home buyers

What’s Good For Home Sellers Is Bad For Home Buyers : Builders Are Dialing It Back

September 18, 2008

In August, home builders broke ground on the fewest number of homes since January 1991. It was the 16th straight month in which Housing Starts declined. But, although the press labels these statistics indicative of a recession, home sellers nationwide quietly applaud them. With fewer new homes coming on the market, home sellers are finding that there’s […]

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The Strength In New Home Sales Shows That Banks And Builders Have Figured Out The Market

September 17, 2008

Despite turmoil on Wall Street, the housing sector continues to deliver good news. Last month, led by a 22 percent surge from the West Region, New Home Sales rose 2.7 percent over August. A “new home” is a newly-built residence, never before lived in. New homes are usually built and sold by real estate development […]

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The 2 Groups Of People That Benefited From Wall Street’s 6th Largest Point Loss Ever

September 16, 2008

Yesterday, the stock market suffered its largest one-day point loss since September 17, 2001, and its sixth-largest point loss in history. Not everyone got punished, however.  Two groups of people, in particular, welcomed yesterday’s losses: Home buyers out shopping for a mortgage Homeowners that snoozed through last week’s mortgage rate drop See, as the stock […]

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Mortgage Rates Fall As The Unemployment Rate Rises

September 5, 2008

On the first Friday of every month, the government releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report. More commonly called the “jobs report”, the two-page analysis examines the nooks and crannies of the U.S. economy to see which industries are hiring and which are firing. The August jobs report was released this morning and it shows that the […]

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See How Mortgage Rates Are Trending With Oil Prices

September 3, 2008

Mortgage rates are hugely important to household budgets. Lower mortgage rates free up household cash for spending and long- and short-term saving. Higher mortgage rates, of course, do the opposite. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to predict the future of mortgage rates with any bit of certainty.  This is because there are countless influences on mortgage markets, […]

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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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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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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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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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Why Are Home Buyers Coming Back To The Market Now? There’s Suddenly Good Value In Real Estate.

July 25, 2008

Statistics won’t always tell the whole story, but they often provide good perspective. The graph at right shows Existing Home Sales data going back three years.  An “existing home” is one that can’t be called new construction; a “used home”, so to speak. Note the steep decline from 2005 through late-2007. Since November, however, Existing […]

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How Hurricanes Change Home Affordability

July 23, 2008

After falling 7 cents per gallon over the last 7 days, gas prices are being pressured higher today as Hurricane Dolly barrels through the Gulf of Mexico. The first landfall hurricane of the season is expected to flood the southern Texas coast and cause minor disruptions to the nation’s oil supplies. Versus Hurricane Katrina in […]

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Mortgage Rates Spike On Highest Cost Of Living Index Since 1991

July 17, 2008

Another day, another piece of inflationary data. June’s Consumer Price Index showed a 5 percent year-over-year increase in what is now the largest annual Cost of Living increase for Americans in 17 years. This is bad news for both home buyers and homeowners in want of a new mortgage because rising costs are inflationary and […]

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Fannie And Freddie Are Yesterday’s News, Says The Market

July 15, 2008

Mortgage markets have turned their attention back to the U.S. economy this morning, causing yesterday’s rate improvements to unwind a bit. Rates had fallen Monday after the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury’s joint announcement in support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Today, it’s the data that is taking center stage. Most notably, the U.S. […]

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Foreclosure Rates Are Falling (Despite What You See In The Headlines)

July 10, 2008

According to RealtyTrac, the rate of foreclosures across the U.S. is slowing.  Versus May, June foreclosures fell at a 3 percent clip. 25 states showed improvement month-over-month, led by many of the same areas that had fueled foreclosure activity in 2007. A sampling of RealtyTrac’s data includes: California : Foreclosures down 4.54 percent Georgia : […]

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Why July May Be The Best Time To Write A Purchase Contract In 2008

July 8, 2008

It’s a terrific time to buy a home, but not because homes happen to be affordable. It’s a terrific time to buy because the variety of mortgage products available to home buyers looks poised to shrink. Monday, Alt-A mortgage lender IndyMac Bank stopped accepting mortgage applications and it’s likely that other Alt-A lenders will likely […]

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