Re: Help wth sewing machine

On 9/15/08 10:06 AM, "Jangchub" wrote:

Thanks for the sympathy. It's pretty interesting. DC is one of the highest housing markets in the country - for real. And it's significantly expensive. When we closed on this house, it was close to the peak - and our prior house sale had just fallen through. Long story - we're actually preparing to sue the builders. But, in the meantime, the builders owe use $$, and then eventually will give us a settlement - we're sure. Prices went up about 2 more months, then levelled, then dropped. So, right now the house appraisal will likely be about 15% less than the original one. But, in our area, none of these larger houses (ours through the MacMansions) have sold. Several of the smaller houses in the neighboring sections of our development ohave, but they're about $100 K less, so we're a bit worried about the appraisal for the refi. We ended up with not the mortgage we preferred, though thankfully not a sub-prime, ARM. However, we're tied with a co-signer and really needed for me to have steady income to justify us refiing and losing the co-signer. Fortunately, even in the bad situation we still had put nearly 30% down. But, again, we're in an area that the changing limits WRT FHA/conventional loan limits for jumbos really matters. It used to be $417 K, now it's $729K, and will go down to about $680 K on Jan 1. It sounds very high to people in most of the country. But, if you live in areas like So Cal, NY, or here - it's been really important. Even with prices down, just barely starting to creep back - nice townhouses are $400-500 K, and single families - not huge - say 2000 sg ft - about $530 to start in good neighborhoods. Smaller house, older neighborhood - maybe $425. So, housing here is easily high, and the new loan limits make it possible to have an insured loan, so that truly makes a difference.

Absolutely true. That is the conventional wisdom - they'd rather have payments then deal with a foreclosure. But, for us - the truth is that a sale would still likely bring the bank much more than our mortgage - since we had such a large downpayment. But, I did just spend and hour renegotiating, and I think it's all going to work out. Assuming no more catastrophes. Too much stress - that's for sure.

Saturday we went to a seminar put on by a friend that is a big time realtor. It was aimed at people interested in taking advantage of the foreclosure market. But, he knows a bit of our situation, and had arranged for us to speak with a couple of the speakers for some advice, connections for help. The first speaker was a research, investor guy from Morgan Stanley. Gave an excellent explanation of the situation at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, how the gov conservatorship will work, with some details. Very worthwhile - to understand better. Our neighbor is the VP of acctng systems at Sallie Mae, and we get some interesting conversations. Anyhow, the Fed's conservatorship evidently has already had some positive effects, and looks to stabilise the mortgage and financing industry - which does help consumers. The next guy is a Real Estate lawyer, who is also partners in a title firm. And spoke very well. We talked with him after, and his partner works with people in our situation - so we're hoping he'll be able to help us. My cousin in NJ - an attorney - said it would be worth the money to have a local VA attorney at the least write a letter for us, do some interceding. Finally, they had a finanve/mortgage guy. Plenty more info on the loan limits currently, what changes in 2009, and how the limits, percentages, etc are working. So we actually had a meeting with him after, which gives us a way to work out our refi, besides our credit union.

Thanks, we're trying.

Ellice