There are 138 million taxpayers in the United States and, according to the IRS, 20 percent of them file their taxes within 7 days of April 15. In a holiday-shortened week, that means that 27 million people had better get a move on. And while a portion of this year’s last-minute filers will file with [...]
April 4, 2009, marked the official start of the Making Home Affordable refinance program. Expected to help 5 million homeowners, the Making Home Affordable program “looks the other way” with respect to falling home values, approving mortgage applications based on borrower payment history and benefit to the homeowner. Not every homeowner is eligible for a [...]
Mortgage markets were up-and-down last week as rates fell Monday and Tuesday before surging higher from Wednesday through Friday. In some case, after touching all-time lows, conforming mortgage rates added a half-percent in the second half of the week, ruining some homeowners’ chance to refinance. It was the second week in a row that mortgage [...]
Thursday morning, homeowners in different parts of the country awoke to find similar-sounding newspaper headlines: Rates on 30-year mortgages sink to 4.78%, a new low (LA Times) Mortgage rates at record low for 2nd week (Miami Herald) Mortgages hit another record low (San Francisco) The underlying story was that Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market [...]
The number of homes under contract to sell is rising, another signal that the housing market may be regaining its footing. As reported by an industry trade group, the Pending Home Sales Index gained 2 percent in February. The report measures MLS-listed homes in “pending” status — sold but not yet closed. Pending Home Sales [...]
A report published Tuesday showed that home values fell nearly 3 percent in January 2009 versus the month prior and by 19 percent from last year. On the surface, data from the study looks like more bad news for housing. With deeper inspection, though, we uncover reasons to discount the report’s finding. For one, the [...]
