246 articles and videos on mortgage rates, the housing market and smart home financing, in plain English.
▶ VideoI was talking to a friend earlier, and she brought up an important topic: starting October 1st (next week), student loan repayments are back. To give you a little background about student loans: there is almost $1.8 trillion currently. Take an average out of all the people who owe student loans right now, and it’s…
▶ VideoToday I’m talking about the 5 things to not do when you are preparing to purchase a house – especially when you are in escrow before the purchase! 1. Don’t Quit Your Job Not only should you stay with the same job, but don’t take a pay cut or work less hours. Remember that we…
▶ VideoToday is the first Wednesday after Lexi & Bailey’s wedding! I want to share how excited we are to bring our new son-in-law into the family. Their wedding will forever be one of the most beautiful days/experiences I’ve ever participated in. Congratulations to the newlyweds! When it comes to real estate, there is an article…
▶ VideoPeople keep asking me: when are we going to see an improvement in rates? The quick answer is that we are going to see interest rates drop when The Fed realizes that all they’ve done with raising rates is bringing down economic activity to the point where it is slowed things down. That’s when we…
▶ VideoToday, the report about existing home sales came out, and the numbers were off. Of course, it wasn’t surprising to see. It got me thinking about a few things that I want to point out: Economic Value of a Real Estate Transaction First, according to the National Association of Realtors, on average every real estate…
▶ VideoIn looking at what is happening here at Franklin Loan Center, I’m seeing a surprising amount of people buying investment properties right now. We keep hearing that prices are over-inflated (which I don’t totally agree with). But with where rates are right now and other market factors, it would look like things are a little…
▶ VideoToday’s video is a follow-on from last week. In my last video, I talked about how Fitch downgraded US credit from a AAA to an AA+. At some level, it’s obvious. But, then I found a chart to look at how ratings are throughout the world to get some perspective here. One of the reasons…
▶ VideoMany of you have heard this morning that Fitch has downgraded the US debt. Fitch is like FICO, but they are less objective (and maybe even political). It’s one of these things that I feel like is quite obvious. What took them so long? I don’t take this lightly, because the last thing we want…
▶ VideoIt’s Fed Day, which means that the Fed just finished their 2-day meeting. At 11am our time this morning, they announced (as expected) that they are raising rates by .25%. The Fed is currently in a press conference, so we will see how the mortgage rates respond to the announcement. Misinformation on Major News Sites…
▶ VideoI did a presentation yesterday, and a bunch of real estate agents talked to me after mentioning that they are having a hard time getting buyers to make a move right now. I understand. There are a lot of things making people nervous: so much in the media, prices are high, rates are high, and…
▶ VideoToday’s topic is something that I am seeing continually: headlines and people talking about how everyone is just waiting for real estate prices to fall. When prices fall, then it’s time to jump into the market. So, people are just trying to time the market. I wish everyone luck with that. US Demographics Show Valuable…
▶ VideoWe’re seeing differing opinions about which way mortgage rates are heading – as always, the opinion depends on who you are asking. Last week, one of the past Fed presidents, Bill Dudley, he said he thinks that rates are going to continue going up (like many past Fed presidents would agree). The argument is that…
