I’m getting so many questions from folks about financing lately. Jerry Baker, Senior Loan Officer with Northwest Mortgage sent the below info in an email this week and has given his permission to share with you here:
This is obviously the most tumultuous time that the mortgage industry has ever faced. We’re seeing the very largest [...]

Fair Isaac is attempting to roll out a new scoring method that will hurt some folks, and help others. Under the new method, secondary account holders will no longer benefit from being on joint accounts. The more unscrupulous credit repair services would add a low scoring credit seeker to an account of an established [...]

The Oregonian reports on the Auction:
“Roger Pollock said he wanted to sell a lot of homes at his two-day auction this weekend — and he did just that.Pollock said he sold 141 homes for a total of $65 million at the Oregon Convention Center in what was one of the largest real estate sell-offs in [...]

I had an interesting discussion with a loan broker tonight regarding the statistical home sales data out there. RMLS does an adequate job of collecting data, but a poor job of reporting that data accurately. This is where factual vs. actual comes in. Anyone who has played with data for more than 15 minutes knows [...]

Earlier this week The Oregonian did a quick write up regarding the auction and reserve pricing. I’m certainly glad that they are willing to help shed some light on this auction, although I don’t think it is very accurate to compare this auction to an E-Bay auction, or a car purchase. A home purchase is [...]

I’m still getting lots and lots of inquiries about flipping, especially with all the press about the rising foreclosure numbers. Shows on TV, articles, and seminars make it sound very easy and folks sitting on sizeable equity find flipping very tantalizing.
What the heck is flipping? “Flipping”, or otherwise known as speculating, is buying an under [...]

Zillow recently announced it’s partnership with several newspaper publishers. Advertisers of homes for sale will now have the option to include their listing on Zillow.com. Read the article here: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/11132007_Zillow_Newspaper.asp .
I have a love/hate relationship with Zillow. I love it for the free additional exposure for my listings, I hate it when I get that [...]

Okay, so maybe Portland specifically was not mentioned, but the Northwest was cited as one of the markets still growing in value. Read the Forbes article here! Nice to see some positive press out there!

….. And quickly moving into winter.
So what does that mean for real estate? It means it’s a great time to buy. Despite all the dooms day press out there, Portland is holding strong, we have lots of inventory, and there are some great deals being made out there. Fall/Winter is typically more of a buyer’s [...]

The market is showing continued signs of slowing. According to RMLS, inventory is up, days on market is up, prices are slipping. We can expect to see this trend continue as there is continued uncertainty in the mortgage market. We’ve had some better news as of late, as the feds are cutting rates in acknowledgement [...]