Gary Pierpont Blog

It may seem unnecessary to point out that any information you submit on your mortgage application needs to be accurate — nevertheless, it bears repeating. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch points out, seemingly trivial errors (the dot your ‘i’s and cross your ’t’s sort) can not only impact the success of your mortgage application, they can have long-term consequences on your credit. Differences like, for example, whether your name is hyphenated the same everywhere make a difference to the computers that compute credit scores. Take the extra time to double check everything — it’s time well spent.

Now that it’s officially summer, and the kids are all on vacation, people are starting to travel. And traveling people means one thing for sure — house guests! Good Morning America has put together a list of 5 expert tips for providing great hospitality to your guests. On the one hand, they’re fairly self-explanatory, but on the other hand, it’s always good to have a list! Plus, the article links to lots of other suggestions, from cleaning tips to self-improvement ideas. Overall, it’s a surprisingly good site to spend some time reading when you need a few minute break.

Yesterday, Laura Kusisto wrote a fairly extensive piece on the current and projected state of the housing market in light of the likelihood that interest rates will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. It’s a good read, and this is oversimplifying, but, to put it in a nutshell — consensus seems to be that, given the rate at which rents have increased, modest increases in interest rates are unlikely to knock home shoppers out of the market in all but the most expensive cities around the country. What’s your take? How much would rates have to rise before you were no longer house shopping?

 

If not, you may want to consider having them installed. These days, the world changes so quickly, things can become “normal” before we even know that they’re a thing at all. This article was written in St. Pete, Florida, but the changes they’re talking about are things that homeowners love everywhere nowadays — open concept floor plans and modern furnishings. It turns out these new things are having a surprising effect: home fires are spreading 10 times faster than they used to. It turns out, having a sprinkler system in the home makes a big difference; maybe the difference between life and death for you and your family.

One of the great things about owning a home is the ability to go out in the back yard, grab your favorite beverage, and watch the sky do amazing things. Over the next two weeks, Venus and Jupiter are converging, and you’ll have a chance to watch them get closer and closer. Tomorrow night is probably the best time to start, as they’ll form a perfect isosceles triangle with the moon, to give you a nice way to locate the two planets. The Washington Post provides some great instruction on how to watch them from your back yard, and what you can expect to see.

Later today, the Woodstock Institute is scheduled to release a report which claims that in the Chicago Area, women are less likely to receive a mortgage than men. But since the report isn’t out, it’s hard to say either how credible it is, or how much one can generalize from it — so, the search was on for more, better data! It turns out, there was a much broader, fairly detailed study published last October. The net result is that there does seem to be a bias that can’t be completely explained away by other borrower characteristics, so — women, choose your lender wisely!

Following on to yesterday’s article about changes in bond yields, mortgage interest rates, and the likely future of Fed decisions, it’s worth taking a look at this article by Consumer Affairs. It does two things well. First, it summarizes recent trends in mortgage interest rates for a variety of different types of loans; second, it provides slightly less technical insight into the direction that these changes are likely to take things. Of course, we don’t believe Consumer Affairs is better at predicting the future than anyone else, but it’s still worth exploring.

With bonds selling off, it’s possible that the Fed could ease off their plan to increase interest rates this summer. If the 10-year treasury yield goes over 2.75% anytime soon, and the Feds continue to hint at tightening monetary policy, then a repeat of the 2013 hit to the housing market could be in store. Of course, while the Fed generally does a good job of telegraphing their moves, the bond market does not. And everyone knows that market timing is a fool’s game. Interest rates may be higher than they’ve been over the last year, but they’re still historically low. Waiting may be a risky bet.

It’s hard to believe, but Spring is almost over — just two more weeks (well, to be honest, given the weather, it kind of feels like Summer is almost here). And while summer weekends are perfect for BBQ and swimming, let’s be honest, you want to get some work done around the house, too. Thankfully, we have that old stalwart, This Old House, which has provided a handy list of 28 projects that can get done over the course of a weekend. And with 28 to chose from, you’re sure to find a few that will meet your tastes and needs. 

Whether you do it yourself or contract it out isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference if you start down a road of remodeling, which is going to cost you more than it’s worth. So far this year, the average return on investment for remodeling projects is 63%. That’s right, the average project is worth 37% less in home value than the cost of doing the project in the first place. You can get some good advice on picking projects which pay for themselves in this article. But of course, end value isn’t the only reason to do a remodel, and if something is appealing to you, you shouldn’t necessarily avoid it just because the cash ROI isn’t as high as it might be for other projects.