C21AGVoices

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 […]

[Read more →]

For today’s home buyers and homeowners that can manage the higher monthly payments, 15-year fixed rate mortgage rates look attractive as compared to comparable 30-year products. The 15-year/30-year interest rate spread is near its 5-year high. As a result, the savings afforded by the 15 year mortgage is at its 5 year high also. Despite […]

[Read more →]

Image via Wikipedia It seems clear if you have never owned a house that you are eligible for the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit. But many consumers have different situations and have been asking me questions about the tax credit and if their situation  would allow them to be eligible. The new tax […]

[Read more →]

Image via Wikipedia The First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit has had a great impact on the housing market this year. In the industry we have watched the market get better every quarter this year, due in large part to the numbers of first time home buyers that came into the market to get their […]

[Read more →]

The national housing supply fell to a 2-year low last month, according to the National Association of Realtors®. At the current sales pace, existing home inventories would sell out in 7.8 months — 30 percent faster versus November 2008. For a 10-month window, that’s a major housing supply reduction and it helps to explain why […]

[Read more →]

Image by reeltor99 via Flickr Its hard to decide what to write about this morning. Last night the Phillies faced the Yankees in the World Series for the first time since 1950 (when the Whiz Kids took on the New York Team) and they won – even though the game was in New York. That’s […]

[Read more →]

IMG_0745, originally uploaded by reeltor99. Well maybe not everybody, and maybe not quite recovered yet, However a consensus of several major real estate groups says that 2010 is the time for the expansion of the real estate market. According to several studies, the market of 2009 will mark the end of the real estate “contraction” […]

[Read more →]

It seems that this may be another in what is appearing to be a string of articles about the possibly recovering housing market. After years of continuous bad news, the housing market continues to surprise.  Last week, the latest good news came in the form of the monthly Existing Home Sales report. An “existing home” […]

[Read more →]

Foreclosure-tracker RealtyTrac reports that the number of foreclosures nationwide rose 7 percent on a month-to-month basis last month. However, 3 states dominated the foreclosure list, tallying more foreclosures between them than the rest of the country combined. California : 30.0 percent Florida : 15.7 percent Arizona : 5.4 percent On a per-household basis, the states ranked […]

[Read more →]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate within its target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. It also reiterated plans to support the mortgage market to the tune of $1.5 trillion. In its press release, the FOMC noted that the U.S. economy is “leveling off” and that financial markets continue to improve. The […]

[Read more →]