LOS ANGELES (AP) — A resurgent housing market, rising home values and steady job gains are helping more U.S. homeowners stay on top of their mortgage payments.
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Tag Archives: mortgages
Negotiating your first mortgage? Check out these tips
It’s been a lot of hard work, but you are finally ready to join the ranks of the home-owning class.
You’ve paid off your debts, socked away enough money for a decent down payment, trolled through open houses and found the perfect place. Your offer has been accepted and you have two months to close the deal.
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Mapping the Mortgage Interest Deduction Debate
If the tax deduction for mortgage interest were taken away today, not every taxpayer would suffer alike, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100700951
Mortgage rates fall, 15-year fixed at record
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.4% in the week ended April 25, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, out Thursday.
That’s down from 3.41% the prior week and headed toward the record low 3.31% of late November. The same week last year, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 3.88%.
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Energy Efficiency May Help Pay for Mortgages
Here’s some new impetus for those sitting on the fence over household energy efficiency: the risk of mortgage default is one-third lower for people with energy efficient homes, according to a recent study.
The study, released in March by the University of North Carolina’s Center for Community Capital, claims that energy efficiency can be the difference between mortgage repayment and foreclosure.
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Albertans taking steps to pay off their mortgage faster: Survey
CALGARY — A survey by Scotiabank shows that 69 per cent of Alberta mortgage holders say it’s possible to pay off their mortgage faster without affecting their lifestyle.
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Mortgages with 10% or less down are on the rise
In another sign of the housing market’s brightening outlook, more home buyers are discovering conventional loans with down payments well below the 20% or higher levels of recent years.
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Signs of Easier Money for Mortgages
What was so unusual about Phillip Ratliff’s experience in getting approval for his first mortgage was that it wasn’t difficult at all — even though he could afford a down payment of only 5 percent.
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Refinance Demand Drives US Mortgage Applications Higher: MBA
Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week, driven by improved refinance demand as interest rates tumbled, an industry group said on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 4.5 percent in the week ended April 5.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100630052
Small lenders, brokers decry Ottawa’s mortgage plan
Ottawa’s plan to clamp down on mortgage securitization will make it harder for smaller lenders to compete with big banks, increasing their costs – and potentially raising mortgage rates, players in the sector say.
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