In an investment some debt or leverage can be good but, at some point, it can become all-consuming and impossible to repay! Think about what happened to homeowners who had a variable-rate mortgage, also known as debt or leverage, when mortgage rates began to rise and the value of the asset fell. If their income stayed […]
According to a study conducted by Card Hub, U.S. household debt in the form of credit cards has spiked higher in 2015! Is this spike in leverage a sign of consumer confidence with households taking on debt due to an optimistic vision of their personal financial fortunes going forward? Or is the 2015 2nd quarter credit card balance increase of […]
Do Americans, waking-up to the fact that Greece has voted NO to its creditors demands, also understand the risks posed by China and Puerto Rico? Not to mention the potential for serious financial angst in other U.S. cities and countries around the world such as Italy and Spain when they see how Greece makes out. The […]
At the beginning of 2014 rules went into effect that differentiated between qualified mortgages (QM) and non-qualified mortgages (non-QM)! The purpose of making the distinction between the two was the governments methodology to try and avoid the scourge of the bad loans that helped lead to the 2008 financial crisis. This ‘toxic debt’ that was […]
Follow @Hallmark Abstract Service Mortgage rates for residential property typically do not fluctuate wildly on a day-to-day basis but, as the charts and graphs below show, over time they most certainly can! Over the past 52-weeks mortgage rates have moved in a range of over 100 basis points, or 1%, in all categories other than […]
For anyone involved in industries such as real estate and lending that rely on stable interest rates and therefore future Fed policy by extension, this testimony by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will likely be of interest! For anyone else who has a mortgage, may want to borrow money at some point in the future, […]
