Feb 28
Existing Home Sales continued their upward climb in January. This is the fourth month in a row where we have seen month-over-month gains in the number of units sold. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales rose 2.7% from December. Also, the inventory levels decreased again: The number one reason that the housing market …
Feb 28
Mortgage rates dropped last week, but, this week, there appears to be more reasons for rates to rise than fall. Plan accordingly.
Feb 24
Home resales rose another 2.7 percent last month, according to the National Association of REALTORS® monthly Existing Home Sales report.
Feb 23
Inflation fears are harming home buyers. The Cost of Living has reached a record level, surpassing the former peak set in July 2008. Mortgage rates would be rising more right now if not for the Middle East unrest.
Feb 18
The Federal Reserve released its most recent meeting minutes Wednesday. Fed Minutes are the unabridged version of the succinct, more well-known “Fed Statement” that’s released immediately post-adjournment. Although the Fed indicates a willingness to allow inflation to occur, it appears ready to act in case inflation goes too high. One way that the Fed responds to rising inflation is to raise the Fed Funds Rate and many economists believe this will start happening by late-2011 or early-2012.
Feb 17
Annualized Single-Family Housing Starts dropped 1 percent in January to 413,000 units nationwide, it’s lowest reading almost 2 years. The headlines would have you believe otherwise.
Feb 16
Homebuilder confidence in the market for newly-built, single family homes appears stable as the spring buying season gets underway.
Feb 15
Tuesday, the Census Bureau released its national January Retail Sales figures and, for the seventh straight month, the data surpassed expectations. Last month’s retail figures climbed 0.3 percent as total sales receipts reached an all-time high. It’s good news for the economy which is scratching back after a prolonged recession, however as we have discussed in previous postings, if you’re looking for a mortgage — rates have been going up since November and are not going to turn around anytime soon.
Feb 11
Mortgage rates may be on an upswing, but we are still enjoying some of the best rates in decades. Over the last 7 days, conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates have jumped 24 basis points, or 0.24%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.