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Thursday, November 13, 2008 1:17 PM

Dear Hank [I want to be a bank]

Hank, I hope you don't mind this informal note requesting bailout funds but as a Charleston real estate agent, I would like to convert my business into a bank holding company and become eligible for an injection of capital from the bailout fund that
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Friday, October 10, 2008 5:21 AM

What a long strange trip it's been

The stock market effectively crashed yesterday on October 9th exactly one year after setting a record high and how did we get here. To quote the Grateful Dead, "what a long strange trip it's been". Back in February of last year I wrote about
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Friday, September 26, 2008 7:19 AM

How the market works

To understand how the market works, supply and demand will usually determine prices. If there are more buyers than sellers, prices will go up, if there are more sellers than buyers, prices will go down. Where there is an equilibrium, prices will be stable.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 6:24 PM

Update: Charleston real estate

It's not that I haven't been working the Charleston real estate market this week, simply, the events of the past days have been so extraordinary and compelling that I haven't written about Charleston real estate lately. So while the world
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 2:04 PM

How to lose a trillion dollars

The simple answer. Take financial risks and leverage your risk to the maximum. Now, a little more detail. Let's use the Case-Shiller index that shows that homes have declined in value by approximately 15% across the country in the last year. Of course,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 6:34 AM

Mortgage insurers and declining housing markets

The good news for the Charleston real estate market is that Charleston is not considered a declining market according to the mortgage insurers. A lot of the country is as mortgage insurers attempt to reduce risk. A big change is that borrowers can no
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:56 PM

It's not just subprime

There is so much news about the growing problem of foreclosures, members of Congress and those running for President are tripping over themselves to figure out some way to bail out those who are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure. After all, the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 7:19 AM

Short sale listings are bogus

I wrote about the difficulty (or practical impossibility) of buying a short sale in this post . My friend, Larry Cragun recently posted a comment from Thomas Johnson , a realtor in Houston TX, relating a story of how the banks do not respond to short
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Sunday, February 17, 2008 6:19 AM

Some subprime mortgage loans are actually current

You really can't go more than a day without another headline talking about doom and gloom for the housing industry and the lenders. "Foreclosures up 75% for the last quarter" does not mean that 75% of all home have gone into foreclosure,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 6:58 AM

Hope, Lifeline to avert foreclosure

Project Lifeline was announced as a companion to Hope Now to help those who need help to do something to avert foreclosure. Six mortgage lenders servicing over 50% of all mortgages including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, January 25, 2008 10:44 AM

Mortgage trends, Jan 25

The window of opportunity for unbelievably low mortgage rates turned out to be 3 days. Mortgage rates are still very attractive but not the almost unbelievable 5.125% that was quoted as recently as Tuesday. Here's the story. When the global markets
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 6:10 AM

Global stocks drop sharply

Global stocks dropped sharply overseas and the Dow is poised to drop over 500 points at the open today. It's been said that when the United States sneezes, the world catches pneumonia. Asian stocks led by developing countries like China and India
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Monday, January 14, 2008 2:03 PM

Housing forecast by Mortgage Bankers Assoc Chief Economist

Courtesy of MarketWatch, the housing forecast for 2008-2009 by Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is not pie in the sky like the typical prognostications of Larry Yun, the yuckster who is the chief economist for the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, January 04, 2008 9:55 AM

Mortgage rates are trending downward

Mortgage rates are trending downward lately and should even be lower in the days ahead due to the monthly jobs report released this morning as payroll growth was slowing and unemployment hit 5%. Read the full story at MarketWatch . Lower mortgage rates
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:28 PM

Mortgage update

Mortgage rates benefited from last week's big sell off in the stock market and I am now hearing of 30 year fixed rates at 6% and slightly less. The possibility of a Fed rate cut at the end of October doesn't really change long term mortgage rates
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments