Mortgage rates hit 4.61 pct








The time to buy is now! Home prices have dropped by nearly 30% to at or near 2003 levels and rates are still historically low..... BUT CLIMBING!

By JANNA HERRON, AP Real Estate Writer Janna Herron, Ap Real Estate Writer –

NEW YORK – Rates on fixed mortgages rose for the fourth straight week this week. The surge could slow refinancings and further hamper the housing market.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rates on 15- and 30-year fixed loans increased sharply from last week. Mortgage rates tend to track the yields on 10-year Treasury bonds. Those yields have been rising as investors anticipate Congress will extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years and long-term unemployment benefits for 13 months.

The 30-year…

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KIRKLAND, Wash. (Dec. 6, 2010) – Northwest Multiple Listing Service members recorded a few pleasant surprises last month. Pending sales during November outgained the same month a year ago, marking the first year-over-year increase since April, when the tax credits expired.

Also noted as encouraging were an upswing in relocation sales, shrinkage in the number of new listings added to inventory, and a year-to-date volume of closed sales that is outpacing 2009.

Northwest MLS director OB Jacobi described last month’s gain in the number of transactions written as “surprising.” “That’s surprising, since November is typically one of the slowest sales months of the year, and this year we essentially lost a week to poor weather conditions.” Jacobi, the general…

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The Federal Fair Housing Act describes these words as discriminatory. In addition there are often State, County, and City ordinances that further expand on this list. As a rule when marketing homes however......

DO NOT USE THESE WORDS!

Able Bodied
Adult
African
Age
Agile
AIDS
Alcoholic
American
Ancestry
Arab
Asian
Bachelor
Black
Blind
Board Approval
Boy
Buddhist
Catholic
Caucasian
Chicana
Chicano
Child
Chinese
Christian
Church
Citizen
Colored
Congregation
Couple
Cripple
Deaf
Disability
Disabled
Drinkers
Elderly
Employed
Empty Nesters
English
Ethnic
Exclusive
Executive (such as "large executive house"
Families
Family
Female
Filipino
Filippino
Foreign
Gay
Gender
GentlemanGirl
Golden Age
Grandmas House
Guy
Handicap ("not suitable for")
Healthy
Heterosexual
Hindu
Hispanic
HIV
Homosexual
Hungarian
Immigrant
Impaired
…

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The Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) is vital to both home ownership and our economy.

I'm disappointed that anyone in Congress — or on a Presidential Commission — would even suggest limits to the Mortgage Interest Deduction. Mortgage interest has been deductible for nearly 100 years, and the proposed changes will affect all 75 million home owners in the United States. We must act now to make sure the MID is not changed.

Ever since the Deficit Commission announced its conclusions, the news media have been buzzing about the report. And what do they emphasize? Proposals to limit or even eliminate the Mortgage Interest Deduction. I'm concerned because all this does is scare the public — and potential buyers — away from the housing market. The…

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The idea of putting green features into a home sounds great, but, like other investments, home owners want to know they're getting at least some of their investment back when they resale, and home buyers want to know exactly what they're getting and paying for.

Both continue to be tricky issues when it comes to marketing a "green" home and placing a value on it, particularly at a time when the nearest comparable sale may be a foreclosure or bank owned home down the street.

"Greenwashing" has landed in the housing market, and it's proving to be a irritant that requires housing market professionals to become sleuths, as evidenced by complaints from real estate agents and builders from throughout the country who attended Greenbuild, a national conference on…

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Add the following supplies to your disaster supplies kit:
* Rock salt to melt ice on walkways
* Sand to improve traction
* Snow shovels and other snow removal equipment.

Prepare your home and family
* Prepare for possible isolation in your home by having sufficient heating fuel; regular fuel sources may be cut off. For example, store a good supply of dry, seasoned wood for your fireplace or wood-burning stove.
* Winterize your home to extend the life of your fuel supply by insulating walls and attics, caulking and weather-stripping doors and windows, and installing storm windows or covering windows with plastic.
* Winterize your house, barn, shed or any other structure that may provide shelter for your family, neighbors, livestock or equipment. Clear rain…

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The Seattle area has more than a year's worth of distressed home inventory, but most big metropolitan areas are worse off, according to a new report.

CoreLogic calculates distressed supply by dividing the number of properties that are at least 90 days delinquent on their mortgages by the number of sales. These homes stand a good chance of ending up on the market as foreclosures or short sales -- where a lender accepts less than the home is worth to avoid foreclosure -- further straining the fragile housing market.

"The weak demand for housing is significantly increasing the risk of further price declines in the housing market," CoreLogic Chief Economist Mark Fleming said in a news release. "This is being exacerbated by a significant and growing…

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NEW lending guidelines being rolled out by Fannie Mae will make securing a mortgage a lot easier for some borrowers but harder for others.
The rules, effective on Dec. 13, will allow buyers to use gifts and grants from nonprofit groups for their minimum 5 percent down payment, which is the threshold set by Fannie Mae, the government-owned company that sets lending standards and buys mortgages from lenders. (Freddie Mac is considering similar new guidelines, said Brad German, a spokesman.)

Previously, borrowers had to contribute a minimum 5 percent down payment from their own funds, but additional down payment money could be from a gift (though never from a home seller). The exception was for borrowers who put 20 percent down: all that money could come as a…

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By KENNETH R. HARNEY - WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

WASHINGTON — Here’s a home­owner credit torture scenario that has a major real estate lobby on Capitol Hill demanding immediate reforms.

Say a homeowner has a solid payment record on just about all his accounts. The last time he checked, his credit scores were comfortably in the 750s.

Suddenly he receives a notice from the bank that because of “market conditions,” the equity line limit has been cut to $35,000 — slightly above the $30,000 balance outstanding — from $60,000. Then one of his credit-card issuers delivers more bad news: The $20,000 limit has been reduced to $10,000. The balance on the card is about $9,000.

The cuts could send the home­owner’s credit scores plunging into the upper 600s.…

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Four years into the housing crisis, myths about foreclosure still litter the minds of even the smartest of real estate consumers. When it comes to matters as high stakes as your home, confusion can cost you thousands - or even your home. Whether you’re a buyer looking at foreclosures, a homeowner struggling to keep your home or a seller concerned making sure your home can compete with the foreclosed homes on your block, these foreclosure myths are prime for the busting, with no further ado.

Myth #1: Foreclosure happens fast. With unemployment and underemployment still affecting nearly 1 in every 4 Americans, no one is immune from fears that a pink slip might quickly turn into a foreclosure notice. According to NeighborWorks America, nearly 60 percent of…

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