photo credit: crimsong19

Let the mortgage games begin seems to be the battle cry of the mortgage lenders, banks, and government. Get as many butts in the seats as possible and well worry about how to keep them there later. Maybe its the disposable attitude our country has adopted, I think it started with the disposable razors. Lets blame it on disposable razors. Razors are the reason we are in this financial mess. Everything used to be permanent and now we view everything, I mean everything, as a temporary or disposable.

When my parents, and certainly my grand parents, bought a house it was to live in and raise a family, which meant at least 18 to 20 years. Thats not so much the case now. Now we use our homes as a way to build a financial portfolio, not that theres anything necessarily wrong with that, its just that we have such a different attitude about our homes as well as everything in our lives. This temporary attitude, I think, has lead us down the wrong road, maybe not personally or individually, but as a country we are on the wrong path, although, it always starts with the individual.

The more we get use to the temporary mind set the more we accept the government and policy makers temporary fixes and solutions to the very real problems you and I face in our lives. Nothing coming out of Washington and the financial sector is sustainable, and the games are being played with our livelihood. Is that a game we really want to play? We need to realize that this is not a game that has winners; there is no victory to be had for anyone playing this game.

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Posted in Headlines, Mortgage, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Blogging, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry Trends

photo credit: bclinesmith

Part of the reason George Washington and his gang came to America and fought for independence is that they wanted the average person to have a shot at a good and productive life, and they succeeded in their plight. We created the strongest middleclass in the world, and we have done a pretty good job at maintaining that way of life over the last couple hundred or so years, however, that lifestyle is now threatened. It has been threatened before here in America, but we are facing some things this country is not used to seeing and were not sure how its going to turn out.

Even the economists are throwing their hands up in the air. We can speculate, but thats all it is, speculation. What worked in the past just doesnt apply today, the problems of yesteryear are not the problems of today, however, there were some very important lesions we learned back during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl that we seem to have forgotten.

photo credit: phi1317

A society will have to learn the lesions again, it seems, once they are no longer emotionally connected to that event. The people of today dont even hear stories and lesions from our grandparents about those times any longer. We have a huge disconnect from that experience and lesion. It looks as though we are going to have to go through it again, which might sustain us for another generation or so.

photo credit: Miquel Wert

We will especially have to learn the political lesions of that generation once again, which of course ties into our financial situation. If you do have a chance to speak to people who are still connected to the events of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, they might tell you they have seen this road before and that we are headed down a turbulent path. This is unfortunate because we have so much in front of us, we have new lesions to learn, and here we are learning lesions we should have already assimilated into our societal consciousness.

Homeownership is a staple of our country, its something we have prided ourselves on, being the strongest middle class and making sure everyone had a chance at a good life. Keep in mind, if we can, the lesions of WWII and the communist movement back a generation ago. Everything turned into the haves and the haves nots. You either had a nice home and worked for the government or you lived in impoverished turmoil. This is not opinion; this is the way it was.  You can look it up.

I just make this comparison because of our current situation. Fewer and fewer people can purchase homes today, and this trend is happening at a break neck pace. The banks simply arent lending and the government isnt helping. You either have perfect credit, money in the bank, and collateral or you dont. Its just that simple these days. You either have money or you do not. Sound a little like something in our recent history? It sure does to me.

photo credit: theqspeaksWe have been so caught up with sides, Right or Left, Conservative or Liberal that we have forgotten to pay attention to the actual direction our Nation is heading. We just want our side to be right. I went to a town hall meeting a couple of weeks ago for a Demarcate Senator, I being more conservative thought I would encounter crazy comments and people who thought very different from me, however, what I found was a group of people saying the same thing as the Republicans.

I was amazed, you could have substituted a crowd of conservatives for this crowd, they were saying the same things the other side was saying, and of course blaming the opposite side just as the other side does, we all want to be right, and we all want to be secure in the fact that the other side caused this, and that we have the answers if only the other side would just listen. However, the fact of the matter is that both sides have been going down an old path that we should have known is hazardous. I think its time we put our differences aside, at least for a little while, and talk about our similarities, and pay attention to the lesions of our grandparents.

We may think we understand the past and are above letting those same things happen again, because were smarter or we understand things they didnt understand back then, but we do not have a better understanding, and we are letting the same horrible things happen yet again. Saying "lets all just get along" simply isnt me, but I do think we need to pay attention to what we all want, to our goals as a country, to where we are going, where we have been, and to start talking about some practical answers.

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Posted in Headlines, Metro Brokers, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Blogging, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends

photo credit: J. Tegnerud

Todays market, these days, all time lows, never before seen events, expressions such as these are all around us recently. We cant pick up a news paper or turn on the TV without reading or learning about how some market is hitting all time lows, its a little disconcerting. One major or unprecedented event is getting lost behind the next unprecedented event; its hard to keep up, and its very uncomfortable to watch.

We all inherently know things are not right, but some people, in some industries know it better than others. Real estate agents, for example, are a group who has felt the financial crash more than other professions. We are in a housing crisis and they sell houses, of course they would feel it. Its hard to make a living selling water during a drought.

Some real estate agents in Denver say that the national housing numbers were just not a surprise to anyone. A little bit of good news is that houses priced well are still selling. Thats good to hear for the market, but what it really means is that the price will be well below what the seller had in mind and in some cases its below what they owe. It's not as bad here in Colorado as it is in other states, such as Nevada, but I think were all feeling the all time low markets closing in on us, at never before seen speeds.

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Posted in Metro Brokers, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry Trends, Downtown Denver Lofts and Condos

photo credit: bbcworldservice

The Gulf oil spill effects are likely to be much farther reaching then any of us can foresee at present, but many real estate professionals can see immediate effects. A portion of the money set aside for claims and victims of the Gulf Coast oil spill will now go to realtors that have been affected by the mess.

The new administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims facility, Kenneth Feinberg had no intention of sharing some of the $20 billion with realtors along the affected coast, but members of the state Realtor associations from the affected states convinced Feinberg that many real estate professionals may not have a legal claim, but they certainly have a moral claim on some type of compensation.

"I think it's the right thing to do under the circumstances," Feinberg said, according to an article by The Washington Independent.

"He realized there may not be a legal justification, but I think he has come to realize there is a legitimate need and cause for what happened. He sees that loss of income is a result of the oil spill, and he's trying to do the right thing within the guidelines that he's given," The president of the Alabama Association of Realtors, Keith Kelley said. Kelley also helped during the negotiations.

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Posted in Headlines, Blogging, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, National News, Downtown Denver Lofts and Condos

photo credit: AuthenticEccentric

During our financial crash, more like a twenty car pile up than a crash, the housing market really took a hard hit. In an attempt to salvage loans, help repair, and give the housing market a leg up, many banks and loan insurers made loan modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program, but we are in it so deep it looks like even loan modifications are not helping the U.S. out of this mess.

About 677,738 people enrolled in a loan modification program and now about 629,751 have washed out of the program.  Someone was thinking! President Obama himself has offered a positive outlook for the housing market and the overall housing picture, saying the HAMP program represented "just one, targeted piece of that administrations larger efforts on housing." With their track record I cant wait to see whats next.

I guess the Obama administration hasnt looked at the housing numbers today. The July existing home sales numbers paint a bleaker outlook than our leaders do. Although, I hear politicians all have their own set of numbers. Maybe we should look at their numbers and we can all feel better. The July existing numbers are lower than they have been in a decade, and they are not exactly making a sharp turnaround either.

The government, with the best intentions, thought they would help the housing market by offering a tax credit for people buying a home. Sounds good, looks good, free money, what could be wrong with that? Wait, this is America, we dont give free money, or do we? I dont remember.

Well, funny thing, the tax credit gave the housing market a false spike in the numbers, and when the tax credit expired, the numbers dropped lower then they were right before the tax credit, a lot lower. For some reason people panicked thinking that the loss of the tax credit was the end of home buying, and they stopped buying. I think the big lesion here is let a self adjusting system self adjust, and maybe make it a little easier for people to hire other people. Work, Make Money, Pay Mortgage!

Read the full article from Inman News

Posted in Metro Brokers, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends