Mortgage Rates May Be Low, But That Doesn?t Mean You?ll Be Approved
Right now, the big news is that mortgage rates are at their lowest in years. It is no surprise, then, that mortgage applications are way up — especially in terms of refinancing. (One of my goals for the New Year is to refinance the house.) But the trickiness comes not from applying for the loan […]
Short Sale on the FHA Loan
One of the ways that you can avoid foreclosure is to engage in what is known as a short sale. A short sale is basically when you sell your home for less than what remains on the home mortgage loan. In many cases, mortgage lenders will take a loss in order to avoid an even […]
New Year?s Resolutions: What I Want for My Home in 2009
It?s that time of year when start making plans and contemplating what we want to happen in the coming year. This is natural, since the changing of the year provides a large milestone that invites introspection. Many people make resolutions ? setting goals that they hope to accomplish in the coming year. I am no […]
Refinancing: Consider Mortgage Term
Right now, home mortgage interest rates are at rather low levels. This is making refinancing a rather popular option right now. Indeed, as mortgage applications surge, it is refinancing that is the most popular reason for applying for a home mortgage loan. But if you are considering refinancing (as I am), consider mortgage term.
You don’t […]
Post-Christmas Personal Finance: Selling Your Gift Cards
When Christmas is over, many people begin to wonder how they can sell or exchange their gifts. And, as gift cards have become more popular, they are part of this speculation. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity offers some useful information on selling or trading your unwanted gift cards:
Selling you gift cards
First of all, when you sell […]
Buying a Home in 2009: What You Need to Know About Financing and Credit
With the coming New Year, many people start thinking about the changes they would like to make in the coming year. One of these changes is often to buy a new home. And, while buying a home required planning and preparation in the past, it requires even more now, thanks to the current state of […]
Christmas Traditions: Home for Christmas
One of the traditions that I love that my family does is to stay home for Christmas. When we first married, my husband and I decided that we wanted to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a relaxed way. And, since our family all lived hundreds of miles away, traveling was very inconvenient. We […]
Home Prices Reach Multi-Decade Lows
Home prices have reached lows not seen for nearly two decades, and home sales have declined rapidly. That’s the housing market news right now. Indeed, home sales dropped so quickly in November that it has been reported as “breathtaking” by The New York Times:
Sales of existing homes declined 8.6 percent last month, to a seasonally […]
Bush Administration to End FHA Secure, Despite Calls for Continuation
One of the programs that many mortgage industry and related groups has been fairly happy with has been FHA Secure. FHA Secure is a program that the Bush Administration put into practice back in August of 2007 when the first hints of a massive subprime mess were starting to be taken seriously. (Warnings, of course, […]
Fannie Mae Servicers Can Now Do Streamlined Loan Modification
Yesterday marked the first day that Fannie Mae servicers could offer streamlined mortgage loan modification through the Streamlined Modification Program (SMP) that was announced back in November. The program, reports Market Watch, is designed to help home owners in danger of foreclosure get loan modification more quickly:
