Category Archives: Mortgage Loan

Rising mortgage rates are prompting some renters to jump off the fence and consider buying a home, so they don’t miss out.  Mortgage rates have seen a sharp rise in recent weeks. Mortgage applications for home purchases have risen 3 percent and are up 14 percent over year-ago levels, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently suggested that the Fed’s efforts to keep mortgage rates at record lows may be nearing an end soon.  “It’s amazing to see the frenzied pick-up in home buying, as renters […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a new rule in January that requires lenders to carefully scrutinize borrowers’ ability to repay their mortgages. The ability-to-repay rule, which first was greeted with positive reaction, now has some lawmakers and community banks concerned that it may cause lending to tighten even more at smaller banks, The Wall Street Journal reports. At a House hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers asked CFPB officials to tweak the new rule to make sure that it doesn’t have a negative impact on smaller banks. “One concern expressed […]

An infographic from Loans.org shows just how big a difference mortgage rates can make to lowering home buyers’ and home owners’ monthly payments over the years. For example, the infographic shows that a home owner in 2013 could pay $1,347.13 a month for a four-bedroom, three-bath home. But just four years earlier, in 2008, the average interest rate was nearly double at 6.03 percent and a monthly payment for that same size home averaged $1,503.70. The infographic shows mortgage rates from the 1980s to today and mixes in pop culture […]

With secondary mortgage market companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac making money again, there’s a good chance lawmakers in Congress will drag their feet on overhauling the country’s residential secondary mortgage market system, despite its almost 100 percent reliance on the federal government today. That’s according to Robert Couch, a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center housing commission that earlier this year published a 140-page report on how to reform the system titled “Housing America’s Future: New Directions for National Policy.” “Inertia is gaining momentum,” Couch told hundreds of REALTORS® […]

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac announced that it will make a new streamlined loan modification program for delinquent borrowers available now, instead of holding off the launch date to July 1 as originally planned. Mortgage servicers will be able to offer a streamlined modification to borrowers who are at least 90 days late on their Freddie-owned or guaranteed mortgage. Borrowers cannot be more than 720 days delinquent on their loan, however, to qualify. Also, the loan must be at least a year old. The new program will waive any document requirements […]

In an effort to address the country’s shadow inventory and relieve high-foreclosure areas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will sell thousands of severely delinquent mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Throughout the summer ahead, HUD will sell approximately 20,000 distressed loans via the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program in an attempt to increase recoveries to FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund from non-performing FHA-insured loans, while contributing to stabilization and recovery in communities that took the hardest hit during the housing recovery. The offerings by HUD will […]

Fixed-rate mortgages pushed lower for the fifth-consecutive week, with low mortgage rates further driving the housing recovery over the near term, says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. This week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hovered near its all-time record low, while 15-year rates set a new record. Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending May 2, 2013: 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.35 percent, with an average 0.7 point, just shy of its 3.31 percent record set during the week of Nov. 21, 2012. […]

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage reached a new all-time record low this week, averaging 2.61 percent, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. The 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage also reached a new record low this week of 2.58 percent. This marked the fourth-consecutive week mortgage rates inched lower. “The housing market is getting a boost with mortgage rates hovering at or near record lows,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. Freddie Mac reports the following national averages for mortgage rates for the week ending April 25: 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: […]

A new report finds that borrowers who had their mortgage payments reduced as part of the Home Affordable Modification Program are still failing at an “alarming rate” to stay current on their mortgage. The borrowers had their mortgage payments reduced, on average, by more than $400 a month. For example, 46 percent of a few thousand permanent HAMP modifications issued in 2009 during the third quarter have re-defaulted. Nearly 40 percent of those made in the fourth quarter of 2009 also have re-defaulted, according to the report from the Troubled […]

As housing values rise, home-equity loans and lines of credit are staging a comeback, MSN Money reports. In late 2008 as the housing market slowed dramatically, home-equity borrowing came to nearly a standstill as lenders became cautious because values were falling so quickly. By late 2011, nearly a third of U.S. homes with mortgages owed more on their loan than their house was worth. In markets where home prices are rising, though, lenders are starting to issue equity loans once again. New players have jumped in too. For example, Discover […]