Take Benefit of President Obama’s Mortgage Refinance Plan to Avoid Foreclosure

parag | FHA Mortgage, Mortgage Refinance | December 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »

It’s possible to apply for mortgage refinancing with bad credit with Obama’s Stimulus plan if you’re present stuck up through an expensive mortgage on your home. The HARP, which is a part and package of President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” Program, is maintained through a $75 billion stimulus package. With qualifying for the HARP, stressed [...]

It’s possible to apply for mortgage refinancing with bad credit with Obama’s Stimulus plan if you’re present stuck up through an expensive mortgage on your home. The HARP, which is a part and package of President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” Program, is maintained through a $75 billion stimulus package. With qualifying for the HARP, stressed homeowners have the chance to refinance their homes to considerably low rates of interest.

In addition, as per rules of the federal program participating lenders are provided $1000 as incentives for approving qualified homeowners for low interest rate mortgage refinancing loans. Borrowers, who are facing it tough to pay their current monthly mortgage payments and facing imminent home foreclosures, could save their homes if they could qualify for the mortgage refinance loans.

If you’re qualified for the home mortgage refinance loan, your monthly mortgage payment would be brought down to 31% of your gross monthly earnings. This is since under tenets of the home affordable refinance program, the responsibility of the cost burden might be shared through the federal government as well as lenders. However the program provides financial support only if the present home mortgages are owned or insured through Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. For this, President Obama has previously provided an added $ 200 billion to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for easing out their mortgage burden. Accordingly, the HARP program offers a federal guarantee of $ 400 billion to both the mortgage giants for encouraging availability of home mortgages and to make the process of refinancing much easier. Keep in mind, presently Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is together accountable for around 40% of America’s $12 trillion mortgage debts.

Interesting article. Any thoughts?

‘Tis the Season for Apple TV

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By Richard Adhikari
MacNewsWorld
12/22/10 5:00 AM PT

iPads seem to be selling well for Apple this month, but the real breakout star of Cupertino’s lineup may well be Apple TV. The device debuted in iPhone’s shadow in 2007 but was only recently given a significant redesign and a slimmer $99 price. Meanwhile, Apple seems to have budged a bit regarding iAds, and its tablet market share may get a sharp shove next year from Android.

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On the whole, this past week has been a pretty good one for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL).

Apple TVs are apparently flying off the shelves. iPad sales are also strong, and the device is expected to remain king of the tablet roost through 2011.

Sure, a wave of tablets running Android and other operating systems is expected to hit the market in 2011, but right now, the iPad’s lead remains tremendous.

Finally, Apple appears to have really listened to the customer — in this case, ad buyers — in loosening restrictions on its iAd mobile ad platform and releasing an app that lets anyone create an iAd relatively easily.

<img src=”http://b.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=8&c2=6035610&c3=876606&c4=57131360&c5=4880887&c6=923747247340912888&c10=39365759&cj=1″ />

Steve Jobs’ Little Hobby Paying Off?

When it was first introduced years ago, Apple TV was casually dismissed as the company’s “hobby” by CEO Steve Jobs. Perhaps this was an attempt at keeping expectations low — the device didn’t sell nearly as well as superstars like iPods and iPhones.

Then in 2010, Apple brought out a new version of the device and offered it at the comparatively cut-rate price of US$99.

Customer demand has been stronger since, and Apple says it’s on track to ring up 1 million units sold by the end of the week.

The device lets users watch high-definition movies and TV shows from iTunes and stream content from Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), YouTube and Flickr. Apple says iTunes users are renting and purchasing more than 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies daily.

Great article for those Apple users!

Another round of math grants to benefit Peninsula students

By Neil Gonzales

ngonzales@bayareanewsgroup.com

Posted: 12/21/2010 06:00:45 PM PST

Updated: 12/24/2010 10:54:59 PM PST

Educational grants amounting to nearly $900,000 will continue to enhance math instruction for students in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation — a Mountain View-based philanthropic organization that supports educational, social and other programs — recently awarded $871,759 in grants to 14 school agencies and nonprofit groups to bolster math learning for more than 3,200 struggling middle school students on the Peninsula.

The funding benefits after-school and summer programs in 2011 and is designed to help close the achievement gap that separates many English-learning, minority and low-income youths from their peers. This is the third round of these kinds of math grants given by the foundation, bringing the total to $4.7 million since 2009. In this latest round, the San Mateo County Office of Education is receiving $99,700 for a summer program that prepares students who have graduated from eighth grade for algebra in the San Mateo Union High School District.

The program features classes taught in teams by middle and high school teachers, the foundation said. The idea behind that approach is to have students continue with the same high school teacher when they enter the ninth grade.

“It’s been an amazing program,” San Mateo County schools Superintendent Anne Campbell said last week. “It’s giving middle school students the opportunity to get their feet wet in high school before they’re actually

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there.”

The program also serves as good professional development for both middle and high school teachers, Campbell said: “It helps them focus on what students need to be successful and (offers) teaching strategies they can explore with their colleagues.”

Another grant recipient is Citizen Schools, which is getting $80,000 for an after-school math intervention program targeting sixth- and seventh-graders in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

A grant of $100,000 is going to ALearn for an intensive math improvement program for seventh-graders in Santa Clara County. Foundation leaders said the funding is much-needed, particularly when local students are falling behind their counterparts in other states and countries.

Good job for the kids. Amazing jobs!

Walnut Creek council approves tourism improvement district

By Elisabeth Nardi
Walnut Creek Journal

Posted: 12/22/2010 01:16:00 PM PST

Despite a protest from one of Walnut Creek’s four hotels, the City Council decided Tuesday to charge a new fee for visitors who stay overnight in the city.

The Tourism Business Improvement District is expected to bring in $300,000 a year and pay for marketing the hotels, thus turning Walnut Creek into more of a destination, according to Chamber of Commerce President Jay Hoyer, whose group created the plan.

The fee will be $2 per room per night for hotels with 100 or more sleeping rooms, and $1.50 for hotels with fewer than 100 rooms. Future hotels would not be assessed the fees in their first fiscal year, but would be assessed after that. The city will collect the fee then give it to a TBID board made up of managers from each of the hotels, two chamber board of directors and a City Council member and Downtown Business Association representative who wouldn’t have voting power on how the money is used.

But not all residents, or even all the hotels, were on board with the idea of the district.

Owners of the Holiday Inn Express protested the creation of the district, but because that hotel only represents 27 percent of the district, it wasn’t enough to stop the formation of the district. Although, Dave Kingery with the Carlyle Group which owns Walnut Creek’s Holiday Inn Express said since Marriott has the most rooms and makes up 57 percent of the assessment, the deal was done as soon as Marriott agreed.

And unlike what had

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previously been stated, not all hotels in the city are for the district, he said.

“If you want more people to consume more of the product, you generally don’t raise prices,” he said.

In October, Hoyer told the Times that all of the hotels supported the tourism district, but that was not the case Tuesday. Hoyer said there was confusion between the manager of the hotel and the group that owns it. Hoyer, who has been trying to get such a district for three years, said there have been many managers and marketing directors at the Holiday Inn.

“It was always our goal to achieve a 100 percent participation,” he said.

Congrats!

More California homes sell as prices continue to fall

San Francisco Business Times – by Steven E.F. Brown

Date: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 9:34am PST

Related:

Residential Real Estate

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Sales of homes in California rose in November, but buyers are paying less and less for them.

The California Association of Realtors, which tracks such things, said November sales were up 9.2 percent from October, though they were still down compared with November 2009.

Though rising numbers of sales may bode well for an eventual recovery in the state’s residential real estate market, the association said prices are down from both October and a year ago. House prices have been cut around the country, with the western states hardest hit, according to Trulia Inc. in San Francisco.

The high number of short sales — when a home is sold for less than what is owed on the mortgage — is hurting the market, C.A.R. said.

Short sales “are notoriously difficult to navigate with no guarantee of closure,” said Beth Peerce, the association’s president. Two out of five short sales fail to close.

In November the median price of an existing, detached, single family home in California fell to $296,820, below the $300,000 mark for the first time since February.

This was the first year-over-year price decline in a year, C.A.R. said.

Locally, several cities made it on the group’s top 10 list of cities with the highest median home prices in November:

• Saratoga, $1,235,000
• Los Gatos, $850,000
• Cupertino, $850,000
• Danville, $720,000
• San Francisco, $680,000

The median price of a home sold in Northern California fell 1 percent from October to November and fell 10.1 percent year-over-year to $241,500. In the Bay Area the median price fell 5.5 percent from October to November and fell 2.4 percent year-over-year to $553,620.

Great news as well as Bad news. At least the homes are being bought.

Sacramento home prices drop, again; not far from the previous ‘bottom’

Sacramento Business Journal – by Ron Trujillo , Editor

Date: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 2:27pm PST – Last Modified: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 4:56pm PST

Related:

Residential Real Estate

Related News

• Mortgage rates resume downward trend
• Some housing markets have come a long way since hitting bottom
• Still rough going for area housing market
• Gengler shows his small-plate chops with tapas at Quarry Ponds
• Mortgage rates resume downward trend

Sacramento-area’s median home price dropped for the fourth-consecutive month in November, and the one-time decent gains from the so-called “bottom “of the market are shrinking, giving more credence to concerns of a double-dip in housing, according to a report released Wednesday.

The four-county region’s median home price declined 7.8 percent to $173,870, compared to $188,480 a year ago — and 3.4 percent lower than October, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Home sales dipped 1.5 percent in November from a year ago, but increased 5.7 percent compared to October.

The housing market has been battered with an abundance of foreclosures and short sales during the past two years statewide, and the Sacramento region has been one of the hardest hit.

The region’s current median home price is only 3.9 percent — or $6,350 — higher than the so-called trough or bottom-of-the-market price of $167,340 reached in April 2009. The region has endured the third-smallest increase in the state, with only San Luis Obispo and Northern California, such as Eureka to Redding, faring worse.

In comparison, three markets have enjoyed 30 percent-plus gains from their trough prices, led by a 39 percent increase in San Francisco and 33 percent in Santa Clara County. California’s overall median price has improved 21 percent from its “bottom” of $245,320 in February 2009.

Here is a county-by-county look at home prices compared to November 2009:

• El Dorado — Shingle Springs and South Lake Tahoe’s home prices dropped 13.7 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively, from a year ago, easily offsetting the 1.2 percent gain in Placerville. El Dorado Hill’s median home price dipped 2.5 percent to $415,000.

• Placer — Roseville and Rocklin each endured double-digit drops, sending Placer County’s median-home price plummeting 11.5 percent to $270,000, the second-worst performance in the region. Roseville prices fell 15.7 percent to $253,000, while Rocklin tumbled 11.9 percent to $275.000. Only Auburn eked out a gain, at a scant 0.8 percent from a year ago.

Definitely need to keep an eye on this. Interesting article.