I get this question daily from my prospective buyers. “Do you have to pull my credit? I don’t want you to hurt my score that I have worked so hard to maintain.” A great question for today’s home buyers and refinancing households, the value of “good credit” has never been higher.
Years ago, that concern made more sense. Today, it doesn’t, because having a mortgage company pull your credit is very different from having Walmart do it. Continue reading
The housing market recovery appears to turning the corner, but Sacramento is behind the curve and still playing catch-up.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Home Price Index, home prices rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent between May and June 2012. The index is now up 3.0% over the past 12 months, and made its biggest quarterly gain since 2005 last quarter. Continue reading
After the The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged this morning, mortgage rates got worse. Why? The vote was nearly unanimous (9-1 vote).
In its press release, the Federal Reserve noted that the U.S. economy has “decelerated somewhat” since January. Beyond the next few quarters, though, the Fed expects growth to “remain moderate” and then gradually pick up. Remember, when there is bad news for the economy, rates improve. And when there is good to moderate news, rates get worse (see video explanation). Continue reading
For that matter, is the Real Estate Market in California truly getting better?
84 U.S. Markets Improved In July, and the Wall Street Journal proudly called an end to the housing crisis, a declaration made without hedge, stating, “the housing bust is over.”
Click on the Photo for Enlarged Version. Much easier to read!
With last Friday mornings report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Non-Farm Payrolls report. More commonly called “the jobs report”. Depending on the strength — or weakness — of the data, mortgage rates will change. As expected, the numbers were not as good as we hoped for and money started to flow into the “safe haven” of mortgage bonds. Continue reading