Arizona Real Estate Notebook

“By June, futures trading indicates, the market thinks the Fed will have cut rates at least once, maybe twice.”

If you’re considering refinancing your 80/20 loan, this article from the RealEstateJournal.com should thoroughly confuse you.

6.09% and 0.6 points – 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending December 7, 2006. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 12/07/2006. “Continued signs of slowing in the housing market and weakness in the manufacturing sector helped keep mortgage rates down this week,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and [...]

“Soaring delinquencies are making some lenders more cautious, which is likely to put further pressure on the weak housing market.”

One of the many unsavory features of the home loan market is that borrowers, when they close on their loans, sometimes find their settlement costs substantially higher than the earlier estimates given to them in the Good Faith Estimate of Settlement (GFE). The Mortgage Bankers Association is proposing a 2% max increase in final lender [...]

6.12% and 0.4 points – 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending November 30, 2006. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 11/02/2006. “Mortgage rates drifted lower this week, bringing long-term rates to levels below those of this time last year,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Mortgage [...]

Like the story in the Arizona Republic last weekend, this story makes it sound like foreclosures in Waco, Texas will eat the county. Buried half way down it shows the number of foreclosure this year will be similar to 2004 and 2005. The headline should have been, “Residential foreclosures NOT rising… yet”

This article has a quick and dirty look at commercial lending in Arizona. “A business loan has to make sense not only from a financial point of view but from a business-ownership sense,” Staropoli said. “But that’s always been the case. If the buyer and business are qualified, there is absolutely no problem getting money.” [...]

A lot of stories have been written about foreclosures in the past week. “As soon as you go into foreclosure, you are deluged,” said Lauren Crandall, spokeswoman for the national nonprofit agency Homeownership Preservation Foundation. The agency runs a hotline, 888-995-HOPE, which connects struggling homeowners to trained counselors… “We talk about a lot of things [...]

Jack Guttentag; What is distressing about your story is the willingness of the builder and broker to take advantage of your inexperience and naiveté. They rid themselves of what to them is a minor business problem by leading you into financial disaster. Don’t fall for it. It could happen here.

Catherine is very cautious. Despite the steady march of mortgage rates toward 7 percent over the summer, housing analysts don’t expect rates to hit that psychological barrier for a while, maybe not even during 2007. I haven’t read of economists predicting 7% next year so, she is indeed very safe in using that as the [...]

As foreclosures take off next year and the following year, you’ll see a lot more articles like this and a lot more legislation. Adds Arizona Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard, “More and more, we’re seeing some real sharks, pretending to be the homeowner’s best friend, but what they are after is the equity in the house.”

6.16% and 0.7 points – 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending November 23, 2006. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 11/02/2006. “Housing starts in October were down more than expected, which the market saw as an indication housing would be a bigger drag on the economy than had previously been [...]

You often see these articles on checking your credit report. They’re useful. Answer: Yes, by law, everyone is entitled to one free credit report each year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies

This it the lowest interest rate estimate I’ve seen. JPMorgan Chase economist James Glassman, for instance, speculates the 30-year mortgage rate could fall as low as 5.75 percent in the coming months.

Worried about your ARM rate resetting? Read this article. A 3.5 percent rise in rate translates to about a 25 percent increase in p&i payment… Missing in the Bubble Apocalypse: nobody has to suffer the 3.5 percent reset! Because of the negative curve, anybody can refinance today to a rate close to 6 percent without [...]

Odds of interest rate cuts in early 2007 improve, “Overall, prices have risen 1.3 percent year-over-year, the smallest increase since June 2002.”

This article expands on the quote in my post on mortgage rates below. Freddie Mac says the biggest slowdown in the housing market may be past, and falling mortgage rates should help stimulate the market.

6.22% and 0.6 points – 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending November 16, 2006. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 11/02/2006. “Both long- and short-term mortgage rates fell this week on early signs that the threat of inflation may be waning,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief [...]

Nice, easy to understand overview of reverse mortgages. A reverse mortgage is just what it sounds like — instead of a homeowner making payments to the bank to pay off a mortgage, the bank pays the homeowner who has a significant amount of equity built up. The lender, in return, puts a lien on the [...]