Nov 9th 2011 11:00AM
Mortgage applications increased 10.3 percent this past week as more homeowners refinanced existing mortgages or took advantage of lower interest rates to buy homes. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its market composite index -- a measure of loan application volume -- increased 10.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted... Continue Reading »
Sep 24th 2010 9:27AM
Just when you thought the housing market was out of the woods, a trusted financial sage delivered a scorched-earth assessment. Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker abandoned a speech to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago at the last minute yesterday to deliver an impromptu rant on the sorry state of the economy.... Continue Reading »
Aug 17th 2010 3:17PM
The big takeaway from today's "Future of Housing Finance" conference at the U.S. Department of Treasury was that everybody agreed to agree – more or less. It was a given that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be put into retirement, eventually. As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in his introductory remarks,... Continue Reading »
Apr 16th 2010 6:30AM
Worried about interest rates? If you're looking for a home loan, you can breath a little sigh of relief: after inching up in recent weeks, average interest rates fell back to their near-historic lows. Average interest rates for 30-year home loans slid to 5.07 percent (plus 0.6 percent in fees) for the week ending April... Continue Reading »
Mar 29th 2010 11:00AM
Many borrowers with existing mortgages are set to get a big break, thanks to the Obama administration's new support for forgiving loan principal, but it's getting tougher out there for new customers to get a mortgage. The latest to strike out are buyers trying to purchase apartments in New York's ritzy Battery Park City.... Continue Reading »
