News & Press

Housing Recovery After 2012, Consumers Say

Nearly 60 percent of Americans believe the housing market won’t recover until 2013 or later, according to a survey released Tuesday by Trulia.com and RealtyTrac. Conducted Nov. 2-4, just before the midterm election, the survey of 2,034 adults also showed 49 percent are interested in buying a foreclosure home but 66 percent are worried about Read More

What Happened to the Government’s Short Sales Program?

In April, the Obama administration formally rolled out a new program, called Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, that was designed to spur more short sales, where banks allow homeowners to sell their homes for less than the mortgage debt outstanding. Like other foreclosure-prevention initiatives, this one appears to be off to a slow start — just Read More

A Housing Recovery In 2011? Experts Are Divided

Optimists, pessimists and Ferraris — a compendium of real estate musings: Wait till next year. Or 2012. You probably shouldn’t set your heart on any significant housing recovery in 2011, Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller said. That’s not his prediction; it’s the consensus of 109 economists, analysts and real estate experts surveyed by his Read More

Paying Down Mortgage Usually Not Financially Wise

While some people are worrying about how they will make their next mortgage payment, others are wondering whether it makes sense to make extra payments in advance. Steve McBee of Tracy says, “I keep a few months’ mortgage payments in a savings account in case I lose my job. It is earning 0.05 percent in Read More

5 Tips for Selling Your Home Quickly in Today’s Market

It’s one thing when someone says “Things are looking up,” but quite another when the numbers actually bear that out. Happily, the latter is the case, evidenced by the latest statistics that show that home prices may be stabilizing. Namely, national home prices jumped an impressive 3.6% in the past year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Read More

Refinancing Now Could Be Better Than Waiting For Mortgage Rates To Drop Further

When the Federal Reserve recently rolled out its plan to pump $600 billion into the credit markets, many homeowners and buyers might have figured that because mortgage interest rates are now likely to fall again, why not postpone the loan application they were contemplating? Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke offered implicit support for that scenario Read More

The Jumbo-Mortgage Comeback

When the credit crisis hit more than two years ago, many banks cut back or stopped making loans for more-expensive homes. Now, smaller and regional lenders are issuing more new jumbo loans and doing more refinancings—as are some big banks that never stopped making them. If the trend continues, it could help bolster home sales Read More

A Tale Of Two Housing Busts: Why Is California Recovering And Florida Still Struggling?

California and Florida had a lot in common during the housing industry’s last boom-and-bust cycle. Both were overrun by buyers hooked on high-risk mortgages, speculators who helped push prices to historic peaks and builders who didn’t know when to stop. When the bubble burst, the two states became leaders in mortgage defaults, price declines and Read More

Federal Reserve’s Proposed Home Appraisal Rules May Not Prevent Inaccurate Valuations

You may have missed it, but the Federal Reserve proposed far-reaching new rules Oct. 18 that could affect home real estate appraisals — and millions of owners’ equity holdings — nationwide. The rules, which are scheduled to take interim effect in December and then be finalized next spring, prohibit outside interference in appraisers’ valuations and Read More

No-Interest Mortgages? No Chance

Imagine financing a home purchase with a no-interest mortgage. You probably never would want to move again. Granted, it is doubtful that you will ever have that luxury. But if rates continue to drop, as some in the mortgage industry suggest they may, mortgage rates could inch in the direction of 0%. The Federal Reserve’s Read More

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