Yesterday, mortgage rates rose on news of a solution to the debt issues affecting the Eurozone. Also affected were the Stock and Bond Markets with the Dow surging 339 points. Today, data was released for September’s Personal Income and Outlays report, Employment Cost Index (ECI) and University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment for October. The Personal [...]

Earlier this week, President Obama met with homeowners in Las Vegas and announced new HARP changes that will help “underwater” borrowers refinance their mortgages at the more competitive rates that are available today. The FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Authority) announced these changes as well and have also provided a list of FAQ’s at the end of their press release [...]

Greece, Greece, Greece The market is closely watching and waiting for a resolution to the Greek debt default drama playing out in Europe. This headache for the markets, in addition to the continued fears about the United States’ economic health, have played key roles in pushing US mortgages rates to historic record lows over the [...]

Last week was fairly stable as mortgage rates leveled off a bit after weeks of slowly moving off of all time record lows. This week will see the market watching the data data that is being released for the Consumer Confidence Index, Case Shiller Index, New Home Sales and Pending Home Sales Index. Positive news [...]

Some good news for homeowners as the Senate voted yesterday to approve a measure that would restore the high balance conforming loan limit to $729,750 in high cost areas. The amendment was added to a spending bill by Senator Robert Menendez and was approved 60-31 in the Senate. If the larger spending bill is approved, [...]

The Federal Reserve issues the Beige Book, which is a snapshot or summary of business conditions in each of the Fed’s 12 regional bank districts, eight times a year. Since each district may contain different types of economic activity in various industries, each district lends its own unique feedback to the Beige Book. The Fed [...]

We’ve seen mortgage rates trend upward over the past two weeks coming off of all time historical lows. This has been fueled by a more clear and positive outlook for preventing Greece from defaulting and an increase in investor funds back into equities. This turn away from bonds is responsible for pushing most indices such [...]

The FED (Federal Open Market Committee) released its minutes for the September meeting today. The market has noted that several FED members considered future bond purchases and suggested the market might require it, a signal of the weakness they may be seeing in the US Economy. There were also signs of disagreement among members about [...]

When selling your home, there are many things that can cause stress that are out of your control. As a seller, you cannot control the market, the number of offers placed on your home, or how many other houses are for sale in your area. With so much out of your control, it becomes of [...]

While the bond / stock markets are closed today in observance of Columbus Day today (re-opening tomorrow), this week will bring three economic reports that are of interest to the mortgage market along with the minutes from the last FOMC meeting and two important Treasury auctions. New Data Released This Week On 2:00 PM ET [...]