Can I go halves in an apartment with my brother? i.e., can we each have separate loans for the same apartment? No one I've asked seems to know. We are in Queensland, Australia. He would be paying his share off a lot more quickly than I would be able to pay my share. The plan then is that he would continue living in the apartment with me (or rent out his room) and buy a second house elsewhere. I know this probably seems like a really simple question, but I know absolutely nothing about home loans :)

The Federal Reserve may be nearing an end to its manic cutting of the Federal Funds Rate which started in August of 2007. The rate in August stood at 5.25% and is now back at 2% bringing warmth to our heart as we reminisce our long gone friend and maestro, Alan Greenspan. The [...] Related Posts: ■ The Church of the Fed: Praying for Rate Cuts and SoCal Short Sales ■ Current Status of Real Estate Market: Boring! ■ Reading between the Lines: Countrywide Announces $1+ billion Dollar Loss, Stock Soars ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Downey. $100,000 off in 3 Months. ■ Et tu Subprime? Why This Mortgage Proposal is Hot Air…As of Today.

It is hard to wrap your mind around the size of the American housing market. Today’s Case-Shiller Index reported a further deterioration in the housing market. The difficulty in determining what real estate was valued at the absolute peak is somewhat hard to determine since many regions hit peaks at various different times. [...] Related Posts: ■ Summer and Housing in the Garden of Eden. 3 Reasons Why Housing Will Soar This Summer! ■ Lords of Housing: Believing in the $22.5 Trillion Housing Market. ■ Current Status of Real Estate Market: Boring! ■ Of Bubbles Past. Need a Map for Housing? Ask a Housing Perma-Bull and They’ll See the World Through Colored Glasses! ■ The Psychology of a Crashing Housing Market: Sending in Your Home Keys Just Got Easier.

We are once again firmly in Wonderland and falling deeper into the rabbit hole as the market is responding to negative news as if it just won a Powerball contest. On Monday, UBS AG announced another $19 billion in writedowns putting it firmly in the lead of all those in the writedown 500. [...] Related Posts: ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Pico Rivera. $300,000 for an 856 Square Foot Home with 5 Bedrooms? ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Buena Park. $511,000 for 864 Square Feet. Even Knott’s Berry Farm is Cheaper! ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Stanton. ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Cerritos. All 88 Los Angeles County Cities Overpriced. ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Pacoima. Zillow says $457,000 but Listed at $225,000?

California, the epicenter of the housing bubble is facing difficult times. It is becoming rather apparent that this housing bubble has the risk of causing a worldwide recession. It is hard to imagine until you look at the facts how this bubble got out of hand so quickly. The foreclosure problem is [...] Related Posts: ■ California a Red State: Analyzing the Myth of Homeownership for all. ■ The Map of Misery. If Misery Loves Company it must Heart California’s Housing! ■ A Tale of 5 Cities: Not All Bubbles Burst at the Same Time. ■ The Evolution of the Los Angeles Housing Bubble. 50 Years in Perspective. ■ OC Down $42,000 in one-month. Where is the Mainstream Media?

What is occurring right now is reminiscent of what occurred after the subprime worries of February of 2007 dissipated for a few months. During this time, a few high profile companies such as New Century Financial started showing problems in their subprime portfolios and caused the DOW to drop 415 points. In this [...] Related Posts: ■ The Short Sale Report: Volume 1 – The True Barometer of the Housing Market ■ The Psychology of a Crashing Housing Market: Sending in Your Home Keys Just Got Easier. ■ Short Sale Report Volume 3: Another Week and Another Record. SoCal Short Sales up over 12,000. ■ Dr. Housing Bubble Celebrates Monumental 100th Post! Top 10 Housing Articles. ■ Riding in the Short Bus of Housing: Southern California Short Sale Numbers. 1 in 10 Homes is a Distress Sale.

A bicoastal strategy is not an effective way to balance out a company. Countrywide has been at the center of the mortgage market meltdown. It is important to understand the five main segments of the company: 1. Mortgage Banking: this segment originates, purchases, and services non-commercial loans primarily linked to residential real [...] Related Posts: ■ Et tu Subprime? Why This Mortgage Proposal is Hot Air…As of Today. ■ Foreclosures? Housing Bubble? In Southern California? Impossible! ■ $640 Billion in Sub-prime Loans Originated. $386 Billion in Alt-A Loans Originated. $1.026 Trillion in Loans at Risk? Priceless. ■ Real Homes of Genius: In the Backyard of Countrywide. Today we Salute you Calabasas. ■ Triangulating Real Estate. 3 New Market Behaviors: Rewriting History, Falling Sales Receipts, and a Sort of Diverse Workforce.

Am I about to get screwed over in regards to the house I'm buying, that's currently being renovated? The story: Moving to a new city (Hobart, Australia) for a job in about 7 weeks. We went there in January to look at houses, found one that was far superior to others, but that was currently having some minor renovations done; new carpets, some rendering on the external walls. We made an offer subject to finance being approved. Applied for a loan through a mortgage broker. Mortgage broker was incompetent, loan was denied. Applied for a loan through someone else, loan got conditional approval.

As we quickly approach our Wile E. Coyote moment in the market, we have once again returned to the selective attention desperation of early 2007. You know, the moment when we are rapidly chasing the road runner ignoring peril only to find ourselves suspended in air a few inches over a cliff. The [...] Related Posts: ■ It Wasn’t Me. 3 New Trends: The Housing Lawsuits Begin, Prevention, and Story Telling. ■ Screw This Housing Market! Black & Decker Sucked into the Housing Abyss. ■ Housing Cross Contamination: Subprime Infecting Prime Lenders. ■ When the Housing Clock Stops Ticking: Why the Median Price is Going up While Sales are Going down. ■ The Sacred Commission: 3 Reasons Why Commissions Will Come Down.

We have many important dates in history. In 384 BC Plato returns to Athens and founds a school of philosophy. In 1969 Neil Armstrong is the first person to set foot on the moon. And in 2008 we witness wedding invitations as a ploy to get people to pay their mortgages. [...] Related Posts: ■ The Housing Tipping Point. 3 Factors That Will Burst the Bubble: The Negative Wealth Effect, Negative Press, and Suffocating Debt Payments. ■ Even the Harlem Globe Trotters Couldn’t Spin Today’s Housing News! ■ Putting Home Sellers on the Couch: The Psychology of why Sellers Refuse to Lower Prices. ■ Mission Accomplished: 3 Housing Issues: Multiple Bottoms, Declining Dollar, and More Sub-prime and Alt-A Defaults. ■ Of Bubbles Past. Need a Map for Housing? Ask a Housing Perma-Bull and They’ll See the World Through Colored Glasses!