Agent Profile
Tony and Libby Kelly, MBA, M.Ed. are ranked in the top 1% of REALTORS in Portland Metro. They have been featured on HGTV's "House Hunters" 3 Episodes & "My House is Worth What?" 4 Episodes.
Easier Foreclosure Prevention
Most people have heard that the foreclosure prevention programs have not been as successful as Obama had hoped. It seems that one of the road blocks has been borrowers with a second mortgage.
Apparently there has not been an agreement with the second lien holders which causes the first mortgage to be modified even lower to hit the 31% of pre-tax income mark.
Clearly banks are not eager to modify loan payments at a loss when the second mortgage holder still gets a full payment. This is also not helping the home owners because how small can a payment get when only one of the two banks is working with you.
The new federal initiative gives incentives to the second mortgage holder to work with the first. This initiative has been in the works for a while but apparently was difficult to implement. To help get it going, Bank of America is the first major bank to sign on for this program, and should cause others to follow.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/26/real_estate/boost_for_modification_program/index.htm
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE http//:www.TonyandLibby.com
Rising Interest Rates
If you are in the market for a home with the intention to get a loan under 5%, you’d better move! The first full week of January Freddie Mac’s average 30-year fixed mortgage closed at 5.09%. And once these go up they are not coming back down any time soon.
Because of the bad economy the government had some programs going to get interest rates down. Those programs are coming to an end and interest rates will head back up.
Rates should also rise as the economy improves. As people start to borrow money again the rates will increase. There should be a small jump during the spring home buying season and rise slowly from there. At least according to CNN.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/07/real_estate/last_chance_refinance/index.htm
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE http//:www.TonyandLibby.com
Portland Oregon in the New York Times
Here is a great article from the New York Times about all the great things about visiting or living in Portland, Oregon. Not only did the author seem to capture the vibe of the city but he visited so many wonderful spots that represent this city so well. He really hit the perfect variety and did not just stick to one section of the Portland area. Especially when it comes to our amazing food scene.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/travel/10Portland.html?pagewanted=1
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE http//:www.TonyandLibby.com
Recent Blog PostsOne of America’s Best Pancakes
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
I have been driving by this place for YEARS and have not got around to trying it. I have always wanted to because the line to get in is so long, but have not because the line to get in is so long. One of these days I’m going to get up [...] Plastic Bag Resolution
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Portland, Oregon city council is demanding a ban on single-use plastic bags at the grocery store. So much so that they passed a city resolution Wednesday stating that Portland will ban plastic bags sometime in the future if state lawmakers fail to pass a statewide ban next year.
A city resolution [...] Top 10 Cities for Young Adults
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Portland, Oregon has 2,241,841 residents and 21.9% of those are from Generation Y. Some of the top employers include Intel, Fred Meyer Stores, Oregon Health & Science University, Providence Health Systems, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the NW, city government and Legacy Health System. These are just some of the reasons that Portland, [...] Lower Rate of Childhood Obesity
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
From 2003 to 2007 Oregon has come up as having the lowest rate of childhood obesity of any other state in the country. Unfortunately ALL states need to do something about it’s overweight children. Some will have more trouble than others because of factors like poverty and race have complicated [...]Market Report Portland Oregon
Friday, July 16th, 2010
June Residential Highlights While inventory continued to stay low in the Portland Metro area, sales activity saw both increases and declines. When comparing June 2010 with June 2009, closed sales increased 13.3%. Pending sales and new listings fell 25.2% and 4.9%, respectively. Comparing June 2010 with the previous month, May 2010, closed sales dropped 1.9% (2,012 v. [...]Agency Info
Keller Williams Realty Portland Premiere
17700 SW Upper Boones Ferry Rd
Portland, OR 97224