In The News

New Master Planned Community in North Peoria

by Chris Butterworth May 17, 2010 In The News

North Peoria. Mountains, desert, Lake Pleasant, rapid population growth, infrastructure development…  And a new master planned community? AZCentral.com reported on Friday that developer Community Southwest is in talks with Peoria to work out the details of the costs involved with building out the infrastructure for a 695-acre development at the northeast corner of Deer Valley [...]

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Top 10 most risky, least risky real estate markets

by Heather May 5, 2010 In The News

No metro Phoenix cities on are the latest PMI Mortgage Insurance Co risk of the top 10 most risky and least risky real estate. (I don’t consider Kingman ‘metro’ Phoenix, although some might argue with me on that) Unfortunately for the Sunshine State, 7 of the top 10 most risky markets are in Florida. 10 [...]

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Entire condo complex to walk away from their mortgages

by Chris Butterworth May 4, 2010 In The News

A couple of Viewpoints ago I wrote “Bad news for condos”, touching on (among other things) many condo complexes reaching a tipping point where it will be almost impossible for them to regain their former owner-occupied levels. Recently economist Mike Shedlock (Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis) wrote about a condominium complex in Redmond, WA, which [...]

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Are CFL bulbs dangerous?

by Heather April 30, 2010 Green Living

(image courtesy of http://www.ipaa.org/Blog/?p=301) There’s a lot of kerfluffle around the Interwebs lately about the supposedly dangerous levels of mercury released if you break a CFL light bulb. I believe the most widely spread story crazy Internet rumor is about a woman in Maine who broke a CFL bulb in a bedroom, was quoted $2,000 [...]

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HOA tries to collect fees after man loses home

by Heather April 23, 2010 Foreclosures

The Arizona Republic ran a hot-button story today with a zinger of a headline: HOA still seeking fees despite man losing Chandler home. A former Chandler resident is learning the hard way that you can’t walk away from homeowners’ association assessments even if you’ve lost your home. In my opinion the paper does a lousy [...]

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Changes to lead paint rules

by Heather April 19, 2010 Central Phoenix

Updated April 23  – Fantastic website launched by the EPA, HUD, the Ad Council and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. Get the facts about lead paint, prevention tips, and guidelines for Do It Yourself home renovations involving the potential to disturb lead paint. (LeadFreeKids.org) As of April 22, 2010 federal laws regarding safe [...]

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FBI raids a Scottsdale mortgage modification firm

by Heather April 5, 2010 In The News

Seems as though the FBI raided the Scottsdale offices of Discount Mortgage Relief, a loan modification company. The Fibbies served search warrants on the company. As expected, “no comment” was the comment from the Phoenix office of the FBI and the AZ Attorney General’s office. Discount Mortgage Relief continued operations on Friday morning, the day [...]

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Your Federal Government – fashionably late to the party

by Chris Butterworth March 26, 2010 Foreclosures

I gave President Obama some advice (over a year ago) on how to fix the foreclosure epidemic: President Obama to focus on Foreclosures (published on 2/18/2009) and OButter’s Plan – the Real Solution (published on 2/23/2009) My 2 key points, boiled down to a couple sentence each: 1. If the bailout, loan modification, or whatever [...]

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Does Fannnie or Freddie own your mortgage?

by Heather March 25, 2010 In The News

(image courtesy of StockExchange user ImMrChris) Does Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac own your home mortgage loan? Why should you care? If your mortgage loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you may be eligible for a loan refinance program under the federal government’s Making Home Affordable (HAMP) program.  Only loans owned or [...]

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Do you have a 2nd mortgage with JP Morgan Chase?

by Heather March 24, 2010 Homeowner Help

Just the day before yesterday, JP Morgan Chase announced it would participate in the second-lien program of the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). This second-lien program is widely known as “2MP”. Under 2MP, homeowners may see the interest rate on their second lien reduced to as low as 1% for five years. The [...]

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Fun with FICO

by Heather March 12, 2010 General Musings

Isn’t this a set of interesting statistics? In 2005, 46% of consumers who opened a new mortgage had a FICO score less than 700. In 2008 this percentage had dropped to 25% . Fair Isaac (creators of the FICO score) reports that borrowers in the Northeast continually present the least amount of default risk nationally [...]

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Inuksuk – one thing Phoenix and Vancouver have in common.

by Chris Butterworth February 12, 2010 In The News

Opening Ceremonies are tonight at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and I’m looking forward to it.  I love the Olympics, and I love getting totally into sports I haven’t seen, read, or heard about in the last 4 years! Have you seen the logo for this year’s Olympics? Did you know we have one [...]

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