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 [...]

The National Association of Homebuilders reported this week that their “Housing Market Index”, a survey among its members to quantify builder sentiment about the housing market, rose three points in May to 22. While this is still well below the 50 mark which indicates builders feel optimistic about the housing market, it is the highest [...]

As a flood of first-time homebuyers rushed to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit the Rural Development program has been strained to the limit with a year’s allocation of funds expected to be depleted sometime tomorrow. There has been little interest in Congress to extend funding and it now appears that without a last [...]

As the deadline looms for first-time homebuyers to qualify for the $8,000 Federal tax credit, lenders nationwide are fearful of a decline in loan originations as a result after a surge in recent months. Buyers must be under contract no later than April 30th and must close on or before June 30th to receive the [...]

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 [...]