Real Estate Real Estate Tips & News
Spread the word to potential buyers: They're purchasing power may have just gotten better. Mortgage rates dropped sharply this week with 30-year rates reaching its lowest average for the year and 15-year rates and 5-year ARMS reaching new overall record lows....
Home owners who originated their mortgage during the peak of the housing boom are increasingly frustrated with mortgage servicers because they've been unable to refinance and take advantage of low interest rates, according to a new survey....
Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating for PMI Mortgage Insurance, following big losses from the company during the second quarter of 2011. PMI warns it may even have to stop writing insurance policies in several states....
With home costs outpacing wages in many areas, more families are struggling to find affordable housing near where they work. A series of forums, hosted by NAR and the National Housing Conference, seek to find solutions to the workforce housing crisis....
A glut of unsold foreclosures is weighing down home prices. A bipartisan bill introduced in the House this week proposes a solution: Rent foreclosed properties -- possibly even back to the previous home owner....
"Industry analysts have made it clear that if the United States defaults and the national debt is downgraded, mortgage rates could spike immediately," Bankrate said in a mortgage rate report....
"The indecision in Congress is paralyzing progress on other fronts, and it is harming home buyer confidence and negatively affecting home sales," says NAR President Rob Phipps....
One in three home owners say that their home is worth less than the amount still left on their mortgage, according to a new study....
In trying to clear the glut of unsold foreclosed homes, the Obama administration is considering a plan that would take foreclosed homes off the market and rent them out, "The Wall Street Journal" reports....
Mortgage rates continue to hover around yearly lows, Freddie Mac reports....
Many local governments have been unable -- or even unwilling -- to raise property taxes at a time when many home owners are seeing a drop in home values. But now local governments are starting to feel the pinch....
A new study from the American Economic Review shows a correlation between declining home values and falling divorce rates....
