admin's blog

The mortgage rate is showing a declining trend in recent times. The average rate on the 30-year fixed rate mortgage touched record low. In fact, the mortgage rate reached the lowest level since past 6 decades. On July 26, Freddie Mac commented that 30-year fixed rate mortgage declined to 3.49%. In the immediate previous week, the same rate was 3.53%. This is the lowest since the mortgage rate is being recorded since 1950s. This has surely opened up windows of opportunities for refinancing.

As property prices have reduced drastically, a large number of international homebuyers are ready to pour billions of dollars into the U.S. housing market. The international buyers want to take advantage of lower home prices as well as weaker dollar. But the home buying process is different in U.S. compared to other countries.

Here is a step by step description which will help foreigners to buy homes in the U.S.:

All of us, who have a property, always try to lower the property taxes. However, while lowering the property taxes, there are many people who are scammed.  The scam companies charge fees to dispute your property assessment and assure you to lower your property taxes. But, later on, many people find that they have lost their hard earned money in this process.

The underlying aim of mortgages is to help borrowers own their desired homes. One smart innovation in the mortgage market is the opportunity of refinancing. Refinance actually help you the borrower obtain a new mortgage loan with better terms. If you have right reasons and if you are the right candidate, you may become eligible for a mortgage refinance.

The economy has not yet entirely recovered from the recession that it witnessed in 2008. The job market has not also been able to create enough job opportunities for the unemployed. The returns generated by the stock market have been low or medium too. In other words, opportunities offered by the stock markets have declined. Returns generated by the bond market have also been reduced due to very low rate of interest. In other words, the so-called safe investments options have fetched meager returns. All these signal bad times for the retirees.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed new mortgage disclosure rules in order to bring further precision in residential lending. The new rules as proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have two elements into it:

In a new report published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it has been noticed that fewer mortgages were delinquent in the first quarter of 2012 compared to that first quarter of 2008 when the recession started. These improvements, as per the report, are due to the strengthening economy. Along with this, it is also due to the increased use of home retention loan modification programs offered by the government.

Let's take a look at the available data:

Equity release schemes are wonderful schemes for the elderly people who are planning to utilize their idle equities to make up for their low incomes. These schemes can be utilized for a variety of reasons such as for purchasing a new home, for holidaying purposes and for meeting any personal commitment.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has decided to withdraw the tough new rules that were going to take effect from July 1st, 2012. If the new rules have had come into effect, then it would have affected a huge number of borrowers who had one or more collection accounts or disputed bill accounts mentioned in their credit files wherein the aggregate amounts were $1,000 or greater. Experts opine that if the new rules would have gone into effect, and then 1 out of every 3 FHA loan applicants would have faced difficulty in getting a loan approval.

When you are purchasing a home with the help of a mortgage loan, one important thing is to get to know how much mortgage you can afford. This is very vital, because in case you overbuy, you find it difficult to repay the mortgage loan. Your affordability to purchase a home depends upon various factors such as your income, your monthly expenses, property taxes etc.