I am in Reno today, Spokane tomorrow, but I spent much of last week in Chicago which is very much a melting pot of languages. One can walk down the street and hear similar words for the same thing: Hypothèque (French), hipoteca (Spanish), hipotēka (Latvian), hypotheek (Dutch), and hypothek (German). You’ll have to figure out the word on your own. Renovation there is indicative of what is happening in many other cities: Developers and city agencies in Chicago are working together on the LaSalle Street initiative, which seeks to bring 1,000 homes (including 300 affordable ones) to a mostly shuttered stretch of the city’s financial district. With plenty of people still content to work from home, living in a converted empty office may be the answer to the housing crisis in many areas. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by the STRATMOR Group, the data-driven mortgage advisory. At STRATMOR, insights and knowledge are app
Tired of playing Rummikub with the fam? (Why are those red 11’s always in short supply?) Let’s divert your attention and ease back into residential mortgages with a news story from the Census Bureau. Sorry California: for the first time since 1957 Florida is the fastest growing state. Sure, in “God’s waiting room” there are hurricanes, and the place is as flat as a pancake, but a 0 percent state income rate versus California’s 12 percent may have something to do with it. And then we have those winter temperatures to help one forget about the palmetto bugs (aka, wood cockroaches). Returning to the numbers, Florida has no state income tax, no tax on retirement income, no inheritance or estate taxes, has homestead exemptions for permanent residents, property tax cuts for anyone over 65 and for older veterans. Florida is certainly not broke but where do to ducats come from? Florida’s state government generates the bulk of general revenue (75
When was the last time that you did something for the first time? (Warning: tissues may be needed.) The best use of technology is to improve quality of life. Watch people’s beautiful first expressions of hearing sounds for the first time. (This came from an email from Steve Wozniak – yes, that one, who wrote, “Why do you think we started Apple. Steve Jobs and myself wanted to make life the same for the disabled and normal people. We wanted blind people to be like sighted people. To see how much we succeeded just look at any sidewalk and see all the people walking blindly while looking at their smart phones.”) Here’s another first time. Yesterday we learned that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published the Acceptance of Private Flood Insurance for FHA-Insured Mortgages final rule (Docket No. FR-6084-F-02) in the Federal Register. With today’s publication, FHA will now accept private flood insurance policies where the borrower chooses t