Mortgage Articles

Comparison shopping is the key to getting the best price at just about anything you can name. Why is it, then, that people who will hit five different stores to get the best deal on a $500 computer are afraid to comparison shop when they're making the most important purchase of their lives?

As home prices tumble down all over the country, many renters are looking longingly at the real estate listings and wishing that they'd paid more attention to their credit rating. After several years of real estate BOOM, the bubble seems to have burst – or at least started to deflate. In May, the median single family home price in Boston was an astounding 12% lower than just one year earlier, and that trend was reflected around the country. While that's bad news for anyone who bought their home a year ago with the expectation of turning a profit, the falling price of real estate is very good news for those who have been waiting for prices to come down.

Each year, organizations like Kiplinger and CNN rank the top cities in which to live, to buy a home and to work. This year, Pennsylvania cities are hitting high in the rankings of best places to buy a home in a number of different forums. Three Pennsylvania cities rank in the various top 10 and top 30 places to buy a home, and five Pennsylvania cities made the 2008 Kiplinger Top 50 Places in America to Buy a Home list. Where are the best areas to purchase a home in Pennsylvania? The answers may surprise you.

You will potentially be dealing with your mortgage company for the next thirty years, therefore; it is important to choose your mortgage company wisely. The best way to choose a mortgage company is to ask those around you for their experiences. Talk to friends or relatives who have recently purchased a home and ask if they were happy with the service from their mortgage company. By doing this you can begin to build a list of companies that you want to approach.

Anyone who has ever closed on a house knows the large amount of paperwork that must be signed. The process is stressful, and many people are not careful to look over all of the paperwork completely before signing on the dotted line. What many people do not realize is how many expenses may be added to the loan papers that careful reading and shopping around could have prevented.

In the 1960s and 70s, many lending institutions would use a process called redlining to deny loans. Redlining is using boundaries to determine who would qualify for a loan. Typically redlining prevented minority groups or people living in less desirable neighborhoods from owning a home.

When the amount of a mortgage is more than the home is worth, the property may be a candidate for a short sale. A short sale is when the lender agrees to take less money for the home than the amount that is owed on the mortgage. The balance, technically, can be attached to the seller, so if you are considering a short sale it is important to work with an experienced real estate attorney.

As more people face financial hardships due to the credit crunch, predatory mortgage companies are experiencing a business boom. Preying on the fear that people have over losing their homes, or embarrassment that others have over less than perfect credit, predatory mortgage companies sign people up for mortgages that they cannot hope to repay, or collect outrageous fees and then disappear.

The ongoing mortgage crisis means that the number of foreclosures is increasing. With homeowners desperate to avoid foreclosures, there are many scams flourishing that prey on those homeowners that desperately want to hold onto their homes.

Loss mitigation is a general term that is used to reduce or eliminate financial loss for both the lender and the borrower. The goal of loss mitigation is to prevent a property from going into foreclosure.