ShareYesterday, the stock market suffered its largest one-day point loss since September 17, 2001, and its sixth-largest point loss in history. Not everyone got punished, however. Two groups of people, in particular, welcomed yesterday’s losses: Home buyers out shopping for a mortgage Homeowners that snoozed through last week’s mortgage rate drop See, as the stock [...]

ShareIn a week overdone with market-altering news, conforming mortgage rates shed a quarter-percent overall last week. It was the third straight week in which rates improved. The biggest story, by far, was the government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two quasi-government agencies were nationalized into bona fide government agencies, converted mortgage-backed debt [...]

Share On all principal + interest home loans, the first few years of payments include a lot more money going to interest than to principal. This is because mortgage repayment schedules are front-loaded with interest, meaning large-volume principal reduction won’t occur until late in the mortgage’s lifecycle. Comparing products at a 6% mortgage rate, did [...]

ShareConforming mortgages are limited by loan size, based on “typical” housing costs around the country. Since 1980, as home prices have increased, so have conforming loan limits. The current conforming limit on a single-unit property is $417,000. Earlier this year, as part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, Congress authorized conforming loan limits increase [...]

ShareIn its last act as a semi-independent company, Fannie Mae altered mortgage guidelines for real estate investors last Friday. It was Fannie’s 22nd update this year. The first part of the guideline change limits the number of properties owned by any one person. Fannie Mae will now decline any mortgage application for a second home [...]

ShareWhen comparing two investments with equal risk, a rational person will choose the investment with a higher rate of return. This behavior is called Risk Aversion and is a basic tenet of personal investing. An off-shoot of Risk Aversion is that a rational person will only invest in an instrument of greater risk if the [...]

ShareMortgage markets improved last week on Hurricane Gustav’s less-than-expected damages and a strengthening U.S. dollar. Even factoring in Friday’s 0.125 percent run-up on most mortgage products, rates improved overall. It’s the second straight week in which mortgage rates improved. But for all the news that we could dissect from last week, it should be the [...]

ShareOn the first Friday of every month, the government releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report. More commonly called the “jobs report”, the two-page analysis examines the nooks and crannies of the U.S. economy to see which industries are hiring and which are firing. The August jobs report was released this morning and it shows that the [...]

ShareA home inspection is a complete, top-to-bottom, visual check-up of the structure and systems of a house. It is meant to be an objective determination of a home’s condition. A home inspection usually takes 3-6 hours to complete, depending on the size of the home. During the inspection process, the inspector will examine all of [...]

ShareMortgage rates are hugely important to household budgets. Lower mortgage rates free up household cash for spending and long- and short-term saving. Higher mortgage rates, of course, do the opposite. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to predict the future of mortgage rates with any bit of certainty. This is because there are countless influences on mortgage markets, [...]