The Federal Open Market Committee adjourns from its two-day meeting this afternoon and is widely expected to lower the Fed Funds Rate. This does not mean that mortgage rates are being lowered, too. The definition of Fed Funds Rate from the Federal Reserve: The federal funds rate is the rate charged by one depository institution [...]

When a loan officer locks a mortgage rate for you, that rate is tied to an expiration date. The expiration may be 30 days, or 75 days, or 90 days, or more into the future, but so long as the rate is “locked”, the bank is committed to delivering that rate to you at your [...]

Strong earnings from Apple, American Express, Microsoft and Boeing helped to keep markets in balance last week after reports of weak business spending and poor housing data (again). The available data doesn’t seem to match corporate earnings reports and that is giving investors fits. Mortgage rates bounced around last week on the lack of conviction [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee is widely expected to lower the Fed Funds Rate next week. For holders of credit cards and home equity lines of credit, this is good news. Both of these financial products feature interest rates tied to Prime Rate. Prime Rate is tied to the Fed Funds Rate. When the Fed [...]

The Wall Street Journal used a lot of ink this morning on September’s Existing Home Sales data, including the chart below. It’s frightening to the lay person who may not know how to interpret data like this. Remember: real estate is local. Yes, on a national level the number of homes for sale in increasing [...]

The number of home valuation Web sites continues to grow. A simple Google search for “How much is my home worth?” shows 119,000 results and seems to get larger month-over-month. For home sellers, these programs can give a false sense of security (or insecurity!) about at what price a home should be listed for sale. [...]

As we talked about yesterday, the stock market appears to be directing traffic for the bond market. Monday was a flat day for stocks, and it was a flat day for bonds, too. Mortgage rates idled. Tuesday, with no economic data hitting the wires, market participants will be looking for direction elsewhere. Some likely candidates [...]

Rising oil prices, weak housing data, and ongoing credit concerns pushed mortgage rates lower last week as investors sought safety for their dollars. Stock markets took losses and bond markets — including mortgage bonds — booked gains. Remember, when mortgage bonds go up in price, mortgage rates come down. To understand why mortgage rates tend [...]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of Americans taking loans against their 401(k) plans is increasing because most plans allow participants to borrow funds to purchase a home or to avoid foreclosure. But just because the avenue is there, though, doesn’t mean that borrowing from a 401(k) is a good idea. Here’s why: [...]

Once again, the headlines may be misleading you. It’s a good thing that Housing Starts dropped last month — despite what the papers say. A “housing start” is a new residence on which construction has started. Yesterday, the government released September 2007′s Housing Starts data for the country. There was a 10.2% drop in Housing [...]