August 26, 2009
Wordless Wednesday
Okay, any of you who know me, know that I can't have a wordless anything! But, here are photos from around our area with a few words attached.
This is a photo from the trails near the Arrastra site, just north of Silver City, NM.
This area is Cattle Country!
The backyard at Santa Rita Street in downtown Silver City, New Mexico. Like it? It's for sale!
August 25, 2009
Bill Evans Lake is located in north-central Grant County. Take New Mexico Highway 180 to the community of Riverside. Look for a road sign identifying the paved road to the lake.
Bill Evans Lake is an interesting body of water: It's a lake 300 feet above the river that fills it. Water from the Gila River is pumped up a high mesa to where a sparkling lake is impounded.
The lake is suited to both trout and warmwater fish species, and is a great year-round place to watch birds and wildlife.
Bill Evans provides a great view of surrounding mountain ranges. The lake is surrounded by a gravel road, providing access to much of the shoreline. The gravel road can be uneven and may require a high ground clearance vehicle in some areas - but the lake is relatively small and all of the shoreline can be reached easily by foot.
The lake annually fills anglers' creels with crappie, channel catfish, bluegill and largemouth bass. Trout, although present throughout the year, are more active from October through May. Compared to other southwestern lakes, Bill Evans has relatively cool waters and largemouth bass grow slower than in warmer lakes. But big largemouth are still found in Bill Evans, including the state record 15-pound, 13-ounce largemouth caught in 1995. The lake is typically maintained at a level of 62 surface acres.
Camping is permitted at the lake, although there are no developed campsites. Boating is permitted on the lake, but only electric motors and self-propelled boats are allowed. All of the lake is a no-wake zone.
Today's Saying:
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. - William James
August 24, 2009
Real Estate Term: Private Mortgage Insurance
Definition: (PMI) A type of mortgage insurance available to conventional lenders on the first, high risk portion of a loan guarantying payment.
Linda's commentary: I strongly feel that a Buyer should put a large down payment when buying a home. There are a few reasons: 1. Your monthly payment is less because your loan is less, 2. Your interest rate is less because your Loan-to Value is less, 3. You don't have to pay PMI insurance, 4. You can access your equity with a 2nd mortgage or Home Equity Line, 5. You can weather dips in the market (like this one!).
Discussion:
Edited from Wikipedia:
Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), also known as Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) in the US, is insurance to offset losses in the case where a mortgagor is not able to repay the loan and the lender is not able to recover its costs after foreclosure and sale of the mortgaged property. Typical rates are $55/mo. per $100,000 finance, or as high as $1,500/yr. for a typical $200,000 loan.
This type of insurance is usually only required if the down payment is less than 20% of the sales price or appraised value (in other words, if the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is 80% or more). Once the principal is reduced to 80% of value, the PMI is often no longer required. This can occur via the principal being paid down, via home value appreciation, or both.
Sometimes lenders will require that LMI be paid for a fixed period (for example, 2 or 3 years), even if the principal reaches 80% sooner than that. Legally, there is no obligation to allow the cancellation of MI until the loan has amortized to a 78% LTV ratio (based on the original purchase price). The cancellation request must come from the Servicer of the mortgage to the PMI company who issued the insurance. Often the Servicer will require a new appraisal to determine the LTV. The cost of mortgage insurance varies considerably based on several factors which include: loan amount, LTV, occupancy (primary, second home, investment property), documentation provided at loan origination, and most of all, credit score.
If a borrower has less than the 20% down payment needed to avoid a mortgage insurance requirement, they might be able to make use of a second mortgage (sometimes referred to as a "piggy-back loan") to make up the difference. Two popular versions of this lending technique are the so-called 80/10/10 and 80/15/5 arrangements. Both involve obtaining a primary mortgage for 80% LTV. An 80/10/10 program uses a 10% LTV second mortgage with a 10% down payment, and an 80/15/5 program uses a 15% LTV second mortgage with a 5% down payment. Other combinations of second mortgage and down payment amounts might also be available. One advantage of using these arrangements is that under United States tax law, mortgage interest payments may be deductible on the borrower's income taxes, whereas mortgage insurance premiums were not until 2007. In some situations, the all-in cost of borrowing may be cheaper using a piggy-back than by going with a single loan that includes borrower-paid or lender-paid MI.
Mortgage insurance became tax-deductible in 2007 in the USA. For some homeowners, the new law made it cheaper to get mortgage insurance than to get a 'piggyback' loan. The MI tax deductibility provision passed in 2006 provides for an itemized deduction for the cost of private mortgage insurance for homeowners earning up to $109,000 annually.
The original law was extended in 2007 to provide for a three-year deduction, effective for mortgage contracts issued after December 31, 2006 and before January 1, 2010. It does not apply to mortgage insurance contracts that were in existence prior to passage of the legislation.
Today's Saying: May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand."
August 21, 2009
Over the years I've read a bunch of books about the Silver City area. Most of these are available through Highlonesome Books or Amazon. If you're interested in our area, you may want to check some of these out!
Today's Saying: I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
August 20, 2009
Real Estate Term: Prepayment Clause
Definition: A clause in a loan contract that gives a borrower the right to make loan payments that are greater than the amount due or in advance of the due date.
Discussion:
From: www.michaelbluejay.com:
Prepaying your mortgage
On our page about mortgage interest, we saw that a 15-year loan saves you a bundle of interest vs. a 30-year loan. But maybe you're stuck with a 30-year loan because that's all the bank will give you, or because you already bought a house with a 30-year loan. In that case, you can still save on interest by making prepayments on your mortgage. That means paying a little extra each month so that you pay off the whole loan faster. Actually, you don't have to pay extra each month -- you can pay extra only in the months you feel you can afford it. But if you're able to pay extra each month, you'll pay your loan off even faster and save even more interest.
Why prepay?
The whole point of prepaying your mortgage is to pay off your loan sooner, and to save on interest. The sooner your loan is paid off, the sooner you can stop making monthly payments. And the interest you save is as good as interest you could have made in separate investments. If you invest in the stock market you never know what kind of return you'll get. But if you have a 7% mortgage, then every dollar you prepay gives you a 7% return. In fact, prepayments worth a little more than separate investments, because income you make from separate investments is taxable, while interest you save by prepaying your mortgage is not.
The only downside of prepaying your mortgage is that it ties up your cash. If you take the money you would have used to prepay your mortgage and invest it in something else, then you'll be able to easily access that cash in case of an emergency. If you prepay your mortgage, your equity is locked up in your house and it's not so easy to access it. You can't easily spend your house.
But as long as you have sufficient savings, I believe it's a good idea to prepay your mortgage (and most financial advisors agree).
Today's Saying: It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
I am a Full Time Realtor who has worked in the Silver City Market for 9 Years and has closed on over 145 contracts. My past Project Management training assists me in reaching my customer's goals.
ActiveRain Corp. is not responsible for the accuracy of the site's content (which is written by members of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network) and does not endorse the views of the real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and others listed here.
Powered by the ActiveRain Real Estate Network
© 2009 ActiveRain Corp. All Rights Reserved
