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 [...]

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 [...]

It’s no wonder that builder confidence is soaring — their inventory of homes for sale is depleting at a furious pace. For the 4th straight month, New Home Sales gained, posting the best numbers since last September’s meltdown and handily beating economist expectations. The available supply of homes is down to 7.5 months nationwide. It’s [...]

18 of 20 markets tracked by the Case-Shiller Index showed rising home values in June. It’s the 5th consecutive month with strong numbers and the best showing for the benchmark housing index since home values began deflating in 2006. Some would argue it’s a sign that housing has finally bottomed out. Even Case-Shiller representatives acknowledge [...]

The housing market continues to surprise. Last week, the latest good news came in the form of the monthly Existing Home Sales report. An “existing home” is a home sold by an existing owner as opposed to a developer. It’s non-new construction property. The data on Existing Home Sales was noteworthy for its trends: Sales [...]

Mortgage markets finished the week unchanged last week but don’t let that make you think the markets were flat. It was a bumpy five days and rates were volatile. Friday was the worst day of the week by far. An all-day deterioration, sparked by better-than-expected housing data, caused mortgage rates to tack on a quarter-percent [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Single-family Housing Starts rose for the 4th straight month in July, another sign that the battered housing market may be making its comeback. “Housing starts” are new homes on which construction has recently started. Not surprising, in a related story, homebuilder confidence moved to a 12-month high. Ironically, an increase in newly-built homes could actually [...]

It looks like banks are less scared of mortgage loans these days. In its quarterly survey to member banks, the Federal Reserve asked senior bank loan officers whether “prime” residential mortgage guidelines had tightened in the last 3 months. Just one-fifth of banks said guidelines tightened last quarter, a dramatically lower figure versus last quarter [...]