Charleston Real Estate Blog

The big W from Charlotte posted the big L today reporting a whopping record loss of $8.9 Billion, more than the bank ever earned in a year. Most of the problems and losses at Wachovia were attributed to the purchase of Golden West Financial two years ago just as home prices were peaking. Golden West more or less invented the option ARM ...

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 longer avoid mortgage insurance by taking out the piggyback loan which has virtually ...

With the government throwing trillions of dollars around almost daily including the latest announcement of support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I think the government should just pay off everyone's mortgage. I'm not sure of the total cost but at least it's something most everyone would appreciate.

The stocks of Fannie Mae (chart on left) and Freddie Mac are tanking faster than new rumors can circulate. Should the government (taxpayers) bail them out or are they really already quasi governmental anyway. Are they too big to let fail and what would the consequences be? Steven Pearlstein at the WashingtonPost.com writes a wonderful ...

Jim Duncan at RealCentralVA once said in a post, "When I advise my clients to use a lender whom I know and trust, it's not that I have any special ties, receive kickbacks, or anything else underhanded or shady. It's because I am looking out for the best interests of my clients." (emphasis added) I couldn't agree more. And ...

I've written about this subject many times and I know my friend Larry Cragun at Real Estate Undressed will be thoroughly disgusted by this. While the Fed is addressing new rules to protect future homebuyers, look who is advertising on the same Yahoo! webpage but the mortgage lender with the most misleading ads.

... with honest advertising. I was in my car running all the catch up errands this morning and heard an ad by Lending Tree on the radio that differed from most of the typical misleading and lies most lenders have been using the past few years. Lending Tree pointed out that a home equity loan would likely have a lower interest rate because it is ...

I mentioned the sad story of Ed McMahon the other day and now comes news that Evander Holyfield is in a bit of a financial mess. Not only has he missed 2 child support payments (for 1 of his 11 children) but his $10 million estate on 235 acres outside of Atlanta is to be foreclosed upon. And he is being sued for failing to repay a $550,000 ...

If you read the newspaper or turn on the television or check your news via the Internet, rising foreclosures is certainly one of the top stories. With all the bad news you would think that everyone in the country should be packing their stuff in anticipation of a knock on the door by the Sheriff. Katy Stech of the Post and Courier had the front ...

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 banks have gotten a little bail out, why shouldn't the poor homeowners get some help from ...