mortgage rates

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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April 15 Is 1 Week Away And 27 Million Taxpayers Have Yet To File. If You’re One Of Them, Here’s Some Tax Tips.

April 8, 2009

There are 138 million taxpayers in the United States and, according to the IRS, 20 percent of them file their taxes within 7 days of April 15. In a holiday-shortened week, that means that 27 million people had better get a move on

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How To Know If You’re Eligible For A Making Home Affordable Refinance

April 7, 2009

April 4, 2009, marked the official start of the Making Home Affordable refinance program. Expected to help 5 million homeowners, the Making Home Affordable program “looks the other way” with respect to falling home values, approving mortgage applications based on borrower payment history and benefit to the homeowner.

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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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FHA Cash Out Refinances Getting More Strict As Of April 1, 2009

March 30, 2009

If you’re in want of a cash out refinance, the most liberal cash-out program in town is about to make qualification more difficult. Effective April 1, 2009, the FHA is reducing the maximum loan-to-value on cash-out refinances by 10 percent, dropping the loan size limit from 95% of the home’s value to 85%. In its official press release , the FHA days it’s making the change to “limit its exposure to undue risk”.

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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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Current Mortgage Rates Lower on Positive Economic News

March 23, 2009

Mortgage markets scored big gains last week, sparked by the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy $750 billion more mortgage-backed bonds in 2009. Conforming mortgage rates fell on the week, overall

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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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Mortgage Rates Plummet on New Round of Mortgage Bond Purchases from Fed

March 18, 2009

The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged today, within the target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. This doesn’t mean the Fed stood pat, however.

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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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Mark-To-Market : How An Obscure Corporate Accounting Rule Might Impact Your Mortgage Rate

March 12, 2009

You know you’re in the middle of an economic crisis when an accounting issue become Front Page News, and that’s exactly where we’re at today. Mark-to-market accounting is having its day in the sun and people in need of mortgage sometime soon would do well to pay attention. If you’ve never heard of mark-to-market accounting, don’t worry.

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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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What High Unemployment Numbers Mean to your Mortgage Rates

March 9, 2009

Mortgage markets improved last week with investors’ renewed aversion to risk. To the benefit of home buyers, as major stock indices touch 12-year lows , investors are moving investible cash to the bond market.

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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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