Brian S. Icenhower

Short Sale Deficiency Judgments Limited

Prior to 2011, only those borrowers with purchase money loans on their homes had the privilege of utilizing the short sale process to sell their properties without worry of a lender seeking to obtain deficiency judgments against them sometime in the futur... Read >

Loan Modifications: More Harm than Good?

In 2009, millions of United States homeowners learned that modifying their existing home loans served only to expedite foreclosure rather than prevent it. A U.S. Treasury report released in early December of 2009 revealed that only 4% of applicants under ... Read >

How Local Elections can Dictate the Value of your Home

With local elections on the horizon, it is essential to understand the significant impact that our newly elected leaders will have on real estate values in our area. Most individuals consider housing, or shelter, to be a necessity item on par with essenti... Read >

The Economy’s Impact on Senior Housing Trends

The United States Census Bureau has reported that a third of the country's population will be 50 years or older by the year 2010. Accordingly, a 2009 study conducted jointly by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the MetLife Mature Market... Read >

Free Market Lends Federal Housing Stimulus a Hand

Economic experts overwhelmingly agree that before the United States financial crisis finally comes to an end, declining housing values must be halted so that real estate will once again provide adequate security for lenders to make loans comfortably. The ... Read >

How the U.S. Federal Reserve Lost Control of Mortgage Rates

Despite the United States Federal Reserve Board's diligent attempts to stimulate the economy throughout the year of 2008 by repeatedly reducing the Federal Funds rate, the typically correlating thirty-year average mortgage rate stubbornly remained unchang... Read >

An Overview of New Tax Incentives & Lending Requirements for Housing

Attempts by Federal and State governments in the first quarter of 2009 to stimulate home sales have resulted in the creation of significant incentives for buyers seeking to take advantage of attractive housing prices across the United States. In order to ... Read >

Investing in Foreclosure and REO Properties

The investment quandary as to the best method for acquiring foreclosed property at heavily discounted prices inevitably surfaces at the same stage in the real estate cycle every ten to twenty years. After housing booms and home prices correct back to affo... Read >

Home Loan Modifications Explained

Continuous declines in United States' housing values after the mid-2000s caused an increasing number of borrowers to explore the loan modification process in an attempt to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. Unfortunately, a large number of homeowner... Read >

Effective Economic Stimulus for Housing

Now that the majority of elected officials serving in Congress and the White House have publicly stated their resolute intent to spend United States Treasury funds to attempt to stimulate the nation's economy, the ideological debate as to whether it is pr... Read >

The Glass-Steagall Act’s loss is the Community Reinvestment Act’s Gain

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999, repealed the portion of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that prohibited banks from consolidating with investment houses while the GLBA also expanded the influence of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 which re... Read >

The Relationship between Home Prices and Rent Amounts

It is widely accepted that rent amounts are a fundamental factor in determining the value of housing. If housing prices rise too far out of line with rents, a combination of declines in home values and increases in rent amounts will ultimately occur and e... Read >

Geographic Micro-Markets in Real Estate

When seemingly endless statistical reports show steadily declining home values, it is essential to analyze geographic micro-markets to properly assess the value of residential properties. Although many media and data tracking sources will often cite natio... Read >

The U.S. Housing and Economic Recovery Act

On July 30, 2008 United States President George W. Bush signed into law the Housing Stimulus Bill H.R. 3221, now dubbed the "Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008". This historic bill was previously passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of ... Read >

The Capital Gains Tax Scourge

The combination of an ailing economy and a struggling housing market during an election year has created the perfect storm to once again bring issues concerning the federal capital gains tax rate to the forefront of the public's attention. As our nation's... Read >