You may want to stop waiting and start moving on the purchase your new home or refinance of your existing home; the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage rose sharply this week after falling below 4 percent for the first time in history. Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year fixed loan rose to 4.12 percent. That’s up from 3.94 percent last week, the lowest rate ever, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. The average...continue reading...

Here is the latest update from our mortgage partner Dean Brown with Samuel Scott Financial Group.  Mortgages have never been less expensive but still face lots of challenges due to harder qualification guidelines.  See below: People say that “life is full of surprises.” And indeed, last week’s Jobs Report contained several surprises. Read on to find out if they were good or bad...and what they meant for home loan rates. Overall, the Jobs Report wasn’t great, but it did surprise by being...continue reading...

As you may of heard, President Bush signed into law the "Economic Stimulus Act of 2008" on February 13th. In addition to several other benefits for consumers, it provides temporary conforming loan limit increases in high cost areas. The new temporary loan limit increase will be calculated by taking 125% of area median home values and adjust the loan limit accordingly. Currently, there are 30 MSA's (Metropolitan Statistical Area), half of which are in California. HUD has 30 days from when...continue reading...

Tuesday was an important day for the markets. Bernanke and company lowered the Fed Funds rate 75 basis points to 3.50%. The largest move since 1984! There are growing concerns that the weakening US economy may spread to the international markets. Watching CNBC, there is talk about the small and large "R word." The small being a national recession and large representing a possible global slowdown. After five consecutive sessions of...continue reading...