Archive for the ‘Mortgages’ Category

Loan modification programs - all of which, until now, have focused on those who are delinquent - have been talked about ad nauseam on discussion boards and in the comments sections of blogs all across the real estate “blogosphere.” Many have become so fed up that they’re ready to dismiss the entire country as one [...]

For those who didn’t hear of the news yesterday that the Federal Reserve plans on pumping $1.2 trillion in the U.S. economy, let me assure you that this is BIG news. It was no surprise that the Federal Open Market Committee kept the federal funds rate at .25%, and economists expect that rate to stay [...]

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, didn’t heed warnings by the Bush administration in 2003 when they said that something was amiss at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He proved short-sighted again in 2005 when John McCain and others put forth a bill for stricter lending practices from [...]

A report put forth by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute showed that mortgage fraud jumped 26% in 2008. While Rhode Island, Florida, Illinois and Georgia ranked first through fourth among the 50 states, Maryland came in at 5th on the list, a black mark against our state that, generally speaking, has weathered the real estate [...]

There has been a lot of griping about the federal housing bailout, primarily centered on the fact that only those who have irresponsibly borrowed more than they could afford are the only folks who will receive any help. Many is the article I’ve read where someone comments by saying, “well, I’ll just stop paying my [...]

Stated income mortgages, sometimes referred to “liar loans” because they do not require that the borrower provide proof of income (in the form of two years’ tax documents), are coming back to haunt some homeowners who are now having trouble and wish to modify their mortgages.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal Article, the Hope [...]

Everything to do with mortgage loans is a hot topic these days. From the three consecutive weeks of lower rates for the 30-year fixed rate mortgage, to the collapse of mortgage companies and the federal stewardship of formerly quasi-public companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, mortgages have gotten almost as much play in the media [...]

Forgive me for being a bit late to post on this topic, but given that the news was announced on New Year’s Eve and I, like most of the western world, was celebrating the coming of 2009 (or, more to the point, a good riddance to 2008), perhaps my tardiness is understandable.
The long and short [...]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record or, to put it into more modern parlance, a scratched CD (or a corrupt MP3 file?), I’m quite please to note that 30-year mortgage rates have again fallen, hitting another low last week of 5.1%. This comes after noting a decrease in mortgage rates 2 weeks [...]

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell again last week, offering a holiday gift to many would-be homeowners and those suffering with recently-reset ARMs. The new 30-year fixed mortgage rate, as reported by Freddie Mac, dropped to 5.14% last week, from the previous week’s low of 5.19%. That represented the 8th straight week of mortgage rate [...]