Your Best Option Is About To Leave The Building
If you’re in want of a cash out refinance, the most liberal cash-out program in town is about to make qualification more difficult. 
Effective April 1, 2009, the FHA is reducing the maximum loan-to-value on cash-out refinances by 10 percent, dropping the loan size limit from 95% [...]

Consistently Positive News
The national housing market got its third piece of good news in 3 days:

Monday: Existing Home Sales up
Tuesday: Home values appear higher nationally
Wednesday: New Home Sales up

And although national real estate statistics are irrelevant to the local markets in which real estate transactions happen, to a country of would-be and wanna-be home buyers, [...]

What’s The Real Estate Market Doing?
Do you ever wonder how our real estate market is here in Des Moines? Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time listening to how rough things are in other cities around the country, but too often we don’t really consider what our real estate climate is like.

I’m a fan of [...]

The Government’s Talkin’
Just as last week closed out, this week, mortgage rates may trend higher.
In addition to the economic data set to be released this week, the U.S. government is expected to unveil its “toxic asset” plan Monday.  If the plan includes issuance of new federal debt, inflation concerns will grow and that should [...]

The Fed Extends Their Buying

So, the mortgage markets scored big gains last week, sparked by the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy $750 billion more mortgage-backed bonds in 2009. That’s on top of the previously announced purchases.
Conforming mortgage rates fell on the week, overall.
With Good News For Rates, Bad News Also Followed
But Federal Reserve intervention wasn’t [...]

Bernanke Talks
In the video below, Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke discussed the current economic environment and shares some of his predictions for the future.  This video was presented on 60 Minutes last night.

Rising Stocks Take the Momentum Out of Mortgage Rates
Mortgage markets lost a little bit of ground last week, edging mortgage rates higher in a [...]

Delinquencies Are On The Rise
Mortgage delinquencies are on the rise nationwide, but the news may not be as bad as it appears at first glance.   Yes, keep reading.
The Source
Using anonymous data from its national credit database, TransUnion reports that 4.58 percent of American homeowners were at least 60 days past due on mortgage payments last quarter.
Comparing the [...]

What’s The Real Estate Market Doing?
Do you ever wonder how our real estate market is here in Des Moines? Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time listening to how rough things are in other cities around the country, but too often we don’t really consider what our real estate climate is like.

I’m a fan of [...]

More Than Economic News This Week
This week it will be quiet in the form of economic news.  The only big report is Thursday’s Retail Sales data.  Therefore, markets will look for other clues about the future of the U.S. economy.
Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has a scheduled speech on financial reform. Then on Thursday, [...]

Markets Have a Positive Week

Mortgage markets improved last week with investors’ fear of risk in the stock market.  Mortgage shoppers benefited from major stock indices touching 12-year lows as investors moved investible cash to the bond market.
For only second time this year, mortgage rates ended the week lower than where they opened.
Lots of Big News
Some [...]