I’ve been taking a Bible study offered by Crown Financial Ministries. It’s a well put-together study that involves scripture memorization, Bible verse study, group discussion, practical exercises, and more. This past week’s topic was debt, and not surprisingly, the Bible doesn’t have too many good things to say about debt 🙂 and encourages people to … Read more
The mortgage interest tax deduction is one of the best sales tools that real estate agents have at their disposal. It costs them nothing to mention that in all but the most expensive homes, all of the mortgage interest on a primary residence is a federal tax deduction if you itemize your deductions. Sounds fantastic, … Read more
Fixed-rate mortgages are almost as cheap as the teaser rates on adjustable-rate mortgages of a few years ago. The average rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage for today (November 15th, 2011) stands at 2.97%. (Note: It was at the time I wrote this post. Rates change all the time.) Rates haven’t been this low … Read more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), with the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) (“Freddie Mac”), today announced a number of changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) designed to increase the number of borrowers eligible for refinancing at-risk home mortgages. One of the big deals of … Read more
One of my office mates recently got another house that was closer to his family’s activities. From the looks of mortgage rates now it seems like he could have gotten quite a deal, even now! Rates have stayed down for quite a while — quite a bit longer than I had thought they would, I … Read more
Saw this question over at the Money Stack exchange site: Bigger mortgage downpayment vs. paying extra on the first regular payment? It’s a great question with a slightly non-intuitive answer. A number of things determine how much interest is paid on a mortgage: What the mortgage rate is.Obviously the lower the average rate over the … Read more
Let’s face it. Mortgages are beasts. A mortgage is the largest loan that people are likely to take out in their lifetimes. They’re also very expensive to acquire. Most of the closing costs that are paid by the borrower are largely for the benefit of the lender. The appraisal fee protects the lender’s judgment that … Read more
Just in case there was any doubt, your home mortgage is very much 100% a liability and not an asset. Here are some ways to get rid of it … There’s a place for spin, and then there’s a place for silliness. A Forbes.com article on MSN (no longer available *sniff*) gives six reasons that … Read more