Jack Guttentag wrote a good article in the Washington Post over the weekend designed to help homeowners who are having trouble making their payments. Unfortunately there is not much a person can do as far as refinancing goes but based on Guttentag’s advice these homeowners may be able to convince their lender to reduce their principal […]
As I’ve written about multiple times in this blog the 700-page 2008 housing bill has many differnet provisions embedded in the law. Although I don’t do a lot of reverse mortgage business I wanted to at least provide a link to an article which summarizes how these loan products were impacted by the 2008 housing […]
History In 1934, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was formed as a part of the National Housing Act. The objective of the FHA was to increase home construction, reduce unemployment, and operate various loan insurance programs. (It’s important to note here that the FHA DOES NOT directly lend money for FHA loans. They only provide […]
Rates are lower this morning. As we had suspected, weakness in the stock market yesterday helped mortgage-backed bonds rally which is why mortgage rates are improved this morning. However, this improvement may be short lived. We see two major themes working against mortgage rates today. First, the stock market is back at it. The Dow […]
Rates are modestly higher this morning following. After four straight days of sell-off in the mortgage-backed bond market, which has caused mortgage rates to rise by approximately .25%, we may begin to see a reversal. Potentially helping rates is a weaker stock market (to understand dynamic between stocks and mortgage rates click here). The Dow […]
I came across this article in the WSJ today and was surprised to see it. Embedded in the 700-page housing bill that President Bush signed into law was a change to the way the IRS will allow homeowners to exclude capital gains tax for the sale of a primary residence. Under the previous rules a […]
As you’ve probably heard by now the Fed did elect to leave short-term rates unchanged in their policy announcement yesterday. If you watched yesterday’s you tube video you know that in and of itself their decision to leave rates unchanged has not directly impacted mortgage rates. Instead, their post policy statement is what can drive […]
Last week President Bush signed the new housing bill into law. One of the provisions which was included in this bill to help the ailing housing industry is a tax credit for first time home-buyers. I wanted to take a quick moment to highlight the details for those of you who will qualify for this […]
When it reains it pours……according to this article on yahoo.com Fannie Mae will be increasing it’s “adverse market” delivery fee from loan originators. What does this mean to consumers today?…..higher costs for loans. The adjusted fee will impact ALL mortgage lenders and be built into the points and/ or fee structure that gets proposed to […]
As expected the Fed announced that they’d keep the Fed Funds Rate unchanged @ 2.00%. Here is a link to the NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/business/economy/06fed.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Fed Funds Rate In their post-policy announcement statement they seemed to back away from concerns about inflation. Their comments may help ease inflationary concerns in the financial markets which would […]