First Time Home Buyers
From the monthly archives: February 2008
When buying a home, there are two stages in the home loan approval process.
Stage 1 starts when a homebuyer submits a mortgage application to his loan officer for a pre-approval.
A pre-approval is a "walk-through" mortgage approval that says — at a given purchase price and downpayment amount — the home loan application [...]
Continue Reading →Mortgage Bonds experienced another volatile session yesterday and are in the midst of another one today. There is no way to overemphasize how volatile the market has been this year.
Bonds tested the 100-day moving earlier today and have since retreated. These moving averages can act, on bond pricing, as ceilings (meaning rates ultimately [...]
Continue Reading →When buying a home, there are two stages in the home loan approval process.
Stage 1 starts when a homebuyer submits a mortgage application to his loan officer for a pre-approval.
A pre-approval is a "walk-through" mortgage approval that says — at a given purchase price and downpayment amount — the home loan application [...]
Continue Reading →The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for February came in much lower than expectations. This is the lowest reading since the last recession.
Tuesday’s sell-off was the worst in nearly ten years, but we are seeing some buoyancy in the market. Overall, we’re in a better position having broken tested the 200-day moving average prior [...]
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2/20/2008
Effective February 21, 2008, the Illinois Housing Development Authority will change its interest rates for the First-Time Homebuyer Program. The new rates for both “nontargeted” and “targeted” properties are as follows:*
6.25% – 0 Points
6.10% – 1 Points
5.95% – 2 Points
For homebuyers and homeowners expecting low mortgage rates this week, Tuesday marked the unofficial end to basement 30-year fixed mortgage rates.
According to the market analysts at BestInfo, Inc., the 30-year fixed rate measured its largest one-day movement in more than 10 years Tuesday.
Nationally, 30-year fixed mortgage rates increased 0.375%.
Here is [...]
Continue Reading →Another crazy day. After yesterday’s market collapse added to a 350 basis point fall in pricing (meaning rates are rising), today opened up down another 34 basis points. On a wild ride, they’ve recovered nearly 70 basis points since.
What
Continue Reading →There was a pretty good article in the Tribune today. The Revenue Department may begin collecting Transfer Taxes, at the new 40% higher rate, even on contracts where the buyer has already forfeited their earnest money.
Continue Reading →Early last week, mortgage rates rose on strong consumer spending and Warren Buffett's offer to assume $800 billion in debt from three major bond insurers.
Both reports were interpreted as signs of long-term strength in the economy, leading mortgage rates higher for long-term products such as the 20- and 30-year fixed rate mortgage. [...]
Continue Reading →Interest rates are rising quickly on positive news in the stock market. Wal-Mart reported far better than expected sales and earnings for fourth Quarter 2007 setting an all-time sales record over $100 billion.
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