Joe LaVallie's (joelava) Blog

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Mortgage and Lending - HomeStreet Bank
RECENT BLOG POSTS
Are you thinking about purchasing a second home? With historically low interest rates and low home prices people are taking advantage of the market and purchasing second homes while everything is on sale. Second home are great investments and buying and owning one is not that different than ownin...
11/30/2012
Smart investors are buying properties as can be seen in the National Association of Home-builders improving market index. Real estate investors watch the index to determine which cities are good investment opportunities. This index tries to identify cities where growth is happening. If you have a...
11/29/2012
Today we are going to look at the mortgage loan process through the eyes of the lender. Lenders are afraid of the loan repurchase agreements that they have with Fannie and Freddie. With increasing loan delinquencies the auditing process has increased and more loans are being repurchased by lender...
11/28/2012
What should consumers expect in the loan process for 2013? Everybody knows that qualifying for a mortgage is not the easiest process these days. As a lender I see people struggling with the process every day and I can tell you that the area that trips people up is not the underwriting guidelines ...
11/27/2012
Are we going to have a rising house market in 2013? The new construction housing market continues to show strength which leads people to believe that 2013 has the potential for a strong housing market. Every month the New Residential Construction report is released. If you have any questions abou...
11/26/2012
The September existing home sales report indicated 4.7 million houses sold on the seasonally adjusted annualized basis. That number is up over 10% from a year ago. Existing home sales are sales of previously occupied homes. With just 2.3 million homes for sale at the current sales rate it would t...
11/23/2012
The FHA loan program is a pass or fail system which is different from the conventional loan system of risk based pricing. Sometimes with sales you can use FHA save the day or in our case sale. Let's review a few different situations where FHA can make the difference between closing a sale and not...
11/21/2012
VA loans are an outstanding loan program for veterans. Low interest rates and make-sense underwriting have increased the volume of VA loans for both purchase and refinance. If you are qualified for a VA loan I recommend that you take advantage of it. If you have questions about the VA loan progra...
11/20/2012
Where are people moving these days? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the largest cities are seeing a trend toward people moving back downtown. After years of moving out, many people are moving in. Large metro areas are experiencing double-digit population growth rates in the downtown area. Wh...
11/19/2012
Happy Friday everyone; today I will conclude my interview with myself about HARP 2.0. Many of you have suggested that I don't have any friends because I am having to interview myself. You are probably right! If you do have questions about HARP 2.0 please contact me. When does the HARP program end...
11/16/2012
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Joe LaVallie

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