Surprise! Surprise! In what should come as no surprise at all is news today that JP Morgan Chase is suspending origination of all HELOC loans. A HELOC is short for a Home Equity Line of Credit. In other words what they are telling us is that they believe that home values will begin their decline as a result of the pandemic and job losses as a result. They might be thinking that they may not get a huge bailout like they did in the Great Recession of 2008. That is my opinion today as I watch from the sidelines.

Afternoon all. What is meant by the word escrow? Escrow is the person or entity entrusted with the collection of all items and documents necessary for a real estate closing. Title companies and attorneys are often escrow agents. These entities are non-interested third parties to a transaction and their function is to make sure all facets to a transaction is as it should be.

What are closing costs? Closing costs are expenses incidental to a sale of real estate, such as loan fees, title fees, appraisal fees, etc. Are you aware that as a buyer you can ask for a seller to help pay some or a good portion of those fees for you? Ask your attorney or real estate professional for more information about this topic.

As mentioned earlier here, we have been in the real estate and mortgage arena for over forty years. In the next few days we are going to give some definitions of some industry terms you may or may not know. Today we are going to discuss a POINT. A point is 1 per cent of the amount of the loan. There is also what's known as a point letter. A point letter is a letter from a lender which guarantees the number of points on a loan for a given time.

Another day in the Pandemic world! We are all reading the same headlines. As things start to worsen the scammers will be out everywhere. Please do not give out information to anyone you don't know and trust. Many of us are old(I'm one). Don't let your guard down. The IRS does not call you. The IRS does not send you emails! You should never respond to any email or call that is asking you for your sensitive information. In this pandemic time the criminals will be out in force. Look at your bank info daily. Protect yourself from getting cleaned out over night. If you see a charge on a credit card you don't recognize, report it, contest it. Be safe and be wary!

“People have been asked to put their lives and livelihoods on hold, at significant economic and personal cost,” Powell said in a Brookings Institution webcast. “We are moving with alarming speed from 50-year lows in unemployment to what will likely be very high, although temporary, levels.”

 

Powell called for a national discussion about what it will take to reopen the economy, but he urged caution about moving too quickly and triggering another spike in coronavirus cases and deaths. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said it’s possible businesses can reopen in May. Powell said sometime after July is more likely. 

Words from Fed Chair Jerome Powell

For those of us that have been around for awhile, we have lived through several upheavals in the world of real estate. For me, being newly licensed in the late 1970's, I was able to get introduced to the Resolution Trust days. This was an entity created to help deal with the Savings and Loan crisis of the day. Today's younger people may have never come across the term Savings and Loan. Savings and Loan companies were where you went to save your money and buy a home. The housing bust of the late 70's pretty much put an end to that house buying model. There was soon to be a replacement model for that business, but more about that later. I write this today, because once again the pandemic we are currently in will bring great change to the marketplace. We are here to help you as much as we can. Stay tuned.