Blog | Princeton Wholesale

The Paris of Appalachia… Pittsburgh, PA

Matt Joy, Princeton Mortgage Wholesale

May 14, 2018
2 min

The Paris of Appalachia… Pittsburgh, PA

In 2009, Brian O’Neill wrote a book title, The Paris of Appalachia: Pittsburgh in the Twenty-first Century. He leads off the book with this profound statement about the Steel City: “This isn't so much a history of Pittsburgh as it is a biography. Sometimes we're so afraid of what others think, we're afraid to declare who we are. This city is not midwestern. It's not East Coast. It's just Pittsburgh, and there's no place like it. That's both its blessing and its curse.” That’s

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Equity in the Numbers

Matt Pfrommer, Princeton Wholesale Mortgage

Apr 3, 2018
3 min

Equity in the Numbers

Last week, we posted about the $5.5 trillion in equity that homeowners are sitting on and pondered when and how homeowners would start to tap into this equity. According to the census bureau, the current average sales price of a home in the US is $376,700 but just 5 years ago it was $312,500. That is an increase of $64,200 (or 20%) in just 5 years! With a surge in housing prices, most homeowners are probably unaware that their assets have appreciated so quickly and may be i

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The Lion, the Foreclosure, and the Sale

Feb 23, 2018
2 min

The Lion, the Foreclosure, and the Sale

Default, the term that no one in the mortgage industry wants to deal with but is always lurking in the background. We see a housing crisis like the early 2000’s and want to avoid the same situation so we implement new policies to prevent default and they slowly become the standard for all loans. Borrowers trudge through mountains of paperwork to prove to a lender that they are worthy of a loan but inevitably, something will happen to a small population and the lender will h

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The importance of a good partner; It's 72 degrees in Pittsburgh!

Feb 20, 2018
3 min

The importance of a good partner; It's 72 degrees in Pittsburgh!

It’s Tuesday, February 20th, 2018 and it’s going to hit 72 degrees with tons of sunshine in Pittsburgh today. I should probably stop writing and working for that matter, grab my sticks and hit the links, but unfortunately our industry doesn’t allow for those niceties… especially with how competitive our industry is this year. Over the weekend I saw a few industry giants posting messages on LinkedIn explaining the difficult market landscape we’re all trying to navigate. This i

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Rent payments are too high! The market is primed for some new buyers… but how long will it take?

Feb 6, 2018
2 min

Rent payments are too high! The market is primed for some new buyers… but how long will it take?

Tucked along the Allegheny River, Lawrenceville is one of Pittsburgh’s largest neighborhood areas. It’s home to one of our country’s finest Children’s Hospitals, a bustling nigh-life and food scene and the Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotic Center. It’s not abnormal to see one of Uber’s driverless cars cruising down Butler street as you leave one of the newest… coolest eateries in the city. However, it’s also home to the highest rent costs in Pittsburgh. Now, the measly $1,

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What a Government Shutdown could mean for mortgage applications; I already knew Pittsburgh was great

Jan 19, 2018
2 min

What a Government Shutdown could mean for mortgage applications; I already knew Pittsburgh was great

Photo by Joshua Peacock on Unsplash The wall, the dreamers and children’s health care… these are the topics that could potentially cause the next government shutdown. The last time we saw Congress take their ball and leave was during President Obama’s term as President. We saw a shut down in 2011 because of an impasse on raising the federal debt ceiling and then again in 2013 over Obamacare. With another shutdown looming what impact would that have on our industry? Well, firs

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Applications are up, while temperatures remain down… way down.

Jan 17, 2018
2 min

Applications are up, while temperatures remain down… way down.

Photo by Teddy Kelley on Unsplash The MBA reported that application volume is up a little over 4% in the past 6 weeks and nearly 6% from this time a year ago. Refinance requests significantly spiked, which is surprising news to most since interest rates and costs to originate conforming loans slightly increased over last week. Purchase applications also rose from last week’s mark, and are up nearly 7% higher than a year ago. Factoring in fear of continued rising interest rate

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Bitcoin’s future in the housing market

Dec 4, 2017
2 min

Bitcoin’s future in the housing market

Photo by Freddie Collins on Unsplash Living in Pittsburgh for most of my life has allowed me to be at the forefront of some of the coolest innovations in technology. I’ve been in a self-driving car, experienced a virtual reality through a headset, seen robots do more than I ever thought was possible and… owned a bitcoin? Unless you’ve been under a rock these past couple of months, you’ve probably heard of the crypto-currency taking the world by storm. What started out as a to

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Concern building around the financial strength of FHA; Steelers take on the Titans tonight!

Nov 16, 2017
1 min

Concern building around the financial strength of FHA; Steelers take on the Titans tonight!

Should we be concerned about House Financial Services Chairmen, Jeb Hensarling’s, comments on the financial health of the FHA? In a statement released Wednesday, Hensarling said, “FHA has suffered a severe case of mission creep, and the unfortunate truth is that the lack of sound underwriting, and risk management puts taxpayers, homebuyers and our overall economy in harm’s way,”. Woah… those are some powerful words. Lack of sound underwriting? We’re talking about lower income

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CFPB digs deeper into Zillow’s possible RESPA violations; Feels good to be home!

Nov 9, 2017
1 min

CFPB digs deeper into Zillow’s possible RESPA violations; Feels good to be home!

Have you heard about this story? Back in February the CFPB began investigating Zillow’s co-marketing program. This allows real estate agents (Zillow calls them Premier Agents or more simply put the ones that pay) to advertise together with their preferred lender. Wait, what? Yea… realtors and lenders are advertising side by side on Zillow. Isn’t that steering? What do you think? According to the allegations Zillow is possibly violating Section 8 of RESPA and Section 1036 of t

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