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Twin Cities Real Estate: Prices Up and To The Right

by Alex Stenback on April 10, 2013

You’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the news that the local (and national) real estate market is on the mend, but I thought I’d post a quick graphic scraped from the most recent monthly indicators report (PDF!) from 10k Marketing (the most excellent “research and stats” arm of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.)

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Why Your Water Must Be Turned on Before Closing

by Alex Stenback 11.13.2012

Sometimes, the fact that lenders can be sticklers for property condition makes people crazy. To explain why we are the way we are, here’s an excerpt from an actual email received in our office today, on a property that we required the sellers to turn the water on before closing. We sent the appraiser out [...]

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Testimonial Time Out

by Alex Stenback 11.09.2012

I have been too busy generating these to do much proper blogging lately.

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Now Can We Call the Bottom In Housing? The Fear Bubble Has Popped

by Alex Stenback 06.26.2012

About a year ago, we started telling anyone who would listen that housing was at, or very close to a bottom in both prices and sales, and that those who would wait, might miss the best deals. Here’s one example, from February 2009: The Fear Bubble May Cause You to Miss an Opportunity. Now, over [...]

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‘Obama’ FHA Refinance Program: Changes include reduced FHA insurance premiums for streamline refinance program

by Alex Stenback 03.06.2012

UPDATE:  HUD has now published the Mortgagee Letter: The new program will be available for FHA Case Numbers assigned on or after June 11th 2012.  This means eligible borrowers will need to wait about 3 months (and hope that rates remain low) before they can lock in. Additional fact sheet here. ——– Now here’s a [...]

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The Obama Refinance Proposal: Don’t Hold Your Breath Just Yet

by Alex Stenback 02.10.2012

I am getting a lot of email on the new “Obama Refinance Plan” that was announced last week. I’ll be back with a more technical breakdown of the key elements of the proposal, but I wanted to poke my head out to make two quick points on this: 1. The Obama Refinance Plan is a [...]

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What Yesterday’s Fed Announcement Means for Mortgage Rates

by Alex Stenback 01.26.2012

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) wrapped a two day conclave in the usual manner – with a policy statement and rate decision. The policy statement, in addition to reciting the usual litany of economic yin and yang (economic growth moderate in US, slowing overseas.  Employment bad, household spending kind of OK, housing [...]

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Get Smarter: Ignore the National Real Estate Market and Use Local Tools

by Alex Stenback 12.22.2011

I’ve been telling you for a while that there is no such thing as a “National Real Estate Market” and that if you really want to understand what is going on, looking at the local picture (wherever local happens to be for you) is crucial. Call it confirmation bias if you will, but here’s an [...]

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Why Are Mortgage Documentation Standards So Strict?

by Alex Stenback 12.09.2011

A favorite question from many clients these days goes something like this: “Help me understand why we need to document every deposit on our bank statements – I mean, we have the money, clearly.  What gives?  Are we being singled out for special treatment here?” I find a speed limit analogy helps. Today, it is [...]

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