Vince Hoehn of CENTURY 21 Pierce Realty LLC, Manitowish Waters, WI

Big problems seem to require big solutions.  When the housing bubble burst and millions of homeowners fell into default and foreclosure, Wall Street and the big banks were subjected to great financial distress due to the over- and miss-use of mortgage-backed securities.  The big solution was to bail out these institutions.  The ...

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for 30 year fixed rate mortgages fell in November to another new low -- 3.99%.   See monthly average rates back to 1971 at the Freddie Mac website.  Remember the days of 18% back in 1981?

The problems of the big banks are not problems that I lose any sleep over  -- if it was up to me, I would look for a way to break them up, not make things easier for these "too big to fail" behemoths.  Such is the sorry state of affairs that even what would normally be good news for these institutions can have negative ...

A wise man probably wouldn't be so quick to point out his own errors of analysis, but then I have never been saddled with the sobriquet of "Wise Man." One year ago I wrote a piece about the relationship between interest rates, sale price, and affordability and it would have been just fine if I had stopped after making my ...

In August I posted information on how the recent passage of the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Lending Act (SAFE Act) can make it difficult for sellers to offer seller financing, including land contracts, to buyers of residential properties, including vacant lots upon which a 1-4 family residence is ...

Due to the passage of the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Lending Act (SAFE Act), it has become a whole lot more complicated for sellers to offer, and buyers to obtain, seller financing for residential properties, including vacant lots upon which a 1-4 family residence is intended to be built.  This applies to land contracts, as ...

"Freddie Sees Mortgage Rates Hitting 6 Percent in 2010" Washington Post (12/26/09) P. A12; ElBoghdady, Dina As reported in the Washington Post, mortgage rates could increase to six percent by the end of 2010, or even sooner, according to Freddie Mac.  (Freddie Mac is a GSE, or government sposored enterprise, that purchases ...

For those sitting on the fence about whether to make the "buy" decison or not, or for those afflicted with "paralysis by analysis" and are looking at every property on the market and thus cannot make a decision, consider this:If interest rates rise from today's lows to an entirely plausible 7.5%, sale prices would have ...

Nationally, as well as in our local market, most residential real estate activity is centered on lower end of the real estate market.  There are a number of reasons why this is true, not the least of which, at least on the national level, is the sales activity driven by buyers taking advantage of price-distressed foreclosed homes and short ...

Day 2 of the GRI Course 3 in Green Bay, WI. A lot of good stuff to digest. First we discussed the benefits of using one’s retirement account to invest in real estate. If you sell your investment property, unless you do a delayed exchange (one type of a 1031 exchange), your gain on the sale is taxable. If your retirement account owns the ...