"Some $400 billion in loans will get a new rate this year, and another $2 trillion are set to move in 2007. * * * Those moves won't be pretty. Just two years ago, the prime rate stood around 4%; today, it is more than twice that. As a result, payments on some ARMs will double too."
Foreclosures are going up every month. Soon to reach log jam proportions. Already, television ads are pushing buying foreclosures as the next big house flip get rich quick scheme. But wait until this time next year. Are you getting the picture, yet? Whatever Or just check my FR page if you want to learn a bit more. For all the naysayers out there: "Nothing to see here. All is fine in my neck of the woods. I'm so tired of this bubble media hype. Lock your doors and windows. Time to move on."
*Ping*!
I knew this was coming...that's why I sold my house late last year for a hefty profit, and am renting until this whole mess blows over...probably by 1Q or 2Q 2007.
Well, in some markets they had little choice as long as they felt they just "had" to buy a house. The ubiquity of these mortgages pushed what would in normal circumstances have been moderately priced homes up to very high levels, because everybody was getting an ARM. The proper response was for people to simply walk away from those bad deals and keep renting until the market stabilized. But that would have flown in the face of the American Dream (copyright 2004 - Ameriquest Corp.) and so was never considered as an option.
The 500K to 1mill houses around here are going up for sale at a huge clip. These are new sections and have only been occupied for one to three years. Our Saturday real estate news is getting to book size.
We also have an increase in auction notices.
There. I'm done.
We hit the trough with a 5.25% fixed .... but spinning the cylinder with one chamber filled (ARM) was never an option.
Buying in the Houston market was also a plus ... only properties inside the inner loop are overpriced. I've got plenty of house, plenty of yard and a 20-25 minute commute.
"People were gambling ... "
And most gamblers lose, sooner or later.
Refinanced my 30 year 8.25 three years ago with a 15 year 5.5% fixed. If I sold and bought the same house or similar house I'd be tripling my property taxes. Here in Fla property taxes cannot increase more than 2% on an annual basis so I'm still paying close to what I was paying back in the early '90s. Those who bought within the last few years are paying thousands more in taxes for a similar home because of appraisals based on ever increasing market values. Having an ARM, watching your home value drop and still having to pay triple the property taxes of your neighbors who've bought in the 90s is more than sobering.
oh no...we are doomed again...just for today...
Few people remember the late 1970s. At that time, I got a 10% mortgage loan only because it was a VA loan. I had friends with conventional mortgage loans that were as high as 14%. (During Jimmah Cahtah's Presidency, the prime rate went to 22%.)
Buy gold. Wait for gold and interest rates to peak. Sell gold and buy 15% treasuries.
Fortunes were made in 1980 and they will be made again. 2009 ? 2014 ?.
The Fed perpetrates this cycle on the backs of the middle class.
This time could be the mother of all busts (MOAB) due to unprecedented debt levels.
Many are projecting hyperinflation instead of deflation this time around.
BUMP