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 [...]
The FTHB Credit of $8,000(and $6,500 for repeat homebuyers) will be expiring soon. Those wishing to utilize the tax credit need to enter into a home purchase contract by April 30, 2010 and fully close the loan by June 30, 2010. The homebuyer’s tax credit can be used to offset expenses for a [...]
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 [...]
The stock market’s Dow Jones Industrials index recently reached the 10,000 mark and although the stock market hasn’t reached that mark in over a year, what is the significance of this seemingly random financial statistic to non-stock market investors?
The movements of the stock market reflect the confidence of investors in our economy’s corporate future. [...]
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 [...]
According to Mortgage Bankers Association, over the past two years, 1 in 6 homes in the US have experienced mortgage distress as a result of the nation’s economic crisis, which was spurned by the housing market collapse. President Obama’s newly inaugurated administration made the housing crisis a priority and issued a loan modification program [...]
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 [...]
Mortgage interest rates have increased by .5 % since last week and mortgage applications for refinances have dropped by 25% since then. The increase of a half a percent equates to about $50/month per $100,000’s of debt. Many banking industry experts are saying the historically low interest rate period is over and some industry heads [...]
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 [...]
