The National Association of Realtors® recently called on FICO, developer of the credit scoring model of the same name, to revise some of its computations. At issue is the alleged negative impact on consumers when banks and credit card companies unilaterally reduce or cancel credit lines, even when...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) have joined forces to produce a series of YouTube videos aimed at helping consumers understand and negotiate the home buying process. The videos, previewed before an audience at the NAR convention...
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) used the forum of its 2010 Conference in New Orleans to urge the lending industry to make things easier to qualified buyers to become homeowners . NAR appealed primarily to the public sector, i.e. FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, which it said account...
Mortgage rates capped off a great week in sour fashion last Friday. After four days of stock selling induced rate rallying, lenders were finally forced to reprice for the worse on Friday. While mortgage rates did rise more than they have on average, the best 30 year conventional fixed loan rate was still...
Nearly 60 percent of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) surveyed by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) showed an increase in housing prices during the first quarter of 2010 when compared to levels one year ago. Even more have seen what NAR called "healthy gains" in home sales...
Mortgage rates held steady near aggressive levels yesterday. While we had more than one scheduled economic release to digest, trading in the bond market was slow as several overseas markets were out on holiday. Over the past week mortgage rates have slowly improved thanks to market participants allocating...
Mortgage rates improved a few basis points yesterday, but only enough to recover loan pricing losses that occurred the previous day. A lack of meaningful economics data combined with a generally slow trading environment have kept mortgage rates in a tight range this week. Although benchmark Treasury...
Consumer mortgage borrowing costs improved a few basis points yesterday as prices of mortgage backed securities ticked higher, recapturing the price losses that occured late last week. As the price gains held through close, most lenders repriced better, lowering consumer borrowing costs by 0.125 to 0...
Its been a wild week in mortgage rate land. Lenders have repriced for the better, they have repriced for the worse, only to reprice for the better again! And that's just two days of action. Its been a roller coaster ride to say the least, but some how we've managed to end up right back where...
Mortgage rates held steady yesterday despite a healthy rally in the stock market. Lenders were able to keep mortgage rate sheets mostly unchanged as prices of mortgage backed securities held to a tight range throughout the day. President Obama released his 2011 Budget yesterday morning. We were hoping...