Archive for August, 2009
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : August 31, 2009
Mortgage markets were flat last week overall, although mortgage rates were somewhat volatile from day-to-day.
For rate shoppers, the best pricing was available Monday morning and Friday afternoon — everything in between was slightly elevated.
It’s the second consecutive week in which rates finished unchanged.
There was a string of good news last week about the economy, [...]
The New Conforming Mortgage Guidelines, Effective September 1, 2009
As a reminder, Fannie Mae is rolling out new lending guidelines Tuesday, September 1, 2009.
Starting next week, being approved for a home loan could be much more difficult.
The new rules mark the first major underwriting update since April of this year. The changes are mostly geared at fraud prevention.
Among the updates:
Stock options are no longer [...]
Read More..>>To Use The $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Program, There’s Now Just 6 Weeks To Find A Home
If you plan to use the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit program, time is running out. The program expires November 30, 2009 and closing on a home can take up to 60 days.
That leaves you 6 weeks from today to find a home and go under contract.
The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit program was passed as [...]
How To Keep Burglars From Knowing You’re On Vacation
There’s some common sense ways to protect your home from burglary — keep the doors locked, the windows shut, and the alarm system on, for example.
But drawing from a series of interviews with ex-convicts, NBC’s The Today Show reveals there are ways by which a vacationing homeowner can unwittingly make his home a theft [...]
Closing On Or Near Labor Day? Plan Ahead.
As the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day weekend is popular vacation time for American families.
And this year, with home sales on the rise and mortgage rates relatively low, early-September figures to be a popular closing date, too.
These points may appear unrelated, but there is an important connection between them.
Like workers in every other [...]
Foreclosures Continue To Concentrate Across Just 3 States
Foreclosure-tracker RealtyTrac reports that the number of foreclosures nationwide rose 7 percent on a month-to-month basis last month.
However, 3 states dominated the foreclosure list, tallying more foreclosures between them than the rest of the country combined.
California : 30.0 percent
Florida : 15.7 percent
Arizona : 5.4 percent
On a per-household basis, the states ranked 2, 3 and 4. Only [...]
Why Now’s A Good Time To Consider An Adjustable Rate Mortgage
At least one thing is back to normal in the mortgage markets — it’s no longer cheaper to go with a fixed rate mortgage than an ARM.
As reported by Freddie Mac, a conforming 5-year ARM is priced a half-percent lower than a comparable 30-year fixed.
Earlier this year, the pricing was reversed.
It’s uncommon for fixed rate [...]
