To help demystify the mortgage process, the federal government is giving the much-maligned Good Faith Estimate document a makeover. Effective January 1, 2010, the current, 2-page form will be replaced by a new, easier-to-understand version, spanning 3 pages. The biggest strength of the new Good Faith Estimate is that it uses everyday English to explain [...]
Foreclosure is a hot topic among the press lately. It’s hard to turn on the television or open up a newspaper without seeing a story about it. But what’s most interesting about foreclosures is that they appear to be concentrated in certain areas of the country. According to the foreclosure-tracking service RealtyTrac, 4 states accounted [...]
For the 4th consecutive year, the government has set the conforming mortgage loan size limit at $417,000. A conforming mortgage is one that, quite literally, conforms to the mortgage guidelines set forth by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The 2009 conforming loan limits, as released by the government, are: 1-unit properties : $417,000 2-unit properties [...]
Happy Veterans Day 2008! I find myself filled with great pride this day, and this week! Today is of course Veteran’s Day and yesterday the Marine Corps celebrated their 233rd Birthday… Oooh Raah! (I was a former Marine from 1993 to 1997). This of course is a special Holiday, one set aside for us as [...]
Today the Marine Corps turns 233 years old. For those of you that don’t know… I was a Marine from 1993 to 1997. I was fortunate to have not been involved in the last Middle East Conflict. However, that doesn’t mean I am not deeply touched by this photo and remember the Men and Women [...]
Mortgage rates fell last week, marking just the second time since September that rates improved on a weekly basis. The biggest news of the week was the U.S. Presidential Election. Markets appeared to cheer the Republican-to-Democrat transfer of power, posting large gains Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This in spite of a spate of negative economic [...]
On the first Friday of every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report. More commonly, it’s called the “jobs report” and the October’s data is trending with the rest of 2008. After shedding another 240,000 jobs last month, the economy has now put 1.2 million Americans out of work this year [...]
The interest rate against which adjustable-rate mortgages change is falling — evidence that the global banking system is starting to stabilize. On any adjustable-rate mortgage, the initial “starter rate” remains fixed for some period of time, and then adjusts according to some pre-determined rules. For a conforming mortgage, an ARM will typically adjust once per [...]
Well, by the time you're probably reading this, we have a new President and Vice-President. From my point of view, who won or not makes little difference. Some of you may think that's a political statement, but we assure you it's not. See, all we can know is what we know. And here's what I [...]
The Federal Reserve confirmed what most of us already knew — getting qualified for a “prime mortgage” is increasingly more difficult. In a quarterly survey of 84 banks, 75 percent of respondent banks tightened mortgage guidelines over the last 3 months for the most qualified of home loan applicants. “Prime” is a vague term when [...]
