Feb 28
Why the Federal Reserve can’t fix housing. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Housing is still one of the biggest drags on U.S. economic growth, but don’t look to the Federal Reserve for help. The central bank may have few tools left to fix it. That’s the basic hypothesis of a paper top economists presented to a …
Feb 27
Rising rental costs may drive home sales up. Home sales could turn out sunnier than expected this spring based on data coming out of the rental market, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Jay Brinkmann, the trade group’s chief economist, said Thursday that apartment owners have raised their rates, in particular large investment …
Feb 24
Insurance To Consider When You’re Single And Starting Out. The right insurance can help keep you and your possessions protected from unexpected events, but when you’re on your own for the first time it can be hard to know what coverage you need and what you don’t. The Insurance Information Institute (III) suggests looking at …
Feb 23
Help Protect Your Home: Clear Your Roof of Snow. Plenty of homeowners in the United States live with the harsh realities of winter. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, residents in Rochester, New York, receive about 8 feet of snow each winter. Homeowners in cities such as Cleveland, Minneapolis and Denver typically can …
Feb 23
Mortgage Bills May Soon Be Simpler to Grasp. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a standardized mortgage statement that sets out to make it easier to understand the information about your loan on one page. The proposed mortgage statement, released last week, includes a breakdown of such items as the amount paid from the …
Feb 22
Property sales up in the US and building sector confidence increases. Residential property sales in the United States edged upwards for the seventh month in a row in January, according to the latest RE/MAX national housing report. It shows that real estate sales are now 3.4% above levels seen a year earlier in the 53 …
Feb 21
Agents: Attracting Business to You Every Time You Leave the House. Most real estate prospecting strategies focus on the pursuit of business, or going out there and actively looking for targets to prospect. Fair enough. But you can also generate a significant amount of business for yourself using attraction-based strategies that don’t require you to …
Feb 20
Housing Affordability Reaches New Records. Housing affordability rose to a record high during the fourth quarter of 2011, which means a home buyer’s purchasing power is greater than it ever has been before, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. The index showed that 75.9 percent of all new and …
Feb 17
Home Builders Are Feeling More Optimistic. Signs are improving in the new-home market and builders are feeling more optimistic about where the real estate market is heading, after coming off last year’s worst year on record for new home construction. For the fifth consecutive month, builders confidence in the single-family home market increased in …
Feb 14
Could the Mortgage Deal Lead to a Jump in Foreclosures? A $25 billion mortgage settlement announced between major banks and state and government officials is supposed to bring aid to troubled home owners, but it could also bring a wave of new foreclosures, CNN Money reports. During the yearlong negotiations, some banks slowed down repossessing …
Feb 13
30-Year Mortgage Rates Hold at Record Lows. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.87 percent this week, matching last week’s all-time record low. As for other rates, they ticked up slightly this week, but still hovered around record lows compared to historical standards, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. “A strong January employment …
Feb 10
States Negotiate $26 Billion Agreement for Homeowners After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It …
