Mortgage markets improved last week on Hurricane Gustav’s less-than-expected damages and a strengthening U.S. dollar. Even factoring in Friday’s 0.125 percent run-up on most mortgage products, rates improved overall. It’s the second straight week in which mortgage rates improved. But for all the news that we could dissect from last week, it should be the [...]

On the first Friday of every month, the government releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report. More commonly called the “jobs report”, the two-page analysis examines the nooks and crannies of the U.S. economy to see which industries are hiring and which are firing. The August jobs report was released this morning and it shows that the [...]

A home inspection is a complete, top-to-bottom, visual check-up of the structure and systems of a house. It is meant to be an objective determination of a home’s condition. A home inspection usually takes 3-6 hours to complete, depending on the size of the home. During the inspection process, the inspector will examine all of [...]

Mortgage rates are hugely important to household budgets. Lower mortgage rates free up household cash for spending and long- and short-term saving. Higher mortgage rates, of course, do the opposite. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to predict the future of mortgage rates with any bit of certainty. This is because there are countless influences on mortgage markets, [...]

For the first time in 4 weeks, mortgage rates closing a week lower than where they opened it Markets shrugged off uncertainty about Hurricane Gustav and chose to rally on the backs of strong economic data. Overall, rates were down by about 0.125 percent, or $96 per year per $100,000 borrowed. Markets were influenced by [...]