With over 25 years at this location, locals and tourists will tell you that a better pancake cannot be found. Kathy’s offers an extensive breakfast menu which is served all day, along with daily lunch specials, a great lunch and dinner menu is also offered.

Real food, real people, a real delight!  Be sure to pickup a bag of the pancake mix as you leave.  Click here for Kathy’s website.

When I can’t get mom’s pancakes, I go to a local Staunton place called Kathy’s.

Check out Kathy’s Restaurant review by the Down Home Foodie blog

Mother-and-daughter real estate pros Donna and Shannon Freeman break down the best ways to stage a home to sell.

Despite all the gloom, however, there are growing indications that it is a good time to buy. Mortgage rates, which fell to 4.55% for the week ending June 2, according to Freddie Mac, are near 50-year lows. Homes have become more affordable than they have been in years:

Read more via Market Watch

$1,200 bonus to buyer’s agents on sales that close by Sept. 30

Hoping to boost sales of foreclosed homes, Freddie Mac is offering up to 3.5 percent in closing-cost assistance to homebuyers and a $1,200 bonus to buyer’s agents for offers on HomeSteps properties received by July 31 with escrow closing on or before Sept. 30.

Read more via Freddie Mac

Legislation will likely draw fire from industry groups, Senate Democrats

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee have drafted legislation that would raise the minimum down payment for FHA mortgages to 5 percent, cut FHA loan limits in most markets, and move the Agriculture Department’s rural housing program to FHA’s parent agency, HUD.

Read more via FHA loan down payments

What to see and do with information on where to stay, dine, and shop.

Discover historic sites, cultural and artistic treasures, museums and fantastic shopping and dining in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Travel through historic towns on scenic back roads that lead to charming picture postcard farms. Shenandoah Valley’s outdoors features the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, with breath-taking views of the Valley below. Plan your next trip to the Shenandoah Valley today.  (This is a very comprehensive list on what is happening in the Shenandoah Valley).

Read more by clicking here –>

Forget stocks. Don’t bet on gold. After four years of plunging home prices, the most attractive asset class in America is housing.

Two basic factors are laying the foundation for dramatic recovery in residential real estate. The first is the historic drop in new construction that so amazes Castleman. The second is a steep decline in prices, on the order of 30% nationwide since 2006, and as much as 55% in the hardest-hit markets. The story of this downturn has been an astonishing flight from the traditional American approach of buying new houses to an embrace of renting. But the new affordability will gradually lure Americans back to buying homes. And the return of the homeowner will start raising prices in many markets this year.

Read more via Real estate: It’s time to buy again – Fortune Finance.

High down payment requirements being proposed by federal regulatory agencies as part of the upcoming rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will unnecessarily burden homebuyers and significantly impede the economic and housing recovery, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Six agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Housing Finance Agency, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are developing a proposed risk retention regulation under the Dodd-Frank Act that requires lenders that securitize mortgage loans to retain 5 percent of the credit risk unless the mortgage is a qualified residential mortgage (QRM); FHA and VA mortgages would also be exempted. The purpose is to create strong incentives for responsible lending and borrowing.

“As the leading advocate for home ownership NAR supports a reasonable and affordable cash investment requirement coupled with quality credit standards, strong documentation and sound underwriting,” said NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I. “A narrow definition of QRM, with an unnecessarily high down payment requirement, will increase the cost and reduce the availability of mortgage credit, significantly delaying a housing recovery.”

NAR believes that Congress intended to create a broad QRM exemption from the 5 percent risk retention requirement to include a wide variety of traditionally safe, well-underwritten products. Congress chose not to include a high down payment among the criteria it specified in the Dodd-Frank Act to guide the regulators in defining a QRM. Strong evidence shows that responsible lending standards and ensuring a borrower’s ability to repay have the greatest impact on reducing lender risk.

“We need to strike a balance between reducing investor risk and providing affordable mortgage credit. Better underwriting and credit quality standards have greatly reduced risk. Adding unnecessarily high minimum down payment requirements will only exclude hundreds of thousands of buyers from home ownership, despite their creditworthiness and proven ability to afford the monthly payment, because of the dramatic increase in the wealth required to purchase a home,” said Phipps.

The definition of QRM is important because it will determine the types of mortgages that will generally be available to borrowers in the future. Borrowers with less than 20 percent down could be forced to pay higher fees and interest rates, up to 3 percentage points more, for safe loans that otherwise do not meet too narrow QRM criteria.

NAR is concerned that a narrowly defined QRM will also require severe tightening of FHA eligibility requirements and higher FHA premiums to prevent huge increases in its already robust share of the market, adding additional roadblocks to sustainable home ownership.

“Saving the necessary down payment has always been the principal obstacle to buyers seeking to purchase their first home. Proposals requiring high down payments will only drive more borrowers to FHA, increase costs for borrowers by raising interest rates and fees, and effectively price many eligible borrowers out of the housing market,” said Phipps. “We strongly urge the regulators to consider the negative consequences of setting onerous limits on the availability of credit.”

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

via Realtors® Oppose High Down Payment Requirement for Qualified Residential Mortgage Exemption.