Real Estate Update in Palo Alto & Los Altos

Homeowners found three attractive tax breaks among their holiday presents, thanks to the federal Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which was enacted in December.
Forgiven debt may be free from income tax
The first tax break concerns forgiveness of debt, which occurs when a lender forgoes repayment of principal and/or interest the borrower owes.
Typically, discharged [...]

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If you’re a homeowner who has an adjustable-rate mortgage, you may already have been disappointed to discover that your situation doesn’t qualify for the ARM interest-rate freeze that was announced with much fanfare last week. You’re not alone.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., in his statement to the press, said that “up to” 1.2 million [...]

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Real estate loan is what a lot of people use to buy their home. Real estate loans have been instrumental in bringing joy to people by making that unaffordable house affordable. Some real estate investors too make use of real estate loans for buying properties. However, real estate loan is not free money and anyone [...]

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The plan:
Lenders will freeze low introductory rates on certain subprime mortgages for a number of years.
Who’s proposing it:
The Bush administration and the mortgage industry, including the FDIC and many of the biggest lenders.
Funding:
President Bush has said no taxpayer money will be used for the plan. Instead, investors who bought mortgage-backed securities would lose some income [...]

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A consortium of lenders is considering a plan to reduce foreclosures by freezing low introductory interest rates on subprime mortgages. There would be winners and losers under such a policy.
The winners would include those borrowers who qualify for rate relief, their neighbors, and state and local governments. The losers mainly would consist of people who [...]

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