jason hartman
Why Are Mortgage Rates So Low?
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It’s no secret that for much of 2012 interest rates for 15 and 30-year fixed rate mortgages have been running at or near record lows. The same is true for other kinds of mortgage products including introductory rates for adjusted rate mortgages, or ARMs. These rates come in the midst of a modest housing...
Capital Gains or Investors’ Losses?
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Among the many changes swirling around the recent reelection of President Barack Obama, proposals to raise the capital gains tax are being met with trepidation, particularly from those with a large number of assets. Although the matter is still under debate, numerous investors and homeowners are scrambling...
Maximizing Wealth Through Mortgaging
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For years, the conventional wisdom about owning residential property has recommended paying off a mortgage as soon as possible in order to own the property free and clear. According to this theory, owning the property outright creates a safe haven of home equity that can later be tapped in case of emergency....
The Dodd-Frank Act: What Does it Mean for Heroic Investors?
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The Dodd-Frank Act was passed in 2010 in an effort to establish some regulation and oversight on a financial industry in free fall after the housing collapse of the previous two years. A far-ranging attempt to reform banking practices that led to the robosigning scandal and other abuses that contributed...
HARP is for Heroic Investors Too
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As the dust settles after November's Presidential election, the housing industry is keeping a close eye on which housing-related policies and programs from President Barack Obama’s first term will survive, and in what form. One holdover is HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program), designed to help...
What’s Next? Post-Election Trends in Housing
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Regardless of their political leanings, real estate professionals and investors small and large watched this year’s presidential election unfold with an eye to its effects on the US real estate market. Although housing wasn’t a particularly hot topic during the campaign, experts see some trends emerging...
The New Wave of Foreclosures: Hurting the Housing Recovery?
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Among the benchmarks of a recovery in the US housing market since 2011 is the “foreclosure pipeline” – the number of foreclosed homes reaching the market during a particular period. Although massive amounts of foreclosures were processed during the housing crash of 2008-2011, those numbers have...
Tighter Lending Means Fewer New Homeowners
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Scattered signs of a housing recovery are beginning to show themselves across the fruited plain still shell-shocked by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Housing starts in October showed the most encouraging signs of life since 2008 with a 3.6 percent increase. Even Super Storm Sandy,...
The US Housing Market – Macro to Micro
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Former Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, political adversary to President Reagan in the 1980s, is often credited with the uttering the phrase, “All politics is local.” While not a fan of the man’s political point of view, Jason Hartman realized the idea of applying micro thinking to a macro...
Tax Lien Sales: The Shadow Foreclosure Market
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Outdated property tax laws in several states allow investors to pick up properties for next to nothing, as municipalities sell liens placed on houses owing back property taxes or even municipal bills such as water and sewer charges. Although this practice has been widely criticized as a way for unscrupulous...
