Scott Wall's (ask2agents) Blog

Thanks Greenspan. Your 2004 Fed speech helps me complete my series of today's reality check: "American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage. To the degree that households are driven by fears of payment shocks but ...

"jingle mail" n. building or house keys sent by mail and unexpectedly received by a mortgage-issuer from someone who can no longer make mortgage payments and chooses to relinquish control of a property.According to the Wall Street Journal:"There's been a change in social attitudes toward default,...

If you are waiting for the Fed to save us, you might want to look elsewhere for your ray of sunshine.  In his latest Financial Market Strategies report, Wells Fargo senior economist Eugenio J. Aleman indicates that people banking on a Fed rate cut to spur home sales are looking in the wrong place...

Now everything's slumping in real estate. Web activity tracker VisiStat has this to say about 2007's online traffic to real estate Web sites ...Overall traffic growth vs. ‘06 was 36.8%.Return visitors made up 47% of all visits.The average visitor clicked through 14 site pages during each visit.Mo...

It's not my intent to add fuel to the negative fire, but I am beginning to see the end of the Buyer's Market.  Unfortunately, I think it's the beginning of a "Lender's Market." What do I mean by this?  Seller's Market = Sellers dictate price and terms (Woe to Buyer)Buyer's Market = Buyers dictate...

Online home-price tracker Zillow says it's deepened its database and upgraded its valuation math (RELEASE HERE.) The company''s "Zestimates" have drawn healthy criticism for frequent inaccuracies.  However, has more homes are brought into the database, accuracy are expanding down to the county le...

United Van Lines' annual report on where its moving vans take people shows that Washington DC last year again had far more  moves IN than relocations out.United says it had 1,116 (58.5%) inbound moves to DC last year vs. 793 (41.5%) of their business. DC has remained inbound since the inception o...

Below is information from the VDOT Project Website.  As one of the many sitting in traffic, I find this to be (1) on the technical side - pretty neat and (2) on the commuter side - long overdue and way too long to wait [2010]-------------------------------What's being doneRoute 29/Linton Hall Int...

Many folks have been telling me that Coach Gibbs retirement is a good thing.  He was only 31-36 in the past four years.  A losing record.  I typically rebut with 2 playoffs in the last 3 year vs. 1 in the previous 12. However, the one thing that people forget is that Gibbs brought an air of chara...

In a market when appraisal values make it hard to refinance, one option is still available.FHA Streamline Refinance Normally to refinance, you must qualify by providing all of your income, banking, credit, and liability information as well as an appraisal.  With a FHA streamline refinance a prope...