Although home prices haven’t increased much and interest rates have remained steady over the past year, it’s still going to be a more expensive to buy a home soon. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has decided to increase the down payment requirements on the mortgage loans they guarantee/insure. This down payment was [...]

Mortgages are loans made by banks and lenders that package these loans (securitize) and sell them on Wall Street in the form of bonds called mortgage backed securities (MBS). The money made from the sale of the MBS them goes back to the bank/lender so they can complete more loans. The mortgage payments [...]

The Obama administration and the US Treasury dept are vowing to pressure the mortgage industry to administer more loan modifications as permanently modified mortgages have not kept up with the number of troubled households owning homes. While 14% of homeowners with a mortgage are facing foreclosure, only about 2% of homes applying for modifications [...]

A “new-again” trend is resurfacing within the real estate market. People are staying in their homes and remodeling. Sagging real estate values and lack of equity has ushered in the thought of “sweat equity*” and an extended time in a home as major factors to increasing a home’s value. The US Census Bureau [...]

Pending home sales have increased over the last nine months to a level not surpassed until before the 2006, before real estate market bubble burst. Pending home sales are homes on the market for sale and have a buyer willing and signing to purchase the home. Although the housing statistic is great news for [...]

The economy seems to be quietly making a turnaround. New jobless claims, which consist of newly unemployed persons, fell this month to its lowest level in over a year. The number of newly unemployed persons went to slightly over 466, 000 persons. In addition, the level of persons on unemployment benefits [...]

A major part of financial literacy is an understanding of the rules of money. And there is nowhere better place to learn about rules than within hall of Congress. After all, these are the lawmakers of our society and they decide upon taxes levied and the regulation of commerce. The easy thing [...]

Millions of American homeowners are communicating with their mortgage loan companies for a loan modification. Many homeowners are experiencing varying degrees of success and failure with mortgage re-structuring efforts, but there is a lesser sought-after avenue that provides a win-win situation for the distressed homeowner and mortgage lender [...]

I recently got a call from a friend whose grandparents (80 years old) were placed into an expensive “no documentation” residential mortgage loan that is now foreclosing. The grandparents were seeking cash for medical expenses and didn’t qualify for a loan requiring full documentation of income [...]

Buying a home in this market is a no-brainer to anyone that understands financial literacy. Home values are at an all time low, the inventory of empty homes are higher and mortgage interest rates lower than any other time in recent history. However, since the economy is still in the “red” and news [...]