Mortgage rates remained at or near historical lows over the past week with benchmark thirty-year, fixed-rate at 4.75% with no pints and the fifteen-year, fixed-rate at 4.25%.Rates on FHA, VA and Rural Development loans are also all under 5.00%. Rate shave been held at bay by the usual suspects – European debt concerns, weak employment [...]

With more and more Realtors and customers expressing concern regarding the potential effects the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could have on our local real estate market, I thought I would offer up my two cents and what I have been telling anyone interested enough to listen. While I will not attempt to minimize the enormity [...]

It is hard to believe but the sweeping regulation governing real estate appraisals known as the Home Valuation Code of Conduct or HVCC is already one year old. The controversial rule negotiated by New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with their regulator the Federal Housing Finance Agency was [...]

After briefly touching an eight month high of 4.00% last week, the yield on the ten year Treasury note has eased some 20 basis points allowing the benchmark thirty-year mortgage rate to settle back near 5.125%. The spike in mortgage rates was due in large part to two massive government bond auctions over the past [...]

Mortgage rates continue to hover near record lows with the rate on the benchmark thirty year flirting with 4.875% this week. The rate on the fifteen year fixed rate has dipped below 4.50% coming in at 4.375%. Thirty year rates on most government loan programs including FHA. VA and Rural Development have eased to 5%. [...]

Last Friday, President Obama signed a bi-partisan extension to the first-time home buyer tax credit program last week giving prospective buyers through June 30th, 2010 to close on a home and receive the $8,000 credit. In addition, the law contained an expansion of the former program to include homeowners who have occupied their current residence [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported on Monday that the September Pending Home Sales Index jumped 6.1% t0 110.1 after a 6.4% rise in August. The big rise far surpassed analysts’ expectations who anticipated a more modest rise of 1.2%. Most economists contributed the large increase to the estimated 200,000 to 400,000 first-time homebuyers rushing [...]

We are definitely seeing a return to volatility in mortgage rates as a see-sawing stock market has made for fickle demand for bonds. While sitting near record lows for several weeks rates bounced back up by late last week and were approaching 5.375% on the conforming thirty-year, fixed-rate on Monday before settling back to 5.25% [...]

Mortgage rates remain low again this week helped out by reemerging doubts about the stock rally and economy as a whole. The benchmark thirty-year, fixed-rate stands just above 5% with no points and the fifteen year is just below 4.50%. While paying a point was buying a full ½% discount to the rate in the [...]

I will be the first to agree that the mortgage industry was extremely under-regulated for years and feel that lack of oversight, among other things, was largely responsible for the collapse of the housing market and subsequent financial crisis we now find ourselves in. But two of the most significant changes we’ve seen in years, [...]