Oct 17
Useful Tips for Clients with Nosy Friends Clients who recently purchased a new home might find themselves in an awkward place when an inquiring mind – a friend, neighbor, colleague, or relative – questions them about the price of their home. Time Inc’s Money magazine has some helpful tips for people who don’t feel …
Oct 16
Lower Mortgage Rates Revive Refinancing Housing Boom As interest rates tumble, home owners are rushing to take advantage of the lowest rates of the year. Overall, mortgage applications rose 5.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending Oct. 10, led by an 11 percent week-to-week surge in refinance applications, the Mortgage Bankers …
Oct 15
Major Incentives for Home Buyers This Fall. Home builders are throwing in some extras to lure home buyers back this fall. For example, 10 home builders in a new suburban Phoenix community called Bridges at Gilbert are offering swimming pools, built-in barbecues, and subsidized mortgages. Joseph Beben, a home buyer in the Phoenix area, says …
Oct 14
Low Rates Aren’t Enough for Buyers\ Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and housing forecaster Robert Shiller said earlier this year that they expected low rates to serve as a stimulus to home buying this year. Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.12 percent for the week ending Oct. 9, near the lowest …
Oct 13
30-Year Mortgage Falls Back to Yearly Lows Borrowing costs were down once again this week, giving home buyers another opportunity to lock in some of the lowest rates of the year. Freddie Mac reported the following national mortgage rate averages for the week ending Oct. 9: 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 4.12 percent, with an average …
Oct 10
Home Owners are Tapping Into Equity, Again Home equity lines of credit surged nearly 20 percent compared to a year ago and are now at the highest level since the 12 months ending in June 2009, according to RealtyTrac’s Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) Trends Report. HELOC origination’s comprised 15.4 percent of all loan …
Oct 09
Why the West Coast is Key to Every Market For a glimpse of where the overall housing market may be heading, look west, according to report from Clear Capital. After all, the West boasts some of the largest metro markets in the nation. When its housing markets boomed a few years ago, other markets across …
Oct 08
Where Mansions Are Half the Price Some home buyers looking for a discount are eying the historic stock in their area, finding they may possibly be able to fetch a bargain on a historic mansion, The Wall Street Journal reports. In many old industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast, real estate professionals are reporting …
Oct 07
Could This Mortgage Product Change Lending? Two mortgage executives are hoping to overhaul the 15-year mortgage, making it more readily available to low and moderate-income people. They say the changes will help borrowers build equity at a much faster pace than they would with a standard loan. Edward Pinto, a resident fellow at the …
Oct 06
Luxury Buyers Are Spending Mega Bucks in These Markets The high-end residential real estate market remains strong point and plays a big role in the housing recovery. Nearly half – 48 percent – of all wealthy consumers recently reported that they plan to purchase a luxury home within the next 12 months, according to a …
Oct 03
Banks Accused of Falsely Reporting Foreclosures, Bankruptcies A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit by borrowers who claim that their banks wrongfully notified credit reporting agencies that thousands of home owners had gone through bankruptcies or foreclosures. The judge said that Wells Fargo and Citigroup will have to face accusations in court …
Oct 02
A Mistake Home Owners May Regret An analysis of 1 million fixed-rate mortgages in the United States shows that millions of Americans failed to refinance when mortgage rates were at historical lows, which could have amounted to savings for the median home owner of more than $45,000 in payments over the life of their loan. …
