Arizona Real Estate Notebook

This is a variation on the theme in the post below about the possibilities of getting a loan after a foreclosure or short sale. (The short answer is, “Not for a while.”) The question I received was along these lines, “If I put down a very large down payment, could I get a loan to [...]

Seniors with a huge down payment can now buy a home and make no monthly mortgage payments! I was just barely getting my head around regular reverse mortgages when my neighbor Sean Thomas, who is an Arizona reverse mortgage specialist at Well Fargo Home Mortgage, told me that some laws were changed in February and [...]

The San Jose Mercury News article demonstrates, among other things, the herd instinct of home lenders. If a home cash flows after the down payment, why would the banks balk? Who are they trying to punish? It looks like they are trying to punish themselves for their own stupidity for lending to investors on homes [...]

As policy makers work to ease the strain on the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a consensus is emerging that the two companies will have to look substantially different in the long term. Leading figures from across the ideological spectrum say that the companies, which were created by Congress to support the housing [...]

Many lenders slash the maximum about of credit available in home equity lines of credit when the value of the underlying collateral, the house, falls. Kevin Hall of Carlsbad discovered his home-equity line of credit had been reduced from $206,000 to $72,000 after he had begun a major remodeling project.

Below is the body of an email I received from a lender friend. Minimum downpayment is now 3.5% – can come from family members, – cannot come from seller or any person that benefits financially from transaction, or down payment asistance Mortgage insurance for FHA is made up of two parts the upfront Mortgage Insurance [...]

And it was an excellent article to boot about how skiddish lenders are changing their minds and denying previously approved mortgages to people right before closing. That’s gotta hurt. A buyer may be able to find another lender to do the deal… but maybe not. If the transaction falls apart the buyer is at least [...]

According to Freddie Mac; “Long-term fixed mortgage rates trended up for a third week, bringing rates on 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages back to their levels of last November,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Refinancing activities, which had surged to a 12-month high in January, according to Freddie Mac’s monthly [...]

According to Freddie Mac; “Long-term mortgage rates were little changed this week, largely in sync with the movements in the Treasury bond yields during the same time,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Additionally, economic news released in the past week showed that the economy continues to be weak.

According to Freddie Mac; “Mortgage rates ended their four-week descent this week, with average rates on 30-year and 15-year fixed rate mortgages coming up by about 0.2 percentage points,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.” This increase completely erased the previous week’s decline. The movement in fixed mortgage rates was broadly [...]

Spectacular interest rate decrease! When interest rates go down, it’s good for both home buyers and home sellers. According to Freddie Mac; “Economic news released last week confirmed the weak condition of the housing market. Housing starts fell further in December to 1.006 million units, the slowest pace since May 1991,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie [...]

I love that graph! Rates are below 6.0% again and the outlook is good for the future. (See quote below.) When prices go up, it’s good for sellers. When prices go down, it’s good for buyers. It’s different for interest rates. When interest rates goes up, it’s bad for both buyers and sellers. When interest [...]

The Mortgage Curmudgeon looks at these so called “Home Ownership Accelerator” loans. [This type of loan] is overhyped as an early payoff tool, because the prospect of paying off early captures people’s attention. However, while the intra-monthly interest savings described earlier are real, they don’t add up to much. To pay off a 30-year loan [...]

“Higher productivity growth in the third quarter coupled with a larger-than-expected decline in consumer confidence in November sent mixed signals to the current state of the economy,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “As a result, there were no definite upward or downward pressures on mortgage rates this week.

“Reports of weaker consumer spending in September and a decline in manufacturing activity in October kept mortgage rates at bay this week,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Rates for long-term mortgages were little changed while rates for ARMs fell following the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut.