Mortgage Tips
Simple tips to help you save money on your mortgage.Assumable Mortgages: Set to Get Popular Once Rates Rise
Everyone knows mortgage rates are super cheap right now. And just about everyone believes they won’t last very long at this level. In fact, tomorrow Ben Bernanke will testify before the Joint Economic Committee regarding the direction of the economy, ... Read More »
Slowing Mortgage Market Could Lead to Looser Lending
The forecast for the 2013 residential mortgage market wasn’t all that optimistic. Back in December, the Mortgage Bankers Association said it expected refinance volume to slip to $785 billion from $1.2 trillion in 2012, while purchase money mortgage activity was ... Read More »
How Long Do You Plan to Keep Your Mortgage?
The mortgage landscape has changed a ton over the past several years. Mortgage lending guidelines have firmed tremendously since the crisis took hold, and mortgage rates have fallen to all-time lows. Meanwhile, home prices seem to have bottomed, and decent ... Read More »
Will High Quality Mortgages Prevent Another Housing Bubble?
After the previous mortgage boom and subsequent crash, many questions were asked regarding what exactly went wrong. There was plenty of finger pointing, from overreliance on credit scores, to endless investor speculation, to Wall St. packaging substandard mortgages and the ... Read More »
What Is a Lender Overlay?
Mortgage Q&A: “What is a lender overlay?” If you’ve been studying guidelines recently to determine if you’re eligible for a mortgage, it’s important to understand that they can vary widely from bank to bank. In a nutshell, lenders have different ... Read More »
Bidding Wars and Appraisal Concerns
A few years back, home prices were on the decline, big time. The bubble had finally burst and the housing crisis was in full swing. To put it mildly, prices just moved too high too quickly, and had to fall ... Read More »
Why Every Mortgage Lender Will Disappoint You
People constantly ask me if a particular lender is good, bad, or should be avoided at all costs. They also ask who the best mortgage lender is, often citing some customer satisfaction survey or what not. Or whether they should ... Read More »
Why Private Mortgage Insurance Stocks Are Surging
Over the past six months, private mortgage insurance stocks have gone absolutely bonkers. Radian (NYSE:RDN), which wrote the most new business in 2012 per Inside Mortgage Finance, has seen its stock price rise 115.04% in the past six months. That’s ... Read More »
Preparing Yourself for the Sellers Market
Whether you like it or not, the buyer’s market of the past couple years or so has come to an abrupt end. Now, sellers have the upper hand, with multiple offers streaming in and properties selling way above list. Don’t ... Read More »
Why Are Mortgage Payments Mostly Interest?
Mortgage Q&A: “Why are mortgage payments mostly interest?” Here’s an interesting mortgage question – pun intended. The way mortgages are set up here in the United States, each monthly payment is the same amount, assuming it’s a fully amortizing fixed-rate ... Read More »
