Archive for March, 2009
8 Things You Absolutely Shouldn’t Do Now That Your Mortgage Application Is In-Process
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 [...]
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : March 30, 2009
The stock markets made strong gains last week but the mortgage markets barely moved in the wake of the Treasury’s “toxic asset” plan.
After carving out wide trading ranges on most days, mortgage pricing ended the week slightly worse overall.
From an economic standpoint, though, last week was an interesting one.
Existing home sales showed unexpected strength
New [...]
FHA Cash Out Refinances Getting More Strict As Of April 1, 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 [...]
Monthly Home Sales Rise 230,000 In February 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.
Among the key findings of each Existing Home Sales report is something called the “median sales price”, the statistical price point at which half of the [...]
What To Do When Mortgage Rates Plummet
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.
After [...]
Explaining What The Federal Reserve Did In Plain English (March 18, 2009 Edition)
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.
On plan to resurrect the economy using “all available tools”, today, the Fed announced a new, $1.5 trillion round of fiscal support for the treasury and mortgage [...]
4 Minutes Of Guidance For Soon-To-Be Real Estate Investors
“Most of the biggest real estate fortunes were not made in good times, but in bad times like this” Barbara Corcoran reminds us in this talk with NBC.
It’s important perspective for Americans wondering how to invest in foreclosed properties without losing their cash or their credit rating.
In the 4-minute interview, Corcoran quips on the [...]
Mark-To-Market : How An Obscure Corporate Accounting Rule Might Impact Your Mortgage Rate
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 [...]
The Half-Truth Of The Headline “1 In 8 U.S. Homes Are Late Paying Or In Foreclosure”
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. This is a fact and it was widely reported by the press. [...]
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : 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.
For only second time this year, mortgage rates ended the week lower than where they opened.
Some of the bigger stories that caused mortgage rates [...]
