The Federal Housing Administration will take a taxpayer subsidy for the first time in its 79-year history after efforts to improve its bottom line failed to offset losses on loans backed during the housing bubble, according to three people familiar with the matter. The government mortgage insurer will draw the money from the U.S. Treasury…
Something very unusual happened with mortgage interest rates this month. The interest rate on jumbo mortgages actually fell below the interest rate of the conventional 30-year fixed-rate loan. Mortgage experts were quick to point out that this latest quirk of the housing recovery had never happened before. Conventional mortgages are 15-year and 30-year fixed-rate mortgages…
Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages declined this week amid signs the economic recovery is slowing. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.50 percent from 4.57 percent last week. The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage dipped to 3.54 percent from 3.59 percent last week.…
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index was released this morning, showing that home prices rose 2.4% for the month of May. This nearly matched the previous monthly gain of 2.6%, which is the highest on record. On a year-over-year basis, home prices rose 12.2%. These are the best year-over-year gains we have seen since March 2006.…
Demand for existing homes continued to rise over the previous thirty days according to the National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick while home values rebounded after three weeks of declines. There were 269,817 properties sold over the previous thirty-day rolling period ending September 12th, up 0.9 percent from the previous week’s total of 267,316…
WASHINGTON — Sales of existing houses climbed 1.7 percent in August to a six-and-a-half-year high, and factories grew busier in the mid-Atlantic region this month, providing signs that rising borrowing costs are weighing only modestly on the economy. The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday that existing houses were selling at an annual rate…
Borrowers Who Are Thinking About Refinancing Their Homes Through HARP 2.0 Should Familiarize Themselves With HARP 2.0 Refinance Guidelines To Be Able To Secure An Affordable Loan Plan. Homeowners have a tough choice when an additional responsibility crops up with the mortgage responsibility. Responsible borrowers prefer being regular with a mortgage. This can lead to…
FHA streamline refinance loans have been made available to borrowers for a long time now. FHA is a government agency, created as part of the National Housing Act. Earlier, this agency was involved with insuring loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying. With FHA streamline refinance borrowers can…
Struggling with high debt balances can be daunting – especially if there are numerous different loans that are involved. Auto loans, a home mortgage, and student loan balances may be just some of the creditors that you are liable to pay each month. But there could be a solution in the form of a debt…
Mortgage applications increased 1.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 30, 2013. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 1.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted…
Increases both in total sales and average prices helped make the August real estate market a strong one across Northern Virginia – and prospective purchasers finally have a reasonable amount of inventory to choose from. The total sales volume of $1.09 billion last month represented an increase of 14.6 percent from the $955 million recorded…
Get ready for some major renovations in the federal reverse mortgage program. On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate joined the House in passing legislation giving the Federal Housing Administration authority to alter its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, or (HECM), protect borrowers and help the agency avoid a federal bailout. The agency is expected to reveal…