Spring-boarding off of Warren Buffett’s comment stating it is unfair that he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary, President Obama sent shockwaves out when he went after higher taxes on the wealthy in his State of the Union address. I’m sure he said other things too but damn, this thing got a lot of media attention. Reignites the class warfare issue so many people enjoy arguing about.
And as this newsletter goes out to a wide variety of people who have mixed views on the gargantituity (worth a shockingly lame 18 point on Words with Friends) of this subject, I just have to say that I totally agree with your views and those people on the other side of the issue just want to watch America go bankrupt through either not pulling in enough taxes or not making enough jobs. Take your pick.
He also alluded to a HARP 2.0 in the works that could save “many” borrowers “up to” $3000 per year. For those of your who don’t remember HARP 1.0 (aka Home Affordable Refinance Program), it was that refinance plan that came down from Capitol Hill that didn’t do nearly what it was supposed to do because the lenders had the opportunity to not get involved. Sooooooooooooo most of them didn’t get involved any more than they absolutely had to. Which isn’t much.
Stack on top of that the fact that the FHFA (regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) said that wide-spread principal reductions on underwater mortgages would require about $100 billion in fresh taxpayer funds. Effectively creates a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
Another noteworthy item from the world of real estate is the so-called “Phantom Tax” on forgiven debt in a short-sale. Through the end of this year, if you choose to short-sell a property that is underwater (and the lender truly forgives the difference in the debt) then there will be no taxable consequence. Starting in 2013, that difference can be considered income and will be taxed as such.
I tried for some time to think of a joke concerning all of this but frankly, it isn’t funny. Walking away from an underwater home sucks. The efforts by government to prop up housing have been languished in ongoing failure. However, given that most metrics on housing sales are beginning to curve ever-so-slowly upwards it DOES mean that the massively warped market we have experienced for the last 4 years is fading away in the face of legitimate non-taxpayer-bribe induced demand for housing. Pending home sales leapt upward in November. Existing home sales are approaching bull market territory. Mortgage rates remain so low that they make you want to slap yo’ momma. And that is a recipe for good old fashioned steady property appreciation which we will hopefully see showing up in home value metrics very shortly. In that regard, this sunset of the phantom tax law is not at all surprising.
Republican hopefuls have graced our state and expressed their angst for one another just days before our Republican primary by yelling at each other in a Tampa-based debate. In the spirit of Gasparilla, I think the situation would be much better handled by a “Who Can Sound the Most Piratey” contest.
Yeah. I care so little that I made a pirate joke. YARRRRRRR.
Europe continues to make us look like responsible debt-issuers by comparison. Greece. Might default. If it does things will be bad. If it doesn’t, perhaps cake?
And on a completely random and unrelated side-note, have you ever wanted to see your mortgage broker get picked up and slammed from shoulder height onto canvas? Dumb question. Everyone wants that. Well now’s your chance. I’m competing in a submission grappling match on February 4th at Apopka Fight Night. Think “wrestling meets judo meets jiu-jitsu.” The evening will include kickboxing, American boxing, mixed martial arts and submission grappling. All proceeds are going to charity. So you can cheer for all this violence and feel good inside about it. Apopka Elks Lodge, 201 West Orange Street, Apopka, FL 32703. Saturday Feb 4th starting at 6 pm. Be there or be choked out.
In the meantime, make sure you mention me to everyone you know who is buying a home or wanting to refinance. Or anybody, really. I’ll need to stay busy in order to cover the inevitable medical bills.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
You mean early 2012 is just like late 2011?!? Only slightly later?!? I never would have guessed!!!
Well, here we are. 2012. Full of promise and opportunity. And a Mayan armageddon scenario. Mostly promise and opportunity.
So which Middle Eastern country are we fussing at this week? Let’s see, eeny meeny miney Iran. Our chums from across the globe are innocently enriching uranium in an underground facility designed to withstand air strikes for energy and research purposes. And since their track record of trustworthiness is so squeaky clean and they definitely have no intentions of wanting to “kill all the American bastard infidels,” I stand with my fellow hippie friends and applaud their shift to cleaner energy. Less dependence on fossil fuels. Bravo to a greener world.
If by greener I mean glowing with residual radioactive vapor everywhere.
In response we’ve banded with other major oil-consuming countries and created sanctions targeting the Iranian Central Banking system in order to screw with their ability to sell oil. Because if there’s one thing Americans are good at, it’s trashing central banking systems all around the world. We got a stinkin’ Ph.D. in the subject. If there was a game show and trashing banks was the contest, we’d win.
And the GOP presidential “race” rages on. There’s been polls and caucuses and debates and all sorts of nonsense. Mitt Romney seems to be Mr. Right Now, but Rick Santorum gained a little notoriety when he essentially tied Mitt in the Iowa caucus. So, good for him. (golf clap) Sadly no sex scandals to report at this time, but if recent history is any indication I’d say we’re due for some raunch in the right wing sometime soon.
Honestly, I think running Tim Tebow might be a good play right now for the nomination. He’d keep you guessing until the 4th quarter and then pull a storybook finish out of mid-air. And then he would pray. Republicans LOVE praying. Tebow/Christ in 2012.
Wanna hear something crazy? Jobs are getting created and housing data isn’t all that bad lately. I guess that was technically two crazy things.
8.5% unemployment. To use Paul Krugman’s exact words: It says something about how beaten down we are that this is considered “good” news. But an improvement is an improvement and by Jove I’ll take it. Sounds more impressive when you say 200,000 jobs were created. Real estate purchase contracts rose 7.4% month-over-month in late December. New Home Sales were up 19.5% year-over-year. Mind you, that’s capping off one of the worst years housing has seen by most metrics, but it is still a beginning to what will hopefully culminate into some maintainable trend.
Aside from that, things still feel pretty late-2011-y. Europe continues to maybe or maybe not want to implode. Mortgage rates are still being held down by a potent cocktail of economic concerns. Greg is still slap-happy to receive your referrals of people you know looking to buy a home or refinance a property they already own. I felt that warranted some emphasis from MS Publisher.
But seriously, I want to finance someone you know. Or you directly. Whatever. I’m actually quite good at it. Just send me a referral and I’ll show you.
So which Middle Eastern country are we fussing at this week? Let’s see, eeny meeny miney Iran. Our chums from across the globe are innocently enriching uranium in an underground facility designed to withstand air strikes for energy and research purposes. And since their track record of trustworthiness is so squeaky clean and they definitely have no intentions of wanting to “kill all the American bastard infidels,” I stand with my fellow hippie friends and applaud their shift to cleaner energy. Less dependence on fossil fuels. Bravo to a greener world.
If by greener I mean glowing with residual radioactive vapor everywhere.
In response we’ve banded with other major oil-consuming countries and created sanctions targeting the Iranian Central Banking system in order to screw with their ability to sell oil. Because if there’s one thing Americans are good at, it’s trashing central banking systems all around the world. We got a stinkin’ Ph.D. in the subject. If there was a game show and trashing banks was the contest, we’d win.
And the GOP presidential “race” rages on. There’s been polls and caucuses and debates and all sorts of nonsense. Mitt Romney seems to be Mr. Right Now, but Rick Santorum gained a little notoriety when he essentially tied Mitt in the Iowa caucus. So, good for him. (golf clap) Sadly no sex scandals to report at this time, but if recent history is any indication I’d say we’re due for some raunch in the right wing sometime soon.
Honestly, I think running Tim Tebow might be a good play right now for the nomination. He’d keep you guessing until the 4th quarter and then pull a storybook finish out of mid-air. And then he would pray. Republicans LOVE praying. Tebow/Christ in 2012.
Wanna hear something crazy? Jobs are getting created and housing data isn’t all that bad lately. I guess that was technically two crazy things.
8.5% unemployment. To use Paul Krugman’s exact words: It says something about how beaten down we are that this is considered “good” news. But an improvement is an improvement and by Jove I’ll take it. Sounds more impressive when you say 200,000 jobs were created. Real estate purchase contracts rose 7.4% month-over-month in late December. New Home Sales were up 19.5% year-over-year. Mind you, that’s capping off one of the worst years housing has seen by most metrics, but it is still a beginning to what will hopefully culminate into some maintainable trend.
Aside from that, things still feel pretty late-2011-y. Europe continues to maybe or maybe not want to implode. Mortgage rates are still being held down by a potent cocktail of economic concerns. Greg is still slap-happy to receive your referrals of people you know looking to buy a home or refinance a property they already own. I felt that warranted some emphasis from MS Publisher.
But seriously, I want to finance someone you know. Or you directly. Whatever. I’m actually quite good at it. Just send me a referral and I’ll show you.
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