Believe It or Not, Banks Start To Loosen Up In Underwriting
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!After a half-decade of tightening mortgage guidelines, banks are starting to “loosen up”. The Federal Reserve conducts a quarterly survey of its member banks and, last quarter, not a single responding bank reported having tightened its mortgage guidelines for prime borrowers. A... [Read more of this blog post]
Home Affordability Threatened By Friday’s Jobs Report
This week, once more, we find mortgage rates are on a downward trajectory. Conforming mortgage rates have returned to near all-time lows. After Friday morning’s Non-Farm Payrolls report, however, those low rates may come to an end. It’s a risky time for Indiana and Illinois home buyers and would-be refinancers to be without a locked rate. Each month, on the... [Read more of this blog post]
Case-Shiller Index Says Detroit And Washington DC Lead The Market
Standard & Poors released its November 2011 Case-Shiller Index this week. The index measures the change in home prices from month-to-month, and year-to-year, in select U.S. cities. According to the data, for the second straight month, home values fell in 19 of the Case-Shiller Index’s 20 tracked markets. In addition, also for the second straight month, Phoenix,... [Read more of this blog post]
Supply Of New Homes At 6.1 Months Nationwide
New Home Sales slowed into the New Year but the market for newly-built homes remains strong. For home buyers in Northwest Indiana and the Chicago suburbs, December’s New Home Sales report is yet one more signal that the housing market recovery may be underway. According to the Census Bureau, the number of new homes sold in December 2011 slipped 2 percent to 307,000... [Read more of this blog post]
The Week Ahead for Mortgage Rates: January 30, 2012
Mortgage markets improved last week as news from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy, and Europe combined to spur new demand for mortgage-backed bonds. Conforming mortgage rates rallied from Wednesday through Friday’s close, ending the week near all-time lows set earlier this year. Last week’s rally was sparked by the Federal Open Market Committee. After... [Read more of this blog post]
Pending Home Sales Index Posts Second Best Month Since April 2010
After 3 consecutive months of growth, the housing market appears to have eased a bit in December. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, December’s Pending Home Sales Index slipped 4 percent from the month prior. The index measures the number of homes under contract to sell nationwide, but not yet sold. Despite falling below its benchmark “100... [Read more of this blog post]
A Simple Explanation Of The Federal Reserve Statement (January 25, 2012)
Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. The Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent since December 2008. For the third consecutive month, the Fed Funds Rate vote was nearly unanimous. Just one FOMC member dissented in the 9-1 vote, objecting... [Read more of this blog post]
The Federal Reserve Meets Today: Mortgage Rates Expected To Move
The Federal Open Market Committee adjourns from a scheduled 2-day meeting today, its the first of 8 scheduled meetings this year. The FOMC is a designated, rotating, 12-person committee within the Federal Reserve, led by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Members of the FOMC sub-committee are the voting members of the Federal Reserve; the ones that ultimately determine... [Read more of this blog post]
Existing Home Sales Approach Bull Market Territory
The housing market finished 2011 with strength, and is carrying measurable momentum into 2012. According to data from the National Association of REALTORS®, on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis, December’s Existing Home Sales climbed by 220,000 units overall from the month prior on its way to an 11-month high. An “existing home” is a home that’s... [Read more of this blog post]