Mortgage Rates Category
How To Refinance Knoxville Home Mortgage When Your Home Is Underwater
March 12th, 2010 categories: General, HARP, Knoxville Short Sales, Market Trends, Mortgage Rates, Sellers
Are You Upside Down On Your Knoxville Mortgage and Need Some Help??
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has extended the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program by 12 months.
HARP’s new end date is June 30, 2011.
Originally known as Making Home Affordable, HARP aims to help Knoxville Tennessee homeowners refinance their mortgage who may otherwise be ineligible because of falling home values.
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Knoxville Home Buyers Only 7 Weeks Remain To Find A Home, Claim Up To $8,000 In Tax Credits
March 11th, 2010 categories: Buyers, General, Homebuyer Tax Credit, Market Trends, Mortgage Rates
Knoxville Home Buyers Now Is The Time To Buy!!
There many reasons to buy a home now like I pointed out in a post last week. This tax credit is just one of them.
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.
In addition to meeting the deadline dates, there’s a basic set of requirements to be tax credit-eligible:
- You can’t purchase the home from a parent, spouse, or child
- You can’t purchase the home from an entity in which the seller is a majority owner
- You can’t acquire the home by gift or inheritance
- Each buyer in the purchase must meet eligibility requirements
There’s other criteria, too.
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Don’t Rush To Refinance That ARM — It May Be Adjusting To 3 Percent Or Lower
March 11th, 2010 categories: Adjustable Rate Mortgages, Buyers, Mortgage Rates
If your mortgage is set to adjust this year, the smart move may be to let it. Today’s conforming mortgages are adjusting lower than ever before — as low as 3 percent. It may not be what you expected when you signed for your ARM several years ago.
The reason why ARMs are adjusting lower is because of how they’re made.
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Tying Friday’s Jobs Report To Rising Mortgage Rates
March 4th, 2010 categories: Jobs, Mortgage Rates, Statistics
Conforming and FHA mortgage rates in Tennessee have improved over the last 10 days, but that could all change this Friday with the release of February’s Non-Farm Payrolls report.
Non-Farm Payrolls is the official name of the government’s monthly jobs report and, given the fragile state of the U.S. economy, Wall Street will be watching it closely.
Mortgage rates could spike come Friday morning.
Jobs are an important part of the nation’s recovery. Among other concerns, unemployed Americans don’t spend as much money on goods and services, and are more likely to default on a mortgage. This retards economic growth and increases the potential for foreclosures.
When jobs numbers worsen, therefore, it follows that economic projections worsen, too.
Poor employment figures draw money away from the stock markets and into less-risky bond markets, including mortgage-backed bonds. Mortgage rates improve as a result. Conversely, when jobs numbers improve, stock markets gain and bond markets worsen.
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As The Supply Of New Knoxville Homes Grows, So Does The Opportunity For A “Good Deal”
February 25th, 2010 categories: Existing Home Sales, Home Price Index, Housing Starts, Market Trends, Mortgage Rates, New Home Sales, Sellers, Statistics
Knoxville New Home Buyers Don’t Miss Your Best Buying Opportunity Ever
The housing recovery showed particular weakness in the Knoxville New Homes Sales category last month — good news for Knoxville TN homebuyers in in the Knoxville Real Estate Market and around the country.
A “new home” is a home for which there’s no previous owner.
New Home Sales fell 11 percent from the month prior and posted the fewest units sold in a month since 1963 — the year the government first started tracking New Home Sales data.
Right now, there are roughly 234,000 new homes for sale nationwide and, at the current sales pace, it would take 9.1 months to sell them all. This is nearly 2 months longer than at October 2009’s pace.
The reasons for the spike in supply are varied:
- The original home buyer tax credit expired in November
- Weather conditions were awful in most of the country in January
- Weak employment and consumer confidence continue to hinder big ticket sales
Now, these might be less-than-optimal developments for the economy as a whole, but for buyers of new homes, it’s a welcome turn of events. Home prices are based on supply and demand, after all.
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How You Can Get The Most Accurate, Real-Time Mortgage Rate Quotes Available
February 23rd, 2010 categories: Buyers, Market Trends, Mortgage Rates
You can’t get your mortgage rates from the newspaper. Last week proved it. Again.
Friday morning, headlines in Tennessee and around the country read that mortgage rates were down 0.04 percent, on average, since the week prior.
A sampling of said headlines includes:
- US Mortgage Rates Drop For 2nd Straight Week (Reuters)
- Mortgage Rates On 30-year US Loans Fall To 4.93% (Business Week)
- 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Falls Farther Below 5% (Marketwatch)
The story behind the headline was sourced from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, am industry-wide mortgage rate poll of more than 100 lenders. The PMMS has reported mortgage rate data to markets since 1971 and is the largest of its kind.
Unfortunately, Knoxville rate shoppers can’t rely on it.
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