Choice Real Estate®'s Blog: All Categories

the Federal Reserve & the U.S. Govt.'s currency ownership - Opinion
The Federal Reserve's Alan Greenspan causes the housing market debacle by creating cheap credit and then his successor, Ben Bernanke, remedies the housing market debacle by creating even vastly cheaper credit?

And, of course, by flooding the National currency supply with hundreds of billions of new Federal Reserve Notes.

In fact, the present Federal Reserve interest rate is give-away credit, because a 3% interbank lending rate in an inflating economy which already has a 3% inflation rate is effectively interest-free credit.

This is either outright lunacy or simply Wall Street looking out for itself at everyone else's expense.

And the Federal Reserve isn't the Bank of the…

Howard County: 301-694-1111
Recordation Tax              $5.00        per thousand
Transfer Tax                     1.0%         (.5% County + .5% State)
Property Tax                      $1.176       per hundred assessed value
                                                           ($1.044 County + $.132 State)
Water and Sewer               $.08 Fire – each district different, lowest $.088, highest $.108
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Proposed economic stimulus package -Opinion-
How can redistributing income from those who earned it to those who didn't  "stimulate" any economy?

If it could, we'd already have the most "stimulated" economy on earth because, over the last four decades, we've already redistributed at least $9 trillion from those who earned it to those who didn't.

If the $9 trillion redistribution had worked, the domestic economy would need no "stimulation".

And, if the $9 trillion redistribution didn't work, how's another temporary $150 billion redistribution going to work any better?

Indeed, the $9 trillion redistribution has de-stimulated the domestic economy, and another $150 redistribution will further de-stimulate the domestic economy.

One can't replace…

FREDERICK COUNTY: 301-694-1111
Recordation Tax              $12.00       per thousand
Transfer Tax                     .5%         (No County + .5% State)
Property Tax                     $1.132      per hundred assessed value
                                                             ($1.00 County + $.132 State)
Fire Tax                                              ($.065 to $.135), call tax office.

Direct any questions to the Clerk of the Court, 301-600-1976.  If refinancing, you will be charged the state recordation tax on any new money (not just "cash out") and on the entire new loan if an investment… Read Full Post

Maryland homestead deduction 2008
The State of Maryland has decided to make all of their property owners re-apply for their Homestead Deduction. This deduction limits the increase in your property assessment on which the State can make you pay taxes, and thereby curtailing the amount of the increase in your property taxes.

Property owners should have received or will be receiving their assessments for 2008. Within the envelope is the standard Assessment Notice and two additional pages.  Look for the page that informs land property owners that everyone must apply to “continue” receiving their Homestead Deduction. Those who have not received it yet must also apply to “begin” receiving the deduction. The third page is the actual paper application for the…

Advantage of buying early in the Calendar Year
If you have decided that 2008 will be the year you join the ranks of homeowners, then you should consider doing it as early in the year as possible, because delay has one certain cost.  For every day that passes after January 1, you will find it more difficult to take full advantage of the tax benefits of ownership. This results from the way the federal income tax system (and most state income tax systems) works for those who itemize deductions.  Buying a home is typically what turns short-form 1040A and 1040EZ filers (who take the standard deduction) into long-form 1040 itemizers. 

To get the benefit of deductions for home mortgage interest and property taxes, two of the largest deductible items for most…

What is it?  is it good or bad?
Yield spread premiums enable more people to buy homes.  It allows no closing cost loans, and it allows people to buy homes without paying points.  With 1 point equal to 1% of your loan, many people wouldn't be able to buy if they also had to pay these points.  They are already up against their limits on LTV and DTI and many barely qualify for the loan to begin with.  A great post can be found here, http://www.choicefinance.net/blog/2007/12/20/yield-spread-premium-ysp-why-it-is-great/, about this recent hot topic.  Please read this more detailed blog post link, and if you agree with it in principal please join me by posting a text link that reads "yield spread premium" and link to it or this post.  Thanks for your help in…

Commentary
Apparently the Congress is now poised to put the Federal Housing Administration in the business of insuring $400,000 home loans to buyers with $55,000 annual incomes who finance 98.5% of home purchase prices.

And apparently at subsidized interest rates too.  Incredibly, a Republican President supports this.

Why, after private lenders have already savaged national and international credit markets with reckless subprime home lending, is the Congress now directing the Federal Government, at taxpayers' expense, to either repeat the private lenders' mistakes and/or bail them out of their mistakes?

How does this advance anything?  Why should people making $55,000 a year be buying $400,000 homes with 1.5% down payments anyway?  And why should… Read Full Post