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Help for hurting homeowners
The Obama administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program is at last helping legions of American homeowners with upside-down mortgages. Nearly 1.1 million homeowners with little or no equity were...
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Homebuyers: 1 in 3 clueless about mortgages
Two new studies indicate that many people simply don’t know what they’re doing when they take out a mortgage. When the housing market started falling apart six years ago, much of the blame fell on...
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Underwater mortgage? Here are the facts
Home values are going up, and many struggling homeowners are gaining equity in their property. But nearly 14 million U.S. homeowners remain underwater — with mortgages worth more than their homes. More...
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Watch out. The mortgage securities market is at it again
Once upon a time, hardly anyone defaulted on a mortgage. Bankers made sure that their borrowers had mortgages they could afford, because if they didn’t, the bank would suffer a loss. Lenders were...
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More Than 13 Million Homeowners Underwater in Q1
The national negative equity rate fell in the first quarter, to 25.4 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, according to the first quarter Zillow Negative Equity Report. But another 18.2 percent of...
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Will higher mortgage rates kill the housing market? Maybe not!
Home prices have been soaring over the past year, the sharpest gains in seven years; construction activity is picking up nicely. Both trends have been driven in no small part by a steady drop in home...
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Homeowners Continue Shorten Loan Terms, Saving Billions
Homeowners who refinanced in the first quarter of 2013 maintained the approximate cash balance of the loan they were refinancing but in more than one quarter of the cases, they shortened the term of...
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Homeowners to pay more for federally insured mortgages
Homebuyers considering a government-insured mortgage should make extra room in their budgets. In an effort to reduce a potential budget shortfall, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will require...
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Housing outlook is bubble free for now, economists say
Despite double-digit price gains in many markets, the housing outlook is bubble free for now as the sector recovers over the next several years, experts say. Kicking off a panel of economists...
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Top 5 Mortgage Myths
Many borrowers are misinformed about the process of finding and qualifying for a loan. Learn about the top misconceptions about mortgages and how to counteract them Feeling clueless about how to...
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Mortgage Refinancing: Trend of Refinancing into Shorter Mortgages Growing in...
The recent spike in mortgage rates has led to the refinance market slowing down a bit, but homeowners appear to be moving to shorter mortgages from longer ones, according to a report from the Los...
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HARP needs more than a deadline extension
Homeowners who haven’t refinanced their mortgage because they owe more than their home is worth might have another shot at refinancing now that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has extended...
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Rising Mortgage Rates Swing Housing Sentiment
Just as America’s homeowners were finally coming up for air, they are suddenly turning more negative on the housing market. Fewer people think now is a good time to buy or to sell a house, according to...
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HARP has been a boon for AZ borrowers
Although some of the early federal mortgage-relief programs struggled to gain traction, one effort continues to help Arizona homeowners lower their mortgage interest rates and monthly payments....
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Investors are moving out of housing. Here’s why
They swarmed the distressed housing market, buying thousands of foreclosed properties and pushing prices higher faster than anyone expected. Now investors are pulling back, dissuaded by the higher...
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Phoenix Housing Market Ranks Third For Boomerang Buyers
Initially, financial experts estimated that it would take boomerang buyers up to seven years before they could qualify for a mortgage to buy again. However, many former homeowners in Phoenix are opting...
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Regulators Are Set to Loosen New Mortgage Rules
In his State of the Union address, President Obama said overlapping regulations were keeping “responsible young families from buying their first home.” He called for change: “Let’s streamline the...
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Housing Inventory Rose in July
The number of homes being offered for sale is rising heading into the softer part of the summer, a sign that higher home prices could be encouraging more sellers to test the market, according to a...
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Homeowners await HARP expansion
Despite all the buzz surrounding the housing market’s recovery this year, many U.S. homeowners remain in distress. They are still “underwater” on their mortgages, still struggling to make payments and...
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About half of Las Vegas homeowners are still underwater
Despite improvements in the housing market, Las Vegas remains well underwater. Some 48.4 percent of valley homeowners with mortgages were underwater — meaning their debt outweighed their home’s value —...
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