In a holiday-shortened week on Wall Street, mortgage markets improved on 3 of 4 days, but still posted its fourth consecutive losing week. Unfortunately for rate shoppers and home buyers , last week’s 3 days of gains were mild improvements; the one day of deterioration was among the Top 10 worst days for mortgage bonds [...]

The Federal Reserve released its November 2-3, 2010 meeting minutes Tuesday afternoon. Mortgage rates have been on the move since. The Fed Minutes is a comprehensive review of Federal Open Market Committee meetings; a detailed look at the debates and discussions that shape our country’s monetary policy. The report is published 3 weeks to-the-day after [...]

After two months of surging sales, home resales fell by 100,000 units last month to 4.4 million homes nationwide. October’s Existing Home Sales tally is slightly below the report’s 6-month rolling average, according to the National Association of REALTORS

Black Friday is 3 days away. It’s the official start of the 2010 Holiday Shopping Season. Sales are expected to top $111 billion this year and, already, businesses are vying for shoppers and their dollars. Newspaper circulars are getting larger, and in-store discounting is more prevalent. But one discount that shoppers should think twice about [...]

Mortgage markets worsened last week as the U.S. dollar gave up ground in currency markets, and inflation concerns mounted. In response to the events, conforming mortgage rates rose for the third straight week. Mortgage rates have now climbed by as much as half-percent since the start of the month, and Freddie Mac reports average loan [...]

Rock-bottom mortgage rates may be gone for good. This week’s Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows in numbers what rate shoppers have learned the hard way — mortgage rates are spiking. During the 7-day period ending November 18, the average 30-year, conforming fixed rate mortgage jumped to 4.39 percent, an increase of 0.22% from [...]

Newspaper stories can be misleading sometimes — especially with respect to real estate. We saw a terrific example of this Wednesday. A “Housing Start” is a privately-owned home on which construction has started and, according to the Commerce Department’s October 2010 data, Housing Starts data dropped by nearly 12 percent as compared to September. The [...]

Homebuilder confidence is higher for the third straight month this month. According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, a combination of shrinking new home inventory plus higher-quality foot traffic is boosting builder optimism. November’s confidence reading of 16 is the highest since June 2010. The Housing Market Index is now [...]

Homebuilder confidence is higher for the third straight month this month. According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, a combination of shrinking new home inventory plus higher-quality foot traffic is boosting builder optimism. November’s confidence reading of 16 is the highest since June 2010.The Housing Market Index is now above [...]