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According To The Data, Housing May Have Already Touched Its Bottom

August 27, 2008

According to the June 2008 Case-Shiller Home Price Index, home prices in 15 of the 20 largest U.S. real estate markets either improved, or showed growth from the month prior. This is the fourth straight month in which that happened which means that a national housing recovery may already be underway. Now, it’s worth stating […]

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Converting Your Primary Residence To An Investment Property? You May Not Qualify For Your Next Mortgage.

August 26, 2008

When a homeowner buys a new home, he has 3 options of what to do with his current residence: Sell the home, paying off the mortgage in full Keep the home as a second/vacation home Convert the home to an investment property The most common action plan is the first one — sell the home and pay […]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : August 25, 2008

August 25, 2008

Momentum carried mortgage markets through a week of low trading volume and few economic releases.  Rates were volatile, but ended the week unchanged overall. Don’t let the word “unchanged” fool you, however. From day-to-day last week, mortgage rates covered a huge range and it was only coincidence that Friday ended where Monday began. And it’s the second […]

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The Worst Places To Find Local Real Estate Information

August 22, 2008

Stories on TV about the national real estate market are misleading to Americans. This is because there is no such thing as a “national real estate market”. Consider the latest American Housing Survey.  It found that there are 124,377,000 homes in America spread across: 50 states, with More than 30,000 incorporated cities, and with An […]

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Mortgage Insurance Rates Skyrocket (For Homeowners That Still Qualify)

August 21, 2008

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is an insurance policy paid to a lender in the event that a homeowner defaults on his home loan. With the growing number of mortgage defaults nationwide, mortgage insurers are finding their balance sheets under attack and their revenues in the red. So far this year, mortgage insurers have paid out $6 […]

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The Mortgage Market’s Abnormal Reaction To July’s Producer Price Index Reading

August 20, 2008

The Producer Price Index is a business inflation meter and it’s now up 9.8 percent annually. This is a huge number for PPI and represents the highest year-over-year rate of inflation since 1981. Normally, blowout inflation like this would be terrible for mortgage rates but mortgage markets are actually improved since Tuesday’s data release. Usually, a rocketing PPI would […]

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Good News For Homeowners : Housing Starts Tumble In July

August 19, 2008

Housing Starts measure the number of new housing “units” on which construction has started and in July, Housing Starts fell to its lowest levels since March 1991. For homeowners, this is a welcome bit of good news because as fewer homes are built, there is less inventory from which home buyers can choose. With fewer homes […]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : August 18, 2008

August 18, 2008

Mortgage rates overcame a terrible Monday last week, climbing back to unchanged by Friday.  And like most weeks this year, rates were volatile. Most interesting about last week, though, was that there was a ton of news that should have dragged mortgage rates down, but it didn’t seem to happen. A popular inflation measure reached […]

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The Median Home Sales Price Fell Nationally, But “National” Data Is Irrelevant

August 15, 2008

Each month, the National Association of Realtors® releases a study called the Existing Home Sales report.  It’s a detailed look at “used” home sales data from all four regions of the country. One of the key findings in each Existing Home Sales report is something called the “median sales price”, the statistical price point at which half […]

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How Russia Invading Georgia Can Change Your Mortgage Rates

August 14, 2008

The connection between the world’s political events and mortgage rates here at home is not always clear, but Russia’s invasion of Georgia provides a strong working lesson. Georgia is a former Soviet republic on the eastern shores of the Black Sea.  Oil pipelines within its territory supply about 1 percent of the world’s daily oil […]

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n Pictures : Mortgage Guidelines Get Tough For All Borrower Types — Quickly

August 13, 2008

It’s not your imagination — getting approved for a home loan is becoming increasingly more difficult. Taken from the Federal Reserve’s quarterly survey of 84 banks, it illustrates the changing dynamic of mortgage guidelines. Most notable is the steep curve for “prime” mortgages, a type of home loan given to applicants exhibiting: A well-documented credit […]

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How To Make Sense Of The Pending Home Sales Index

August 12, 2008

When home sellers accepts a contract on MLS-listed property, the property’s official status changes from “Active” to “Pending”. By measuring the number of “Pending” homes nationwide, the National Association of Realtors® publishes its once-monthly Pending Homes Sales Index. The real estate industry group positions the report as a predictor of future home sales activity, stating that […]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : August 11, 2008

August 11, 2008

In a week packed with mortgage news and economic data, mortgage rates swung hard in both directions last week before settling into the weekend slightly higher across the board. Adjustable-rate mortgages worsened more than their fixed-rate counterparts and both broke a two-week streak in which mortgage rates had improved. But, if we look at all of the […]

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Fannie Mae Increases Its Mandatory Loan Fees For All Borrowers

August 7, 2008

Fannie Mae announced a new risk-based pricing model and additional mortgage delivery fees this week, adding to the cost of buying or refinancing a home. Risk-based pricing was first introduced by Fannie Mae this past April. It added new, mandatory loan fees for high-risk borrowers while rewarding a small group of low-risk borrowers with fee […]

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Why It May Be Prudent To Lock Your Mortgage Rate Before 2:15 P.M. ET Today

August 5, 2008

The Federal Open Market Committee meets today and is widely expected to hold the Federal Funds Rate at 2.000 percent. This does not mean that mortgage rates will stay flat, too, however. The Fed Funds Rate is a different type of interest rate from the ones charged to American homeowners for their mortgages. The Fed […]

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Making English Out Of Fed-Speak (August 2008 Edition)

August 5, 2008

For the second consecutive meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee left the Fed Funds Rate unchanged at 2.000 percent. In its press release, the Federal Reserve addresses inflation, saying that it “has been high”, fingering energy and commodity costs as culprits.  The Fed does expects inflation to moderate later this year, however. Regarding recession, the Fed […]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : August 4, 2008

August 4, 2008

In a week in which stock markets moved 1 percent or more on four separate days, mortgage markets displayed a relative calmness that helped pull rates lower. It was the second consecutive week that mortgage rates improved. Last week’s biggest story came Monday when the housing bill was passed into law.  The new law provides lifelines […]

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Changing Mortgage Guidelines Impact Buyers Of Second Homes And Investment Properties

August 1, 2008

Conforming mortgage guidelines are the Home Loan Rule Book, delineating between applicants that approved for a mortgage and those that do not. Effective today, the rule book just got a little bit tougher. According to Fannie Mae, homeowners converting their primary residence into a second home or investment property will be subject to additional underwriting […]

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The New Housing Bill’s Hidden Tax Trap

July 31, 2008

Monday, President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 into law and the press jumped on the obvious storylines: First-time home buyers get a $7,500 purchase “credit” Conforming loan limits move to $625,000 Delinquent homeowners get a lifeline from the FHA Local governments get federal money for buying and restoring foreclosed homes […]

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How Falling Gas Prices May Increase Your Home Purchasing Power

July 30, 2008

Falling gas prices is doing more than saving Americans money at the pump — it’s also helping to pressure mortgage rates lower. Mortgage rates had spiked between mid-June and mid-July, mostly because economists identified inflationary signals in the U.S. economy. The largest signal, of course, was the ever-rising cost to fill a car with gasoline.  […]

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