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Hideouts and Homes of the Mob | Chappaqua NY Real Estate
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FICO reveals behaviors behind sterling credit scores | Cross River NY Real Estate
Tight mortgage lending standards have dashed the hopes of many would-be homebuyers, but the developers of the most popular credit risk score today revealed some habits and behaviors of “high achievers” with FICO scores above 785.
More than 50 million people — about a quarter of all people with credit scores — are considered high achievers and tend to have “strikingly similar” credit habits regardless of background or life experience, San Jose, Calif.-based Fair Isaac Corp. said.
Some of these habits are fairly predictable: They keep low revolving balances relative to their available credit, don’t max out their credit cards, and consistently make payments on time.
But high achievers are not debt-free. They have an average of seven credit cards, including open and closed accounts, and carry balances on an average of four credit cards or loans. One-third have balances of more $8,500 on nonmortgage accounts.
Nevertheless, almost none — less than 1 percent — have an account past due. The overwhelming majority, 96 percent, have no missed payments on their credit report. Those who do have long since mended their ways — their last missed payment happened an average of four years ago.The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, and is used by virtually all lenders to gauge credit risk and the likelihood a borrower will repay a loan. The credit score can affect how much money a lender will offer and at what terms; higher credit scores mean borrowers can potentially save thousands of dollars over the life of a loan, FICO said.
Ellie Mae Inc., which provides mortgage origination software to lenders, reports that the average FICO score for mortgages approved in September was 750, with borrowers making down payments averaging 22 percent, having front-end debt-to-income ratios of 23 percent and back-end DTIs of 34 percent.
Those whose applications were denied had an average FICO score of 704, with borrowers willing to make down payments averaging 12 percent. The average front-end debt-to-income ratio was 27 percent; the average back-end DTI was 44 percent.
The average FICO scores for purchase mortgages eligible for purchase and guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was 762 (compared with 729 for denied applications), while FICO scores on FHA-backed purchase loans averaged 701 (compared with 665 for denied applications).
Because payment history makes up the biggest chunk of how a person’s FICO score is calculated — 35 percent — managing credit responsibly over time plays a large part towards improving one’s credit score, FICO said. This includes paying at least the minimum amount on all credit cards every month, the company added.
“Missing payments will lower a person’s FICO score, but if that happens, establishing or re-establishing a good track record of making payments on time will generally improve a person’s score,” said Anthony Sprauve, credit score adviser for myFICO, the company’s consumer division, in a statement.
By law, most negative information, including missed payments, is removed from credit reports after seven years. This does not apply to tax liens or Chapter 7 bankruptcy. About 1 in 100 high achievers had a collection on their credit report, and about 1 in 9,000 had a tax lien or bankruptcy.
“While people with a high FICO score are not perfect, their consistently responsible financial behavior usually pays off over time,” Sprauve said. “In a challenging economic period, the fact that we all have a chance to be high achievers is very good news. The lesson from these high achievers is that it’s never too late to rebuild and score high.”
FICO high achievers typically have long, well-established credit histories and rarely open new accounts, FICO said. They opened their oldest credit account 25 years ago, on average, and their most recent credit account more than two years (28 months) ago. In general, their average credit account is 11 years old.
Their balances are often low and they use only an average of 7 percent of their available revolving credit, i.e., $70 on a credit card with a $1,000 maximum.
FICO considers both positive and negative credit report information within five general categories, the company said: payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, new credit, and types of credit used.
Source: FICO
The FICO score does not take into account attributes such as race, gender, age, marital status, salary, employment history or address, the company said. FICO’s consumer website, myFICO.com, offers tips and tools to help people make decisions about their credit.
“Because a high FICO score is typically achieved over time and takes into account dozens of variables, there are no ‘quick fixes’ for rapidly improving scores or repairing bad credit,” Sprauve said.
“Practicing good credit behavior consistently over time and regularly checking your credit report for errors can be instrumental for achieving a high credit score, which can lead to better loan terms and lower interest rates. Achieving good credit health is a long-distance event, not a sprint.”
via inman.com
Mortgage money stays cheap | Cross River NY Real Estate
Mortgage rates remained at or near record lows this week as investors — including the Federal Reserve — continued pouring money into mortgage-backed securities that fund nine out of 10 U.S. home loans.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.37 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Oct. 18, down from 3.39 percent last week and 4.11 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans hit an all-time low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971 of 3.36 percent during the week ending Oct. 4.
For 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, which are popular with homeowners refinancing, rates averaged 2.66 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from 2.7 percent last week and 3.38 percent a year ago. That’s a new low in records dating to 1991.
Rates on five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans averaged 2.75 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from 2.73 percent last week but down from 3.01 percent a year ago. Rates on five-year ARM loans hit a low in records dating to 2005 of 2.69 percent during the week ending July 19.
For one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs, rates averaged 2.6 percent with an average 0.4 point, up from 2.59 percent last week but down from 2.94 percent a year ago. Rates on one-year ARM loans hit an all-time low in records dating to 1984 of 2.57 percent during the week ending Oct. 4.
The $40 billion-per-month increase in government purchases of mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced by the Federal Reserve on Sept. 13 is expected to help keep mortgage rates low for an indefinite period.
Looking back a week, a separate survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed demand for purchase loans at its highest level since June. The survey showed demand for purchase loans during the week ending Oct. 12 up a seasonally adjusted 1 percent compared to the week before, and up 12 percent from a year ago
via inman.com
The Social Media is Not Only For You “Marketers” | Chappaqua NY Real Estate
The Social Media is Not Only For You “Marketers”
With most companies nowadays running social media marketing campaigns, it’s safe to say that the majority of them aren’t running them up to their full potential. That’s because in many companies and offices, the only people actually using social media for anything at all is the marketing team. This is because of a common misconception that has to do with the speed with which social media marketing came upon the world and its unfortunate name. While it is indeed marketing, leaving it to the sole use of the marketing team is a huge waste of potential resources.
So who should be using it? Everyone.Involving and integrating the whole company into a multi-faceted social media blitz will not only increase profits, but it will open new doors to thinking outside of the box that could give your company the edge when it comes to competitiveness in your industry. So, instead of leaving it to the marketing team to come to you with a plan for integration across the boards, take the initiative and push cross-functional social media marketing upon your company.
Why Does Everyone Have To Be Involved?
Since social media has dug in firmly and is here to stay, every department in the company should be looking at how they can use it to make the whole entity run better. Ideally, this will involve representatives from each department meeting up for social media brainstorming sessions, but here are a few suggestions to help get the ball rolling.
The Sales Team
Perhaps the biggest untapped resource of social media marketing is the sales leads which are out there. You have at your disposal a targeted marketing list: either people who already like your service or product or people who like your competition’s. Go after them! In your monitoring tool, implement a smart keyword search and get new leads.
Customer Service
Every B2C has a customer service department that is typically only using traditional methods to make themselves available to customers. In the future, social media outlets will be used, so start to plan ahead (or even implement them now) and you’re sure to stay at the forefront of the competition. Be certain you have a strategy, good management tools for social media and a clear plan and then see how social media can help build trust amongst your fans and followers.
Marketing and Communication Departments
Because traditional media is actually quickly becoming outdated media, it’s important that the marketing and communications departments stay on top of the latest trends, but also not forget what works. Campaigns shouldn’t always solely be aimed at social media; at times there should be some integration with standard media methods. Regardless, finding the mix of the perfect combination is what it’s all about.
Social media has one huge advantage in that you can instantly get feedback on the campaigns from the target audiences (i.e. likes, shares, comments, edge rankings, etc.). Applying this to your current and future campaigns helps you build a more responsive and non-plastic approach to monitoring and adjusting your sales and reputation. Be sure you’re using keyword searches and monitoring tools to do so.
Public Relations
The PR team should be closely monitoring this same feedback as well, but taking it a step further, scouring blogs, newsletters and other forms of lesser known social media to stay on top of public opinion. Having an extra set of ears to the ground will help the marketing team and vice versa, as both teams work hand in hand to create the exact public image and branding your company needs to succeed.
Purchasing Departments
If you’re in one of the larger companies that have purchasing departments, they can use research tools available online to monitor and assess the companies they will be making acquisitions from. Tracking their sales and other stats through social media is simple, fast and efficient.
Essentially, the possibilities are endless with each department and how they can use social media to boost their productivity. Consider getting the best and brightest together for some brain storming and expand upon some of the things we’ve touched on here
Blogging Isn’t a Numbers Game: It’s a People Game | Katonah NY Real Estate
via problogger.net
Every Picture Tells a Story; A Beginning, a Middle, and NEXT | Cross River NY Real Estate
Sept. 27 was a new beginning for me. It was the day I walked into Inman News to start my new position as social media director, and the day I met my new teammates. Katie Lance had just come off an extremely busy week of travel, and like old friends she welcomed me with a warm hug. With a deep breath, we were off.
Katie introduced me to everyone, and I received my first tour of the offices. In the back of the main office, something caught my eye: a row of vintage typewriters placed neatly next to one another. When I asked Katie why they were there, she said they belonged to Brad Inman.
Brad is Inman’s founder, and right away I wanted to know more about not only where I was going, but what got Inman News HERE. So much has changed in the years since Inman News started, so I asked Brad if I could get a starting point, a foundation. I wanted a place to spring from, in context, history, and Brad’s personal story. Every business starts with a vision, a passion, a need to serve, the love of someone or something. I asked Brad to add some of his words to my story. I asked the questions, and Brad shared his answers. The result is a connection, and an understanding.
A Beginning – The Love of a Craft … and Typewriters
Q: The typewriters: What do they mean to you?
A: “The vintage typewriters are beautiful, and, for me, symbolize the craft of journalism. I watched my father type in his retail store and wanted to be everything like him. I was a self-taught typist by about 6 years old. My dad’s typewriter is in the collection plus the one I had in high school when I wrote a weekly sports column for the local newspaper. My calculus teacher was the football coach. In 1968, he had a losing season and hated what I was writing about his lousy team. Though I was pretty good at math, he gave me a bad grade. It was my first lesson with angry story subjects. Now, what does that have to do with typewriters? Nothing.”
Article continues below–>
A Middle – Journalism Meets Real Estate
Q: What came first: the love of real estate or writing?
A: “Writing, then real estate. In the 1980s, I was part of a band of writers including Ken Harney, Lew Sicheleman, Bob Bruss, Corrie Anders, Bruce Koon and many others who were working to make real estate sections credible with serious journalism about a serious subject. Before that, real estate sections were often held hostage by advertisers who provided content in the form of advertorials. UGH.”
When asked about what triggered him to create Inman News, Brad said, “There was no big vision. I was a consumer real estate writer and stumbled upon a tech mess-up at the National Association of Realtors just as the commercial Internet came out in 1996. I began posting stories about these events at NAR on Inman.com. I even had a secret source inside the ranks of NAR’s leadership. Suddenly, I had industry readers on this free site and I was in the online trade publication business without any real plan. I got lucky. My continuing inspiration came from my industry readers who were starved for a new voice around technology and innovation and a publication that had no fear about covering whatever I came across. As Inman News rankled many, we were cheered on by many more.”
NEXT…
Technology moves fast. I believe that humans don’t. We’ve moved well past typewriters, but we hang onto the things that are important to us. They remind of us of who we are and what we love most, and remind us that nothing ever stays the same. The stories that connect us are important to listen to and to share. The technology we use to build and advance the real estate industry, and our businesses, are simply the tools we use to make those connections to consumers.
For me, what’s next is refining and perfecting the craft of building businesses that are custom made for your consumer. The differentiation we can provide in mobile, social media, and technology strategies must communicate with and anticipate the consumer’s needs. Adopting and implementing these strategies are skills that we can all work on together. My hope is to continue to build a community that is ready to do just that. I’m looking forward to what’s next, and to joining you in that journey. I’m ready to dig in.
“The real estate industry is a very important industry that needs to be taken seriously and must be encouraged to do right by the consumer.” -Brad Inman
via next.inman.com
Using Cow Thermal Energy to Heat Homes in Winter | Chappaqua NY Real Estate
The Time-Honored Art of Splitting Wood | Chappaqua NY Realtor
Chopping stovewood to size by hand may, at first glance, appear to be a ponderous, imprecise activity that requires little more than pure brute force. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. There is, instead, a distinct art to splitting wood. The skilled woodsman or -woman who works with — rather than against — the rounds he or she is handling can split up a lot more fuel in a given time than can some muscle-bound ox who tries to club the wood pile to smithereens. In fact, a great many experienced splitters (both chore-laden homesteaders and briefcase-laden urbanites) have honed their skills to such a point that they look upon billet-busting as one of life’s more enjoyable tasks.
The Tools
The instruments most often used for working up wood by hand are the single-blade splitting axe, a pair of three- to five-pound steel wedges, a middle-sized sledgehammer, and an eight-pound splitting maul. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Several manufacturers have devised variations on the standard hand tools — we’ve sized up a number of woodcracking aids in The Great Wood-Splitting Contest II]
However, it isn’t necessary to have all of these tools to begin work. I recommend starting out with a pair of wedges and that workhorse of the log-busting trade, the splitting maul (or “go-devil”). The blade of the latter implement can crack open many a billet, while the tool’s back end can be used for driving wedges. (By the way, never use the butt of an axe for pounding — its thin head may crack!)
The Technique
Probably the single most important wood-splitting rule is this: Always place your to-be-broken rounds on a short chopping block. Such a base will provide solid resistance to the blows, increasing your stroke’s penetration and guaranteeing that when your maul breaks through the billet, the tool’s blade will land in wood instead of slamming into dulling earth or stones.
Once you’ve set your piece of tree up on its chopping block, stand back with your arms extended and feet planted squarely apart. (And, for safety’s sake, be sure to wear boots and sturdy long pants!) Then line up the go-devil over its intended target, wind ‘er up and swing!
Now some folks go for pinpoint accuracy by lifting their mauls straight up overhead, while others feel they gain more power by swinging the implements back around their shoulders. And one person will let his or her top gripping hand slide up toward the splitter’s head on the upswing, but another will keep both hands clenched together in a grip similar to that used by a golfer. You’ll have to experiment until you decide just which technique is best for you.
Atlanta No. 2 most affordable housing market | Cross River NY Homes
Metro Atlanta hasn’t been the greatest place in the country to own a home, as everyone with a devalued house in these parts knows.
There is some good news, relatively speaking, though.
It doesn’t cost that much to buy here.
Atlanta ranks second in the U.S. among the top 25 metro areas in terms of home affordability, new research from Interest.com, a Bankrate company, shows.
The median household income in the Atlanta area exceeds the income required to purchase a median-priced home here by 40 percent. That’s better than every other big market except for Detroit, where it’s 45.32 percent.
The rest of the top five most affordable metro areas are Minneapolis, Phoenix and St. Louis.
Of course, Detroit is hardly the symbol of economic success, and Phoenix has had major housing issues.
The least affordable markets: San Francisco, New York, San Diego, Miami and Los Angeles.
Housing affordability is key concern nationally, and nationwide a median-income household can afford a median-priced home in only 14 of the 25 largest markets, the study found.
Mike Sante, managing editor of Interest.com, said, “Despite all the talk about how homes are more affordable than they have been in decades, buying a home is still a big challenge for many American households.”
Sante continued, “Dealing with rising expenses and stagnant wages is a struggle. Even after years of declining home prices and record-low mortgage rates, median-income households are unable to afford a median-priced home in nearly half of the metropolitan areas that we looked at.”
via blogs.ajc.com
Housing Prices and Income Inequality | Katonah NY Homes
Why is the gap between rich and poor in America yawning ever wider?
The issue is urgent. As my colleague Annie Lowrey writes, there is growing evidence that income inequality impedes economic growth.
And one interesting explanation boils down to the high price of housing.
A recent paper by researchers at Harvard University argues that the prohibitive cost of living in the areas with the greatest economic opportunities has forced low-wage workers to migrate instead to areas with inferior opportunities.
“The best places for low- and high-skilled workers used to be the same places: California, Maryland, New York,” said Peter Ganong, a doctoral student in economics, who wrote the paper with Daniel Shoag, a professor of public policy. “Now low-skilled workers can no longer afford to move to the high-wage places.”
In this account, people aren’t moving to the Sun Belt because they want to live there. They are moving because they can’t afford to live in Boston. And the result isn’t just second-best for them; it also slows the pace of economic growth.
Basically, the economy works best when people can move where their skills are most valued. But for low-skill workers, the high price of housing means the cost of living in those places often exceeds the benefits of working there.
The trends are beautifully illustrated by three time-lapse graphics.
The first shows that average incomes by state converged between 1880 and 1980 as low-skilled workers moved to wealthier states. The second shows the pattern of migration, which has changed significantly over the last 30 years.
The third shows the increase in land-use regulations in rich states.
And here’s the crucial point: It doesn’t have to be this way. High housing prices are the result of public policies that discourage new development. Those policies are generally embraced by the residents of wealthy areas, who benefit, at least in the short term, from restrictions on the supply of new housing. But this paper is one more reason to worry about the long-term economic consequences.