Negative Equity continues being a Serious Concern Despite Year Over Year Decline!

While the percentage of homes in the United States with negative equity has declined substantially since the fourth quarter of 2013, they experienced a slight increase quarter-over-quarter in Q4 2014, according to CoreLogic’s Q4 2014 Equity Report released last Tuesday. CoreLogic reported that 10.8 percent of all residential homes were underwater in Q4, this isContinue

Save on your Mortgage NOW!

Mortgage rates are historically low, and many owners have the opportunity to take advantage, but not all owners pay close attention to these numbers.   You have the opportunity to investigate the possibility of refinancing through HARP or stream line if your loan is FHA to take advantage of the historic rates.   You can analyze  what financialContinue

Mortgage Rates Drop After Fed Minutes

Mortgage Rates put on quite the show today after Fed minutes announcement, resulting in the lowest rates we have seen since June 2013. Today’s improvement was all about the Fed. Investors who trade securities that dictate mortgages, were concerned about last month’s Fed Announcement that could it justify a higher move in rates.  That speculation contributed to the increasesContinue

Home sales show encouraging stats

Existing home sales, excluding distressed sales, are the most encouraging stats at the moment. These, according to Trulia and the National Association of Realtors, were 80 percent back to normal in August. Trulia’s Bubble Watch also showed that prices were 3.4 percent undervalued in the third quarter, which is a marked improvement over the 13.5 percentContinue

September: Highest Consumer Confidence

Consumer confidence reached its highest level since the Great Recession in September, according to the Thomson Reuters and University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. September’s increase in consumer confidence is the result of optimistic outlooks on the overall economy and personal incomes.  The consumer expectations index rose 5.8 percent over the month of September, while theContinue

80,000 Foreclosures prevented!

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicated in its report on foreclosure prevention  for Q2 2014 released on September 24, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac  prevented nearly 80,000 foreclosures nationwide in the second quarter, raising the total number of foreclosures prevented since the start of the conservatorship in September 2008 to 3.3 million. The measures takenContinue

Mortgage Rates and Terms Beware!

Mortgage rates haven’t moved much this year, and the good news is they’ve been stuck at historically low levels. However, mortgage rates are expected to move higher as we head through the fall. While various groups report national mortgage rate averages each week, the rates you get can vary dramatically from that average, depending onContinue

Homeowners Pay Less for Mortgage than Renters for Rent

Paying a mortgage is cheaper than paying rent. But owning a home costs more.  The never ending debate…Is better to buy or rent?  This could be answered only after considering all of the expenses that contribute to homeownership. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says it’s cheaper to own. It has become less expensive to own. From 2009Continue

Fact or Fiction: Tax relief for homeowners’ on debt forgiveness.

Congress is now back from its summer vacation, so the burning financial question on thousands of homeowners’ minds right now is this: Are you finally going to help the consumers who are underwater on their mortgages and have already accepted a principal reduction by their lenders? Under current federal tax law, when the homeowners acceptContinue