Housing analysts say that while sales are picking up, home prices are likely to continue dropping at least through mid-2010, and some prognosticators say until 2013.
The pessimists point to a rising number of option ARMs and Alt-A mortgages that are likely to reset in the next 18 to 24 months, leading to still more foreclosures.
"We're about two-thirds of the way through the pricing ...
Mortgage rates rose yesterday to a six-month high. This spike occurred after the gap between yields on two-year Treasury notes and 10-year notes, called the yield curve, widened to 2.75 percentage points, its highest ever.
To keep mortgage rates low, the U.S. Treasury has been buying mortgage-backed securities and Treasurys. But as short-term yields rose, the Treasury failed to intervene. The ...
News reports that the federal government is backing away from its plan to permit eligible borrowers to monetize the first-time homebuyer tax credit are off the mark, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says.
"The technical details are still being finalized and will soon be published in a mortgagee letter and posted on our Web site," Lemar Wooley, a HUD ...
Freddie Mac reports a drop in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 4.82 percent during the week ended May 21 from 4.86 percent the prior week. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate dipped to 4.5 percent.
The Federal Reserve is working to hold down rates by purchasing upwards of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and $300 billion in Treasuries. Mortgage rate premiums have ...
Administrative fees tacked onto settlement charges violate a federal real estate settlement statutory ban against “unearned” fees, a U.S. District Court Judge in Birmingham, Ala., ruled recently.
The case involved RealtySouth, a unit of HomeServices of America Inc., the second-largest realty firm in the U.S. A buyer sued the company over a $149 administrative brokerage commission. The court ...
Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.
Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ...
Bank of America has debuted www.BankOfAmerica.com/HomeLoans, a new Web site for borrowers that includes a calculator that determines not just what size loan people can qualify for, but how much they can spend without being stretched too thin.
“We wanted to change the conversation to ‘How much house can I comfortably afford?’ rather than ‘What’s the maximum I can buy?’ ” said Aditya Bhasin, ...
Seven home buyers are suing KB Home, claiming that the builder and lender Countrywide—now Bank of America Home Loans—conspired to inflate the value of new homes sold in the Buckeye and Surprise areas of Arizona since 2006, after home prices had started to decline. The home buyers and their attorneys are seeking class-action status.
Countrywide’s appraisal-management subsidiary, LandSafe, was ...
Potential home buyers in search of a mortgage are wary of all kinds of adjustable rate loans these days, but hybrid ARMs can be really good deals even in these times of historically low interest rates, some lending experts insist.
Hybrids are "a great product at a great rate," says Christopher Cruise, a mortgage broker in Silver Spring, Md.
Currently, starting rates are under 4 percent, ...
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