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finance : Mortgage Loans, Rates, Home Buying, Selling, Foreclosures

All Posts Tagged With: "finance"

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VA Loan Volume Surges, Remains Safest Mortgage Option

The VA Loan Guaranty program had a big year in FY11, driven by a surge in refinance loans and a tighter lending climate that’s drawing renewed attention to this flexible, government-backed mortgage. The VA guaranteed nearly 360,000 loans last year, a 14-percent increase from FY10. Since FY07, the number of VA loan guaranties has surged [...]

8Feb2012 | | 0 comments | Continued
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VA Funding Fees Set Through September 2016

Military homebuyers finally got some clarity this week regarding the VA Funding Fee, a mandatory governmental charge applied to all VA loans that has been in a legislative limbo. The fee helps fund the VA Loan Guaranty program and ensures this long-cherished lending mechanism remains outside any Congressional appropriations process. Confusion took root this fall when [...]

28Nov2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Why VA Loans Are More Important Than Ever

The last few years have proved a mixed bag for home buyers and homeowners alike. Borrowers who qualify have reaped the benefits of government-sponsored tax credit programs and record-low interest rates. At the same time, the subprime mortgage meltdown and ensuing financial crisis created a restrictive credit environment and made it significantly tougher for some [...]

14Nov2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Spread the Word: Millions of Veterans Unaware of their VA Home Loan Benefits

The VA loan program has helped more than 18 million service members achieve the dream of homeownership since 1944. Today, these flexible loans remain the safest and most powerful lending option on the market for military borrowers and their families.  Qualified veterans can purchase a home without having to spend money on a down payment, [...]

11Nov2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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8 million consumers drop credit cards, improve mortgage standing

More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards during the past year, a trend which will help people qualify more easily for real estate mortgages and reduce monthly living costs. A new study by TransUnion shows that the use of bank-issued, general purpose credit cards has fallen significantly during the past year. “This deleveraging,” [...]

30Nov2010 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Mortgage Qualifying Improved With Credit Card Change

It’s being widely reported that the Bank of America has decided to eliminate overdraft fees for debit cards. This is a mortgage issue, a consumer issue and a common sense issue that should concern anyone who wishes to finance or refinance a home. New rules from the Federal Reserve will make it more difficult for [...]

10Mar2010 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Minority Mortgage Housing Goals — What’s The Truth?

I was at a dinner event in Washington recently and the speaker told the assembled rich and powerful that President Clinton had weakened the lending system by increasing minority financing goals to more than 50 percent. The implication was that a big part of the current mortgage meltdown is a by-product of federal efforts expand [...]

15Jun2009 | | 0 comments | Continued
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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 | | 2 comments | Continued
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Refinance Today! Act Now! (But Watch Your Wallet)

I’m always pleased when people want to help me, when they want me to get ahead. Surely such motivations describe the many folks who write with ideas that will allow me to make smaller mortgage payments and thereby save money, cut costs and better my life. Because such suggestions are made with only my best [...]

20Sep2008 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Should We Require Lenders To Modify Toxic Loans?

Mortgage interest rates are down at this writing, well below 6 percent. In such circumstances it certainly makes sense for borrowers with exploding ARMs to refinance into stable, fixed-rate mortgages. But many such borrowers have loans where mortgage balances have grown while home values have fallen. Many toxic loans require huge prepayment penalties. Most borrowers [...]

20Aug2008 | | 0 comments | Continued