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March Madness Bracket Challenge
The NCAA March Madness phenomenon is about to begin! eSettlement Solutions wants you to join the fun and frenzy while winning prizes in our March Madness bracket Challenge. Come see what your Buyers, Sellers and clients are talking about at the water cooler. Our participants will be wining prizes at every stage of the tournament starting with “75 years of madness T shirts”, gift cards, and finally a TABLET grand prize.
It’s easy to play even if you’ve never seen a college basketball game or you thought a bracket was a punctuation mark. For several years Coldwell Banker has even been predicting the winning teams by calculating which schools have the most affordable housing market based on median sales price.
Please respond to our invitation to participate in our celebration of 75 Years of March Madness Bracket Challenge by following the link to our website below.
GOOD LUCK !
Join our 2013 CBSSports.com Bracket Manager group! To accept this invitation and join the group, click the link below (or cut and paste the link into your browser’s address bar). You’ll be asked to enter the group password before you can join, so it is posted below.
http://esettlementsolutions.
Our Group password is: real estate
Contact us today for more information.
Move-Up Buyers are Back
It seems that this spring will bring a more traditional balance of purchasers to the residential real estate market. According to the monthly RE/MAX National Housing Report “Move-Up” buyers now appear to be outnumbering investors and first-time buyers”.
Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX, LLC stated “It’s clear that the housing recovery is real and is moving full-speed ahead into 2013. Consumers recognize that we’ve hit bottom, and real estate is offering some great opportunities with low prices and low interest rates. This is an attractive combination that most of us will never see again in our lifetimes.”
As local home values appreciate and the first-time home owner’s equity increases the Move-Up Buyer niche should not be ignored. After all, “bigger is better” and “two commissions are always better than one.”
Contact us today for more information.
The Future of Fannie and Freddie
The current “politically correct” opinion is that Fannie and Freddie, the agencies that purchase most residential mortgages on the secondary market, should be eliminated and their functions transferred to private business. I am not so sure.
The Washington Post published an interesting article by Barry Ritholtz in the Business Section Sunday, November 20. (The article is reproduced and additional data added in his blog for November 20. Click to view article.) He analyzed economic data about our economic crisis and observed that the “vast majority of subprime mortgages – the loans at the heart of the global crisis – were underwritten by unregulated private firms.” He reported that the data also shows that the bulk of these mortgages were sold to Wall Street, not Fannie or Freddie. Finally, he stated that Fannie and Freddie began purchasing subprime loans on the secondary market only because they were losing market share to the unregulated private lenders. On this point he elaborated, in response to a question on his blog, that “in late 2005, having lost so much marketshare to private lenders, Fannie & Freddie petitioned their regulator, OFHEO, to jump into the subprime mortgage market. That was granted, and they ramped up purchases into the peak of the housing boom.”
The take away from this data is that it was not until Fannie and Freddie strayed from their original business model that they became a problem. It seems to me that, until that point in time, they provided the linchpin in the mortgage market, insuring stability and inexpensive mortgages, and enabling millions and millions of people to own homes. That was, and continues to be, a good thing.
The obvious solution is to fix what is broken. It seems clear that the simple “fix” is to return Fannie and Freddie to their original business model. That has already been accomplished.
So, why eliminate them? “Political correctness” tells us that “private” is always better than “public.” Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t it the private market that created the mess that destroyed our economy?
Forget “political correctness.” The biggest problem with governmental regulation is overreaction. In order to fix one problem, five more are created. Smart regulation limits itself to fixing the problem. Smarter regulation fixes the problem and creates a basis for economic progress.
Smart regulation has already happened; Fannie and Freddie have been forcibly returned to their original roles. Smart regulation stops here.
Smarter regulation is regulation that not only allows, but encourages, the blossoming of a secondary mortgage market while preventing the kinds of abuses which damage the economy and bankrupt individuals. Smarter regulation is really hard, but if we jettison our penchant for distorting facts to fit into our political philosophies, we can do it.
If and when a private secondary mortgage market evolves that is better, Fannie’s and Freddie’s market share will decline. At that time, we should learn from past mistakes and allow it to happen. If and when the private secondary market establishes itself as secure and reliable with a competent consumer protection component (in stark contrast to the recent past) Fannie and Freddie can be allowed to fade away, with minimal disruption to the economy. And if a satisfactory secondary market never does evolve, Fannie and Freddie can continue to serve the functions they capably served prior to losing their direction.
Contact us today for more information.