The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) rises in January to a reading of 25. This is up 4 points from the previous December reading of 21 and marks the 4th consecutive month of increases. The last time the HMI had a reading of 25 or more was in June of …

  “How much money can I get to buy a home?” It’s a common question that often leads off a buyer’s conversation with me. What they’re really trying to learn is, “In what price range should I be shopping?” The answer to this question provides a target for the buyer to do their search, and …

  VA is making a change to the types of loans that will be approved through the automated underwriting engine, and those changes are not friendly to new borrowers. Currently, people applying for a VA loan can sometimes get an approval with debt-to-income ratios as high as 56% (assuming the lender doesn’t have overlays reducing …

Here in Skagit County, many of us just received our new “Notice of Value”. This letter states what your old assessed value was and what the new assessed value is going to be. Many people mistakenly believe that means that their home has dropped in value. In fact, your home may have increased in value …

HARP 2 was recently announced. This new and improved, completely revamped refinance program is a reworked version of the original HARP program, first launched in 2009. The original HARP program was intended to help more than 9 million U.S. households. However, fewer than 900,000 were able to take advantage of this program. HARP 2 will …