Archive for April, 2009
Mortgage Fees Rise As Interest Rates Fall
You have likely notices that mortgage rates have sunk into the 5 percent range with some loans being offered for even less. Now we find out that loan rates might actually be lower except that lenders have upped their fees. The information below from the federal government shows that in March fees and charges rose [...]
30Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Home Price Declines Continue, Says New Report
The S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices for February show continued broad based declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States, with 10 of the 20 metro areas showing record rates of annual decline, and 15 reporting declines in excess of 10% versus February 2008. For the first time in 16 months, [...]
29Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Housing Recession Nearing An End, Say Home Builders
The National Association of Home Builders has a new online article Housing, Economic Growth Now Heading to Higher Ground. Really? According to the NAHB’s chief economist, David Crowe, “the housing recession is nearing an end and housing will return on a very slow basis.” This is interesting. Are we having a housing recession? Certainly not [...]
28Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Mortage Rates Turn Upside Down
Every week Freddie Mac issues a general survey of mortgage rates and last week’s results were a shocker: Rates for fixed-rate loans were lower than the rates for ARMs. If you’re a borrower the conclusion is obvious: Stay away from ARMs. Here’s why: No Cash Refinancing If you have a fixed-rate loan you have a [...]
27Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
500,000+ Grab First-Time Homebuyer Credit
More than 500,000 buyers have used the first-time homebuyer credit to purchase a home. Amazingly enough, more than 38,000 buyers have already claimed the write-off but do not qualify. Why? In most cases because they owned a home during the past three years. Figures from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration show that a [...]
24Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 1 comment | Continued
Existing Home Prices Rose In March, Says NAR
Existing-home sales — including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — declined 3.0 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million units in March, according to the National Association of Realtors. Prices Typical existing homes sold for $165,400 in February, but rose to $175,200 in March, a 4.2 percent increase. However, some of the sale [...]
23Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Can This Be? Home Prices Are up?
I wouldn’t take this as the last word, but the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is reporting that home values nationwide rose in .7 percent from January to February. “U.S. home prices rose 0.7 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from January to February, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index. January’s [...]
23Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
Why Some Real Estate Still Pays
Across the country retirement dreams are falling with the speed of 401K balances. People are discovering that the easy life they had planned for their “golden days” no longer exists. The issue, of course, is that it takes money to retire. For most people, “money” means funds from IRAs and 401Ks and Social Security — [...]
19Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
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