Tomorrow, the fireworks begin. Or, continue, depending on your point of view. After a span of several weeks in which mortgage rates have steadily increased, markets are gearing up for a heavy day of data that could confirm the worst fears of investors everywhere: the U.S. economy is not slowing down. The Fed’s May meeting [...]

If you’re currently paying Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and have been for several years, it may be time to petition your lender to have the PMI payment removed. Waiting for it to drop off 'automatically' may mean you will be stuck with the higher payments for at least five to ten years from your original [...]

Mortgage rates continued their climb higher last week as markets dealt with contradictory data about the health of the housing and the economy. New Home Sales registered its biggest gain in 14 years while Existing Home Sales reached a 4-year low; and purchases of “big-ticket” items such as computers, appliances and furniture unexpectedly jumped while [...]

If you’re in the process of buying a home and are working without a rate lock, take notice: over the past two weeks, mortgage rates have spiked to their highest levels since November 2006. Your actual mortgage payment will be higher than you originally anticipated. Depending on your preferred mortgage product, rates have increased by [...]

The graphic at right comes from The Wall Street Journal and it illustrates something that we all intrinsically know: Sub-Prime ARMs foreclose at a faster pace than all other home loan types. When adjustable rate mortgages reach the end of their “fixed rate” period, some homeowners are unprepared for the upward-adjusting mortgage payments and that [...]

Mortgage rates moved substantially higher last week as traders reacted to Thursday’s Initial Jobless Claims. The amount of new unemployment filing dropped below 4-week trend line is now at its lowest levels in a year. Fewer unemployment claims coupled with increasing employee wages raised fears of inflation and inflation nearly always pushes mortgage rates higher. [...]

When buyers and sellers look for common negotiating grounds, it’s common for the buyer to request home improvements to be made prior to the sale. The request may be phrased in any number of ways: “The hardwood floors are warped and we think the seller should pay for it.” “There is a leak in the [...]

Mortgage rates have held in a very tight range over the past few months, but little by little, they are inching higher. Mortgage rates are not picked from thin air. Just like stock prices, they are based on facts, opinions, and psychology. There is a lot of news and data to interpret but, for the [...]

Each month, the Commerce Department releases a statistic titled “Housing Starts” that measures residential construction activity. This morning, the Commerce Department released April’s Housing Starts data (PDF) and the headline data reflected a 2.5% increase in new construction. Markets had anticipated a 0.8% decrease. This coincided with a decrease in available homes, as shown on [...]

According to RealtyTrac, one out of every 783 homes in the United States filed for foreclosure in April. This is down one percent from March, but up 62 percent from one year ago. If you are struggling to pay your mortgage and have not yet entered foreclosure, the best thing to do is to call [...]