Tweet Want bigger tax deductions for 2011? Consider making your upcoming January 2012 mortgage payment a few days early. Work U.S. Tax Code To Your Benefit It’s late-December and you’ve likely received your lender’s January mortgage statement. Study it, and you’ll notice that the payment is broken into as many as 4 parts : Principal [...]
Tweet Buying new construction? Get moving. Emerging data hints at higher home prices in 2012. Click here for a free mortgage rate quote. Single-Family Housing Starts Keep Climbing The U.S. Census Bureau publishes a monthly Housing Starts report in which it tallies the number of new homes on which ground has been broken. The Housing [...]
Tweet Freddie Mac says that mortgage rates fell to a new all-time low this week. A deeper look at the report tells a different story, though, highlighting the need to be careful about what you read, and how you read it. Click here for today’s mortgage rates. Discount Points : Mucking Up The Survey Each [...]
Tweet Nearly 3 years ago, Fannie Mae rolled back a mortgage rule that prevented real estate investors from financing more than 4 properties at once. At the time, investors were limited to 4 properties financed, which included their primary residence. Today, according to standard mortgage guidelines, the maximum number of allowable, simultaneously financed properties is [...]
Tweet Looking at trends in mortgage rate, this week may be your last chance to lock in low rates. Click here to get a mortgage rate. Mortgage Rates Have Failed To Break Below 4% Each week, government mortgage-backer Freddie Mac issues its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, a recap of mortgage rates as issued at than [...]
Tweet Maybe low rates matter after all. After months of near-4 percent mortgage rates, a bevy of housing data all points to the same conclusion — the housing market recovery is underway. Click here to get a rate quote. Pending Home Sales Index : +10% In October After 3 months of slow, steady fade, the [...]
Tweet Editor’s note : This is a consumer mortgage blog but many of my subscribers are “industry” types. Forgive the indulgence. It’s a Saturday and I’d like to acknowledge a milestone. Bring The Blog : 5 Years Old 5 years ago, I founded Bring the Blog, a blogging service for real estate and mortgage professionals. [...]
Tweet Want to stretch your home-buying dollar? It’s simple. Buy while mortgage rates are low. Home Affordability Remains Near All-Time Highs There’a a reason they say “now’s a great time to buy a home”. 73 percent of homes sold last quarter were considered “affordable” to U.S. families earning the national median income of $ 64,200 and, for households [...]
Tweet The new construction market continues to heat up. For luxury homes and otherwise, builders are prepped for a strong 2012. Housing Starts Rise To 3-Month High; Builders Optimistic According to the Census Bureau, Single-Family Housing Starts rose to a seasonally-adjusted, annualized 430,000 units in October — a 4 percent increase from September and the highest [...]
Tweet After months of state law-induced slowdowns, foreclosure activity is on the rise. The foreclosure market looks ripe for this season’s home buyers. Click here to get a rate quote. Foreclosures Up 7% In October According to foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac, October’s foreclosure filings rose 7 percent to 231,000 filings nationwide. A “foreclosure filing” is a catch-all [...]
