Arizona Mortgage

Mortgage Rates Higher On April’s 539,000 Jobs Lost

May 8, 2009

The economy shed 539,000 jobs in April , raising the 6-month total to nearly 4 million jobs lost. And while the April data may look bad, it’s actually 10% better than what was expected.

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Your Local Gas Station May Have Clues About Tomorrow’s Mortgage Rates

May 7, 2009

The retail price of gasoline is rising nationwide, now up 30 percent since the New Year . It’s a similar run-up to what we’ve seen for retail gas prices in each of the last 5 Spring Seasons.

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The Decline In Home Values Slowed In February, Says Case-Shiller. Probably in March and April, Too.

May 4, 2009

The Case-Shiller Index is a popular reporting tool for the nation’s home prices. Each month, researchers measure home values in 20 large cities, compile their findings, and then publish them to the public.

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A Few Reasons Why Now May Be The Least Expensive And Easiest Time To “Go FHA”

April 18, 2009

Shopping for low mortgage rates is a game of luck.

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The 3 States That Accounted For 50% Of The March 2009 Foreclosures

April 17, 2009

Since 2007, foreclosures have dominated real estate news. You can’t turn on the news or open a paper without some foreclosure-related story. But for all of the discussion, foreclosures continue to be geographically concentrated.

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Current Mortgage Rates and the Week Ahead: April 13, 2009

April 13, 2009

For the second week in a row, mortgage markets started the week strong and then ended with a fizzle. In the holiday-shortened week, rates were exactly flat overall. There wasn’t much economic data to move rates last week, incidentally.

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Current Mortgage Rates for the week of April 6 2009

April 6, 2009

Mortgage markets were up-and-down last week as rates fell Monday and Tuesday before surging higher from Wednesday through Friday. In some case, after touching all-time lows, conforming mortgage rates added a half-percent in the second half of the week, ruining some homeowners’ chance to refinance

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By The Time You Read About Low Mortgage Rates, It Was Already Too Late To Get Them

April 3, 2009

Thursday morning, homeowners in different parts of the country awoke to find similar-sounding newspaper headlines: Rates on 30-year mortgages sink to 4.78%, a new low ( LA Times ) Mortgage rates at record low for 2nd week ( Miami Herald ) Mortgages hit another record low ( San Francisco ) The underlying story was that Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the lowest, average 30-year fixed rate mortgage in its 38-year, rate-tracking history. Once again, however, the headlines came too late for homeowners.

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Are Home Values Rising Or Falling? The Answer Depends On Who You Ask.

April 2, 2009

A report published Tuesday showed that home values fell nearly 3 percent in January 2009 versus the month prior and by 19 percent from last year. On the surface, data from the study looks like more bad news for housing

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8 Things You Absolutely Shouldn’t Do Now That Your Mortgage Application Is In-Process

March 31, 2009

With mortgage rates are hovering near all-time lows, lots of Americans are taking advantage of refinance and home buying opportunities. The downside of today’s unexpectedly-low rates, though, is that mortgage lenders are ill-equipped for the rush of new business. As a result, the process of underwriting and approving new mortgage applications is taking some conforming lenders as long as 2 months to complete

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New Home Sales Figures Show Unexpected Improvement

March 26, 2009

The national housing market got its third piece of good news in 3 days: Monday: Existing Home Sales up Tuesday: Home values appear higher nationally Wednesday: New Home Sales up And although national real estate statistics are irrelevant to the local markets in which real estate transactions happen, to a country of would-be and wanna-be home buyers, repeated positive news on housing can be a strong signal that it’s time to get off the sidelines. At least, that’s what the data is showing us. According to an industry trade group, first-time home buyers accounted for half of all sales of previously-owned homes.

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Watch Out For Mortgage Rates When Gas Prices Rise

March 25, 2009

Don’t look now but oil prices are climbing. This should worry today’s home buyers and would-be refinancers because some of the same forces that helped to push crude past $50 for the first time in 4 months also cause mortgage rates to rise

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Monthly Home Sales Rise 230,000 In February 2009

March 24, 2009

Each month, the National Association of REALTORS ® releases a study called the Existing Home Sales report. It’s a detailed look at “used” home sale data from all four regions of the country

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What To Do When Mortgage Rates Plummet

March 20, 2009

For the fifth time in a year, rate shoppers learned an important lesson this week: When mortgage rates plummet unexpectedly, they often recover just as fast. Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s newest $750 billion mortgage market pledge helped to push conforming mortgage rates near their lowest levels since WWII. 24 hours later, however, those rates were expired.

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The Federal Reserve Is Meeting And What It Means To Your Mortgage Rate

March 17, 2009

The Federal Open Market Committee begins a scheduled, 2-day meeting today to discuss the country’s monetary policy. As is custom, the group will issue a press release to the markets upon adjournment.

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Current Mortgage Rates Rise Due to Market Optimism

March 16, 2009

Mortgage markets lost a little bit of ground last week, edging mortgage rates higher in a week marked by the largest stock market gains since November. Once again, mortgage rates couldn’t sustain a rally of more than 5 days. Not since late-2008 have mortgage rates managed to fall two weeks in a row.

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Simple Real Estate Definitions : FICO

March 11, 2009

The basis of most mortgage lending is credit scoring. In general, the higher a person’s credit score, the lower his offered mortgage interest rate

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The Half-Truth Of The Headline “1 In 8 U.S. Homes Are Late Paying Or In Foreclosure”

March 10, 2009

USA Today ran this 2008 Foreclosures By State heatmap last week, reminding us of a simple truth: Headline statistics can be misleading. According to data compiled by RealtyTrac, 1 in 8 U.S. homes were in various stages of default or delinquency at the end of 2008

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From The IRS : The First-Time Homebuyer Credit Form

March 4, 2009

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the IRS has officially released Form 5405 — better known as the First-Time Homebuyer Credit Form. True to tax code standards, the 10-field form is accompanied by 3 pages of instructions. Form 5405 is a helpful, go-to resource for home buyers with questions about the tax credit.

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Can You Guess What Percentage Of Mortgages Are Still Paid On-Time?

March 3, 2009

Mortgage delinquencies are on the rise nationwide, but the news may not be as bad as it appears at first glance. Using anonymous data from its national credit database, TransUnion reports that 4.58 percent of American homeowners were at least 60 days past due on mortgage payments last quarter

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