mortgage lending
Interest Rates 2015: Defying Expectations?
For the past year or more, experts in finance and real estate have watched the movement of interest rates with a wary eye. Now, as a new year opens, those experts are weighing in with predictions about what investors can expect in the coming months- and years. And they’re basing their predictions on...
HOAs Beat Lenders to the Punch
In the real estate world, homeowner’s associations are almost universally loathed. Their pitched battles with homeowners who put out the wrong lawn decorations or paint their houses an inappropriate color have made news in cities across the country.
But in a recent Nevada court case, one such HOA...
Will Easier Lending Help Housing – or Hurt It?
The US housing market is on the rebound – or is it? As housing prices rise, mortgage lending stays flat. Venerable government mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a solution for that – but critics worry that it might trigger another housing collapse.
Fannie Mae, AKA the Federal National...
Home Loan or Investment Loan?
The road to successful investing is often paved with other people’s money. And that usually means a mortgage.
Taking out a mortgage to finance rental property is the smartest move an investor can make. Just ask Jason Hartman, whose “refi till you die” strategy for building wealth in real estate...
Mortgage Rates Defy Expectations And Stay Low
A year ago this time, interest rates, particularly for mortgages, were expected to take a major leap, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would begin to taper down its debt buying stimulus plan around the start of 2014. But, surprisingly, those rates have gone down, not up.
Interest...
Does a College Degreee Pay For Itself?
The looming student debt “bubble” has undergone some much-publicized comparisons to the housing bubble that burst so spectacularly a few years ago. Now, though, a new study suggests that across the board, college graduates earn nearly a hundred percent more than their peers who don’t have a degree....
Willl Lower Credit Standards Attract More Buyers?
How low can you go? A growing number of mortgage lenders around the country are about to find out, as they lower the minimum credit score requirements for getting a loan in hopes of jump starting a sagging housing market.
We’ve reported previously about the ongoing saga of mortgage lending reform...
Where Have All the Mortgages Gone?
Interest rates for typical mortgages are hovering around 4 percent – but potential homebuyers aren’t biting. Overall, applications for both refinancing and home mortgages are down by 48 percent this year, according to a new CNBC report – and market watchers are wondering what that could mean for...
The Housing Market Draws Browsers, Not Buyers
The housing market has ended up a bit flatter than expected for this time of year, and market watchers are wondering why. After a promising year in 2013 that spurred more optimism about the housing recovery, mortgage applications and purchases are down. Now, a new report from Business Insider suggests...
Is Housing Headed For a Slowdown?
In the years since the massive housing collapse of 2008, it’s seemed that the housing market was recovering nicely, with more home purchases and rising prices every year. By 2014, some market watchers were going so far as to speak in terms of a “robust” recovery. But in the spring of 2014, those...