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 [...]

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. [...]

Move to Plymouth, Minnesota, says Money Magazine in its 2008 100 Best Places To Live survey. According to the report, the Twin Cities satellite has all of the makings of a desirable home town: Affordable homes Excellent schools Low crime Lots of jobs Abundant “outdoor life” The top 5 cities as listed by Money Magazine [...]

On the wave of a two-day rally, mortgage rates improved last week overall. This despite a Friday reversal that had caused rates to tick higher just before weekend house-hunting began. And, like so many other weeks this year, last week’s mortgage market activity was defined by its quick-moving interest rates. At least one major mortgage [...]

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 [...]

Sometimes, the hardest part about news is knowing where to find it. In its filing with the SEC last week, Freddie Mac stated that it will “pursue increases” to its middleman fee. This would likely make mortgages more expensive for every conforming borrower in the country. The exact verbiage from the filing is extremely opaque [...]

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 [...]

The phrase “Consumer Price Index” can be intimidating and unclear to Americans. It’s an economic term, after all, and not a part of everyday American language. It even has its own abbreviation to add to the confusion — CPI. So, when a layperson hears that “CPI is rising”, it’s not always clear what it means. [...]

Mortgage rates soared last week as mortgage markets experienced a 4-day freefall. By the end of the trading week, conforming mortgage rates had jumped by as much as 0.500 percent. The spike in rates can’t be pinned on any one factor, but 3 contributing factors include: The lingering impact of high energy prices on inflation [...]

For the first time in its history, the FHA changed its funding fees and mortgage insurance structure this week. FHA-insured home loans are now subject to a risk-based pricing adjustment, as shown by the table above. Because of risk-based pricing, FHA home loans are now more expensive for borrowers with less-than-ideal credit profiles, and less [...]