Archive for the ‘Mortgages’ Category

Mortgage rates, and specifically the 30-year fixed mortgage rate, dropped to their lowest level in 37 years last week, no doubt aided by the Federal Reserve’s promise to push money into the mortgage market. The 30-year rate dropped to 5.19% according to Freddie Mac, which dropped from the previous week’s low of 5.47%.
In e-mail communication [...]

The National Association of Home Builders, previously in lockstep with allies in the mortgage and consumer credit lending industries, has broken ranks and is now pushing hard for so-called mortgage “cram downs,” a controversial measure that would allow bankruptcy judges to force lenders to modify loan terms to head off would-be foreclosures.
Said the NAHB’s CEO [...]

The Federal Funds Futures (FF) market indicates expectations of a fairly steep decline in the Federal Funds Rates before or at the December 16, 2008 (today) meeting of the Federal Open Market Comittee (FOMC). The expectation is for at least a 0.5% drop in the rate, which already sits at 1%, though some research indicates [...]

Mortgage rates dropped again last week, with the 30-Year fixed mortgage rate falling to 5.53% as of last Friday. Call it “good news week” here at the Blevins Wist Maryland real estate blog. Perhaps I just can’t help myself after choosing (or being forced) to write about just about nothing but the bad news that [...]

Plans abound to “save” the U.S. housing market, from those put forth by the National Assocation of Home Builders that call for drastic mortgage rate buydowns and tax credits to the “Four Point Plan” of the National Assocation of Realtors. But rumors and aggressive lobbying seem to be turning into a plan with some legs [...]

I read the paper version of the - well, newspaper - today; the Baltimore Sun to be exact. In the real estate section, I read a short article about the various loan modification programs being offered by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and, on a much more responsible level that DOESN’T induce people to become deadbeats, [...]

How’s that for a headline? And I’m not grasping at straws here either. The two headlines that immediately caught my attention on this fine morning focused on the fact that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be suspending foreclosures through January 9, 2009. Call it an early holiday gift and, even though it’s really not [...]

It’s time for loan modifications folks, and it appears that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be leading the charge as they seek to assist troubled homeowners find their way back to paying their mortgages on time. As this unfolds, however, the two big mortgage companies (now controlled by the U.S. government) may be setting [...]

As always, I’ve been trolling Internet news sites and reading about real estate and, though I’ve often discussed the state of the Maryland real estate market, I think that a recent Baltimore Sun article is worth sharing.
Marc Hayes, a 19-year veteran mortgage broker who was interviewed for the article, notes that his job is more [...]

Per a post recently in the Wall Street Journal, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have etched at least one thing in stone for 2009: the conforming loan limit, i.e. - the maximum size of loans that the loan buyers can purchase from lenders. The current limit of $417,000 will remain in place for 2009 for [...]