty of weeping and gnashing of teeth going on right now about the current tightening of the credit standards in the mortgage business. Here are a couple of things to consider:

1. There are still 100% loans at decent terms and interest rates available. Instead of doing 80/20 loans, they are now mostly 100% single mortgage loans, and they require private mortgage insurance, which adds slightly to the cost of the payments on the loan. However, since there is no 20% second mortgage, which is usually at a higher rate of interest than the first mortgage, the difference in payments is not likely to be that great.

2. Rates are going down slightly on conforming mortgage loans. What? Good news? Yes! Don’t expect to see it prominently displayed in the mainstream media, who is trying to pin a “bad economy doom and gloom” story on George Bush. Whatever you think of our President, he is not responsible for the mortgage and foreclosure issues at hand!

3. If you are a deadbeat, you might be a renter, where six months ago, you could have gotten 100% financing. But, if you have money to put down, sub-prime loans are still available. Be prepared for an in-depth look at your financial situation, instead of a low-documentation situation.

Here are a few articles that might be of use to determining what is going on:

Herb London has an article that puts the situation in perspective.

Roger Schlesinger explains how the “experts” are getting the details in the media wrong.

Roger Schlesinger talks more about sub-prime loans.

Roger Schlesinger again talks about what is going on in the mortgage market.

Roger Schlesinger sheds some more insight on the current problem.

Roger Schlesinger has a satirical look at just “getting rid of” sub-prime loans, and explains how that would not fix anything.

The National Association of REALTORS released market data about home sales prices in the second quarter of 2007. Our median home price is Wake County is $225,100., which is up 8.4%. Strangely enough, Durham, which is just one county line away, has a median sale price of $180,100, which is up 1.2%. It is interesting to see the difference in growth and home prices between the various counties. Wake County has over 8,000 new students in its schools this year. Durham County was in the local media predicting only 400 new students.

The point is this: Wake County is successfully meeting the demands of change as they present themselves. Durham County is not. It is pretty easy to see why, if you drive through the downtowns of Durham, compared to the downtowns of Raleigh, Cary, or Apex. I am glad that I am not a Durham taxpayer when I see the brain trust that runs Durham spending 13 million dollars on brick sidewalks and similar improvements in downtown. Oh, yeah - THAT is why nobody wants to go to downtown Durham unless they work at an attorney’s office, or have to make a court appearance!

The difference is this: Wake works. Durham does not. Now, Wake County is NOT heaven on Earth, but even people from elsewhere do not have to look long to see the differences the county line makes in schools, crime, taxes, and attitudes. Is it any wonder that I use www.ILoveCary.com and www.WeLoveRaleigh.com as domains? It is true, I LOVE Wake County - and it would be false advertising to use “www.ILoveDurham.com.”

The last session of the North Carolina General Assembly did a number of things, most of which were not particularly notable, except for raising a number of taxes. One thing of interest to home buyers and sellers, especially in the light of the recent mortgage lender debacle, is that the state tightened regulations on mortgage brokers. The new law (see it all here) purports to save all of those poor people who the legislature thinks are not smart enough to look after themselves.

For instance, they have banned pre-payment penalties for what they define as a “rate spread home loan.” This encompasses loans (in general) that we have lumped into the group of “sub-prime” loans. This sounds good, but will it help? Or will it be one more nail in the coffin of sub-prime borrowers being able to obtain financing? Who is going to want to loan money in this arena if they are regulated to the point that they cannot make an appropriate return on the level of risk they assume?

If lenders cannot be assured that they will make a decent return, they will just stick to loaning money to folks with big down payments, regular jobs (not self-employed) and excellent credit. These borrowers have been adequately served since the beginning of home mortgages.  The borrowers on the margins are the ones that will be hurt by some of these laws.

There are some good things in this new law, too.  For one, it strengthens the fiduciary duty that brokers have to their clients. For another, a lender cannot underwrite a loan based on an initial rate, if the eventual rate would not be affordable. It is hard to understand that underwriters were ever allowed by the lenders to do this in the first place.  It seems that if a borrower could not qualify at the higher rate, that it would not make sense to loan him the money, knowing that in two years, he would likely default.

The selling point was that people, with a year or two of on-time payments under their belt, could improve their credit score and refinance into a conforming loan at a much lower interest rate. The trouble is that credit scores, which are history of behavior, turned out to be just what they were intended to be: Good predictors of future behavior! Many of the folks with bad credit, who got subprime loans, kept on making a subpar effort to pay their bills, and kept the very same bad credit that they started with. Thus, they can not refinance into a conforming loan, and either must keep paying their newly higher interest rate, or just give up and let the lender foreclose.

Hopefully, the market has made the adjustments to get rid of the problem loans. Time will tell!

Yes, we are in the press again. (We being used to refer to Wake County.) It seems that three of our towns are now noted as the 18th, 20th, and 63rd fastest growing suburbs nationally. (Full Article Text) Specifically, Holly Springs is the 18th fastest, growing from 10,017 souls in 2000 to 17,425 in 2006, a 74% increase in population. Wake Forest was neck-in-neck, growing from 13,080 to 22,651 (73.2%) in the same time period. Apex brought up the rear, growing from 21,042 to 30,208, which translates into a great, but still comparatively anemic, 43.6% growth rate. What I find interesting is that, unlike many areas, the big Wake County municipalities, Raleigh in Cary, are not landlocked like so many towns.  And both municipalities are still annexing land. This enables them, in many ways, to be their own suburbs. And since they are not counted in this list, the real rate of suburban growth is, in fact, much higher than these numbers would indicate.

And why not? We have a great area here!  Why wouldn’t we have lots of growth?

Beer Bread

3 cups self rising flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 12oz. can or bottle of beer

Mix all ingredients and place in greased loaf pan. It will be very
sticky.  Flour your hands before putting it in the loaf plan for easier
handling.  Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

I had to publish this recipe after going to a "cooking" party that sold
pre-mixed Beer Bread for $4.99 a bag.  Considering it's nothing but
flour, sugar, and beer, I thought that was a bit expensive.  Now you
know how to make your own!