C21AGVoices

In a near-unanimous vote, the House of Representatives gave the FHA power to raise the monthly mortgage insurance premiums it charges to its borrowers.

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A mortgage approval is never final until it’s funded. A host of things can “go wrong” while your home loan is underway. Some are in your control, many more are not. And just being aware of some potential pitfalls could help save your loan down the road, and your peace of mind today.

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The Federal Open Market Committee adjourns from a scheduled 1-day meeting today, its second of the year. The FOMC has held the Fed Funds Rate in a target range of 0.000-0.250 percent since December 16, 2008, and the voting members of the Fed are expected to vote “no change” again today.

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In November, Congress extended and expanded the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit program to include a subset of “move-up” buyers — homeowners that have owned and lived in their home for 5 of the last 8 years. The credit ranges up to $8,000 per buyer. There’s now just 7 weeks left to take advantage. To be eligible, home buyers must be under contract for a new home no later than April 30, 2010, and must be closed no later than June 30, 2010.

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Because of how frequently bank rules are changing, it can be hard for laypersons to distinguish between mortgage fact and fiction of what’s coming next. Recently, we saw this with respect to FHA home loans.

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The Fed Minutes is a follow-up document, delivered 3 weeks after an official FOMC meeting. It’s a companion piece to the post-meeting press release, detailing the debates and discussions that shaped our central bankers’ policy decisions. The Minutes is a terrific look into the Fed’s collective mind and, yesterday, Wall Street didn’t like what it saw.

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In a statement issued Wednesday, the Federal Housing Authority outlined policy changes to its mortgage assistance program. The shift is meant to both reduce the government group’s portfolio risk while strengthening its overall financials. For consumers, the changes mean higher costs.

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Mortgage rates are dropping this morning on weaker-than-expected Retail Sales data from December. Lower rates means more bang for your home-buying buck.

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There’s a lot of talk on CNBC and elsewhere about what’s coming in 2010. Before you take those predictions to the bank, just remember that analysts do a much better job interpreting data from the past than projecting it into the future.

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APR is an acronym for Annual Percentage Rate.  It’s a government-mandated calculation meant to simplify the comparison of mortgage options. A loan’s APR can always be found in the top-left corner of the Federal Truth-In-Lending Disclosure. Because APR is expressed as a percentage, many people confuse it for the loan’s interest rate.  It’s not.  APR represents the total […]

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