From the category archives:

Mortgage Pits

Annual round-up of new year economic predictions: 2012

by Honeycrisp January 31, 2012

Below is our annual round-up of “expert” predictions.  From Euroland woes to deflationary trends, there’s certainly enough to watch for on the horizon.  What’s for certain is that no raging bull market is expected by anyone, to say the least.  Beyond that, disagreement abounds.  With no further ado: Banks and more banks Difficult 2012 for [...]

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2012 in NYC real estate: The year of “eh” with pockets of “wow”

by Honeycrisp January 24, 2012

Interest rates will hit their historical lows in mid-2012:  Yes, the interest rates have been lower for longer than anyone had expected.  When is the bottom going to come?  We’re calling it for mid-2012.  We anticipate that the first half of the year will be dominated by worries of Europe’s and the Euro’s fate, increased [...]

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Whether bull or bear, are you prepared accordingly?

by Honeycrisp December 14, 2011

It’s hard to tell nowadays which end is up.  One day we’re headed towards economic Armageddon and the next day we hear of steady growth and inflation threats. It’s enough to give you whiplash, to be sure.  Instead of becoming one of the many prognosticators of what’s to come, we’d rather help you think out [...]

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BREAKING NEWS: if you haven’t refinanced yet, do so this week!

by Honeycrisp November 1, 2011

We always like keeping our ears on the ground and our savvy mortgage sources tell us rates are plummeting … now! today!  25 basis points in one day kind of plummeting … and likely to do so even more through the end of the week.  We’re talking jumbo conforming rates at 4% or below, and 7/1 [...]

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Appraisal jam: multiple appraisals asked for the same property?

by Red Delicious October 6, 2011

As you may know, our team has a collective 30+ years of experience in the real estate industry. You could say we’ve seen it all … until now, that is. Thankfully, we had an amazing August; during the month, we encountered three, count them, three requests for doubling up on appraisals. To spell this out [...]

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Which buyers will get squeezed by lower jumbo loan limits?

by Empire August 10, 2011

It’s official:  jumbo loan limits are shrinking from “jumbo” to “extra large” instead.  One by one, banks are cutting off their conforming loans at the $625,500 limit that Fannie will impose come September of this year (this is down from the current $729,500 limit).  At first, upon learning of the lower jumbo cut-off, we started [...]

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BREAKING NEWS: conforming loan limits already being cut in NYC

by Honeycrisp June 9, 2011

Chase appears to be the first bank (that we know of) that is moving to lower conforming loans limits.  According to our sources, the bank has to have its $729,750 loans locked in by the end of the business day today and close by September 30th .  Starting tomorrow their high balance loans will be capped [...]

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2011 Predictions: how are they looking two months into the year?

by Honeycrisp February 22, 2011

We thought we would compile a list of 2011 predictions of what’s to come in the year ahead … and save them for a bit until we were a couple of months in to get a better sense of their validity, outside of the typical year-end predictions season.  While no one has a crystal ball, we always [...]

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Top 5 Trends for NYC in 2011

by Honeycrisp January 28, 2011

With 2011 off to a good start, we thought we would put a stake in the ground and make some calls about the trends that NYC is likely to see this year.  None are particularly controversial or earth-shattering (we’re not about blowing your hats off) … but definitely some food for thought for you real [...]

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2011 Predictions and Trends

by Honeycrisp January 20, 2011

1.  Mom and pop landlords or those of established, larger buildings will have to renovate their inventory to keep up with the market.  With the rental market rebounding with gusto, landlords are realizing that they need to have their inventory be fresh and updated enough to warrant charging today’s rising rents.  Couple this with the [...]

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