Mortgages Blog

The Fed may switch gears into riskier territory to support a plan that could push mortgage rates even lower than they are now, in an effort to spur refinances, help underwater borrowers and boost the housing market. I know, you’re tired of hearing about all these government plans that sound good in theory but do

Nada! Not a single job was added to the economy in August, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s the first time in 11 months that the United States did not show a net increase in jobs. The unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent, with 14 million Americans out of work. Economists didn’t expect great news

With the housing market in an unrelenting national depression, the Obama Administration is seeking solutions and Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director Edward DeMarco is feeling the heat. One proposal put forth by President Barack Obama will make it easier for homeowners to refinance, and since the FHFA controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the

Home prices increased during the second quarter of the year, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index. Before you celebrate, you should know that prices are actually down 5.9 percent when compared to the second quarter of last year and are as low as they were in 2003. You should also know

For the first time in three months, pending sales of previously-owned homes dropped in July, signaling yet again that the housing recovery is a long way from getting unstuck. Although pending home sales rose by 2.4 percent in June, July’s 1.3-percent decrease was more than the 1 percent drop economists in a Bloomberg survey said

To cap off a nightmarish week on the housing front, everybody’s favorite ratings service Standard & Poor’s says the “shadow market” of foreclosures and distressed homes will haunt our neighborhoods for at least four more years. S&P says that although the shadow market peaked in the first quarter of 2008, it’s taking increasingly longer to

The Obama administration is discussing a massive refinance plan to help millions of homeowners refinance at today’s historically low rates and avoid foreclosures, The New York Times reported this week. Wait, wasn’t that what HARP was supposed to have done when the government launched it in 2009? HARP, the Home Affordable Refinance Program, was designed

Bad news for the housing market just keeps coming. This morning, the Commerce Department reported that new home sales slipped 0.7 percent in July, a bigger-than-anticipated decline. The seasonally adjusted 298,000-unit annual rate is less than the 310,000 units forecast by economists and a five-month low. The supply of new homes on the market in

Mortgage rates across the board plummeted to the lowest level in the history of Freddie Mac’s weekly rate survey, to 4.15 percent for a 30-year fixed. But the low rates, coupled with low home prices, are unlikely to kick-start a housing market still stuck in the doldrums. Borrowers with good credit and a large down

The delinquency rate for residential mortgage loans increased in the second quarter. About 8.44 percent of the more than 43 million outstanding mortgages in the United States are past due, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey. That’s an increase of 12 basis points compared to the last quarter and it does not