Entries from August 2007
News in today’s USA Today stated that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has decided to step in and offer refinancing opportunities to many sub-prime mortgage holders ideally helping them avoid foreclosure. I’ve been a huge critic of any government “bail out” in the sub-prime market but this plan makes some sense to me.
To qualify, the borrower must have been making their mortgage payments on time until their interest rate increased, in addition they must also have at least 3% equity in the home they own. Therefore, FHA is looking for those homeowners who at least showed some effort to keep their mortgages current when they either purchased using one of the variable interest rate mortgages or had refinanced into such a mortgage.
Here are a few more articles on this plan:
USA Today
Mortage Brokers Fall on Tough Times
As Mortgage Rates Rise so Does Fraud
Categories: Downtown Living · Market Data
One of the many wonderful traditions of Central Madison Living is the Annual “Taste of Madison” held Labor Day weekend each year. This year is no different. The great news is that that weather looks fantastic for both Saturday and Sunday!
The Taste of Madison combines great food prepared by many of Madison’s best eateries with great music hosted by some of our radio stations. Add great weather, an ice cold beer and what promises to be great people watching and I’m there.
Check out the schedule with some of these links:
Entertainment Schedule
Participating Restaurants
Categories: Downtown Living
We have had the pleasure of dining at Madison’s newest Mexican restaurant “El Pescador”. What a treat!This new treasure has opened in the past 2 montbs in the location formerly housing “Las Palmas” at 2810 E. Washington Avenue. The interior hasn’t changed much but the food was wonderful! I enjoyed the “cocktelle de campachana” which, in my opinion is the perfect summertime dinner. Served in a jumbo margarita glass this entree was full of fresh shrimp, octopus and avocado, all swimming in an ocean of perfectly seasoned tomato sauce.
My companion ordered the grilled red snapper prepared “de diablo” style with a very hot red sauce. The entire snapper came to our table with it being perfectly grilled.
If you’re a seafood and fresh fish fan, you must try this new discovery!
Oh, yeah, the margaritas were killer as well!
It’s now been reviewed!
State Journal Review
Categories: Downtown Living · reviews
This morning I had a really cool e-mail in my inbox. It was from a friend of mine in Santa Clarita, CA and was a link to 3 postings on YouTube regarding the most recent version of “Britain’s Got Talent”. This post followed the path of the competition’s winner, Paul Potts and 1 time mobile phone salesman now potentially a world renown Opera singer.
What struck me this morning was how unassuming and humble Paul seems to be. When I watched the 1st clip I thought for a moment he was lip synching because the sound was so pure.
This got me thinking, in this world of Donald Trump and the ego of a man like him, there seems to be room for the Paul Potts as well. In fact, given my druthers, wouldn’t this be a much better place if we all took something away from Paul in the desire to just be great at what we do and not feel compelled to make the world know how great we are.
A few years ago I had a conversation with a real estate agent regarding this. We were at a conference called Mega Agent Camp in Austin, TX. This is a yearly gathering of some of the top real estate sales agents in the country. For a little perspective there were folks there who’s businesses were grossing into the $4-$5 million mark on a annual basis, big time incomes!
Anyway, this agent commented to me that there seemed to be very little ego present in these people. When I say this I mean the need to let everyone know how great they are. Great in the sense of being at the top of their game, being huge income earners, etc…. In our conversation it hit me! Ego takes a tremendous amount of energy to maintain! Once it is let go, one can simply be themself and focus all their energy on being good at what they do.
Paul Potts seems to exemplify that very thing.
Here are some clips of this amazing talent:
Paul Potts First Night
Paul Potts Semi Finals
Paul Potts in the Final Performance
Categories: Uncategorized
As part of my contribution to the Central Madison Living blog, I’ll be posting monthly updates on the condo sales in the central city area. This data is compiled from the South Central Wisconsin Multiple Listing Service (SCWMLS).
To view the report, click here.
I hope, as you find this information useful. Watch for monthly updates. If I’m missing a development you’d like to see tracked, please let me know.
Categories: Downtown Living · Market Data
News in today’s USA Today stated that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has decided to step in and offer refinancing opportunities to many sub-prime mortgage holders ideally helping them avoid foreclosure. I’ve been a huge critic of any government “bail out” in the sub-prime market but this plan makes some sense to me.
