Just one week after reports of Existing Home Sales and New Home Sales plunging, the housing market signaled that the next few months may fare better than did May and June.

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1. Pending Home Sales Data Forecasts Higher Home Values Next Month
2. 5 Months In A Row : Pending Home Sales Rise Again
3. Pending Homes Sales Gain For The 7th Straight Month

June’s New Home Sales data is a major improvement over May, but gains are relative. It’s possible that the true “new home market” may be softer than the statistics suggest.

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1. New Homes Sales Were Strong in March, But Not As Strong As The News Would Have You Believe
2. Homeowners Rejoice! New Homes Sales Data Is Weak.
3. Pending Homes Sales Gain For The 7th Straight Month

West Portal, SF Market Trends as of July 23, 2010
If you have a West Portal home that you are thinking about selling now may be the perfect time.  There is solid buyer demand, the …

At 7,333 words, the June Fed Minutes is the unabridged version of the more well-known, post-meeting press release. The corresponding press release was just 360 words. It turns out, the Fed’s words are doing wonders for mortgage rates.

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1. The Fed’s April Minutes Push Mortgage Rates Even Lower
2. How The “Fed Minutes” Can Change Mortgage Rates And Home Affordability
3. Mortgage Rates Spike On The Federal Reserve’s January 2010 Meeting Minutes

Action Alert – Condo Bypass for TIC owners in S.F.

Here’s the scoop for S.F. homeowners as provided by Plan C:
We have good news to report regarding the proposed one time “condo bypass” for TIC owners, …

In a near-unanimous vote, the House of Representatives gave the FHA power to raise the monthly mortgage insurance premiums it charges to its borrowers.

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1. Separating FHA Fact From Fiction : Mortgage Insurance Premiums
2. Get Your FHA Mortgage Application Started — Fees Increase 1/2 Percent Starting Monday, April 5, 2010
3. The Rising Cost Of A Small Downpayment

April marks the third straight month that pending home sales are up and today’s buyers should take note. This is because, according to the National Association of Realtors®, 80% of homes under contract close within 60 days.

Related posts:

1. Pending Home Sales Shows That More Buyers May Be Shopping For Homes Than You Thought
2. Pending Home Sales Data Forecasts Higher Home Values Next Month
3. Pending Home Sales Soar In February, As Expected. Buyers Are Everywhere.

As lenders tighten mortgage guidelines, minimum downpayment requirements are increasing. It’s leading to an increase in the number of buyers accepting cash gifts from family. There’s a right and wrong way to accept a gift.

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1. How To Receive A Cash Gift For Downpayment
2. The Proper Way To Give And Receive Gifts For Downpayments
3. FHA Bans Seller-Financed Downpayment Assistance Programs

WEEKLY HOT RATES for the week ending 5/18/2010 as provided by Guarantee Mortgage

30 Yr Fixed Conforming to $417K           4.625%
“1.000″ POINTS APR = 4.820%
30 Yr Fixed Jumbo to $729,750 4.750%
“1.000″ POINTS APR= 5.080%
30 Year …

Why hiring a mortgage broker vs. working with a direct lender makes sense in today’s market!

As provided by the fine folks at Guarantee Mortgage (my comments are in red):

1.  Mortgage Brokers are trained to …

On March 25, 2010 California approved a new $10,000 First-Time Homebuyer tax credit for purchases that close escrow on or after May 1, 2010. (Cal. Rev. & Tax Code § 17059.1)
For full details …

CAR-Sponsored Bill to Protect Borrowers from Lenders—Call Your State Senator Today
As shared by SFAR:

The California Association of REALTORS® (CAR) is sponsoring SB 1178 (Corbett) to extend anti-deficiency protection to homeowners who had refinanced from “purchase …

Median Sales Price Continues Its Upward Trend
In San Francisco’s Housing Market

Here’s the scoop as provided by SFAR:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 17, 2010 – Healthy sales activity, driven by low mortgage rates, tax incentives, and attractive …

When I’m working with buyers or sellers, I run market trend reports for both the city/community and the specific neighborhood (if there is enough data) in addition to checking comps.  It’s important to keep in …

A mortgage approval is never final until it’s funded. A host of things can “go wrong” while your home loan is underway. Some are in your control, many more are not. And just being aware of some potential pitfalls could help save your loan down the road, and your peace of mind today.

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1. Did You Know : The Lifespan Of A Mortgage Approval
2. It’s Time To Re-Approve Your Pre-Approval
3. 6 Things To Avoid While Waiting For A Mortgage Approval

I’ve been pulled out from my temporary blogging hiatus by a post which has been brought on by the incredibly poor communication and service that buyers who are in contract on a property are encountering …

The Federal Reserve says that financial markets “remain supportive of economic growth”. Residential mortgage guidelines, however, continue to tighten. If you’ve applied for a home loan recently, you probably felt it; extra scrutiny on income, assets and credit scores, among other things. The hard proof of the changes, however, can be found in the Federal Reserve’s quarterly survey of its member banks.

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1. Banks Raise Mortgage Qualification Standards
2. Mortgage Approvals Are Getting More And More Scarce
3. Mortgage Lending Starts To Show Signs Of A Thaw

Shopping for mortgage rates takes more than good research skills. It takes a little bit of luck, too.

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1. With Mortgage Rates, You Can’t Shop For Good Luck
2. How Iceland’s Volcanoes Are Helping Mortgage Rates Fall
3. What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : November 23, 2009

More than 60 percent of U.S. homes are “over-assessed”, says an industry trade group. It causes homeowners to pay more in property taxes than they otherwise should have to. You might be one of them. Have you considered fighting it?

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1. Simple Real Estate Definitions : Escrow Account
2. How The Stimulus Bill Indirectly Lowered Mortgage Rates
3. Simple Real Estate Definitions : Quitclaim Deed

Volcanic eruptions and like natural disasters remind us: mortgage rates change for all sorts of reasons. Some we can predict, most we cannot. There’s literally thousands of influences on the U.S. mortgage market. If you’ve been shopping for a home or floating a mortgage rate, luck’s been on your side.

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1. How Swine Flu Helps Mortgage Rates
2. What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : April 19, 2010
3. Forget The Dow Jones: How The Treasury’s Economy Revival Outline Helped Mortgage Rates

Not all home improvements are created equal. Especially if you’re looking for “resale value” back from your work. An article from the Wall Street Journal lays it out cleanly. Function beats flash these days so be wary of where you spend.

Related posts:

1. Get Your FHA Mortgage Application Started — Fees Increase 1/2 Percent Starting Monday, April 5, 2010
2. How Falling Gas Prices May Increase Your Home Purchasing Power
3. The Cost of Living Index Increases; Mortgage Rates Increase, Too.

Taxes are due April 15 and if you’re among the millions of Americans who wait until the last week to file, watch this video interview. It could help you reduce your federal tax liability.

Related posts:

1. Good Morning America: TurboTax vs Accountants
2. How “Repair Credits” To The Buyer Can Sabotage Your Home Sale
3. 7 Weeks Remain To Find A Home, Claim Up To $8,000 In Tax Credits

There’s just 30 days remaining to use the federal home buyer tax credit. The credit ranges up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers, and up to $6,500 for existing homeworkers who have lived in their main home for 5 of the last 8 years.

Related posts:

1. There’s 100 Days Left To Claim The Homebuyer Tax Credit
2. You’ve Got 15 More Days To Use The First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
3. Congress Expands And Extends The First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

Starting Monday, April 5, 2010, getting an FHA mortgage will be more expensive. That means you’ll want to give a full mortgage application before the weekend so your lender can register your loan in time for the deadline.

Related posts:

1. Separating FHA Fact From Fiction : Mortgage Insurance Premiums
2. It’s Semi-Official : New Conforming Mortgage Fees Go Into Effect Monday
3. Mandatory FHA Loan Fees Increase For Some, Fall For Others

If you’re among the Americans expecting a tax refund this year, this 4-minute piece from NBC’s The Today Show may be helpful. It’s a talk about how to receive a refund and what to do with it.

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1. The First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit : Use It By December 1, 2009 Or Lose It
2. How To Increase Your Household Cashflow By $500 Monthly
3. Just Because You Can Borrow From a 401(k) Plan Doesn’t Mean That You Should

CNNMoney.com recently published its 2010 forecast and projections for home prices in the country’s largest metro markets. Listed as “Top 25″ and also comprehensively by state, CNNMoney.com’s home price forecasts puts Santa Rosa, California at the top of 2010′s home appreciation list and Hanford, California at its bottom.

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1. The Worst Places To Find Local Real Estate Information
2. How The Case-Shiller Home Price Index Over-Simplifies Real Estate Markets
3. National Real Estate Data Lumps 128,203,000 Homes In America Into 1 Data Set

If you’re trying to gauge whether rates will be rising or falling, one keyword for which to listen is “inflation”. Mortgage rates are highly responsive to inflation.

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1. Ben Bernanke Leaves Clues About The Future Of Mortgage Rates
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3. Your Local Gas Station May Have Clues About Tomorrow’s Mortgage Rates

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.

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1. How To Refinance When Your Home Is Underwater
2. How To Know If You’re Eligible For A Making Home Affordable Refinance
3. The FHA Is Changing Its Streamline Refinance Guidelines November 2009

According to foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings topped 300,000 for the 12th straight month last month as 1 in every 418 U.S. homes received a foreclosure filing.

Related posts:

1. Foreclosures Continue To Concentrate Across Just 3 States
2. Foreclosures Concentrate In 4 States
3. In Pictures: The Severity Of The Foreclosure Crisis Depends On Where You Live

The relationship between your lender and agent is extremely important when purchasing a home. The new market environment has many more regulations, hoops and sharp turns and everything relating to your home purchase should be correct and accurate up front.
The lender doesn’t want any surprises, like a seller credit the day before the lender [...]

Related posts:

1. Simple Real Estate Definitions : Refinance
2. Simple Real Estate Definitions : Short Sale
3. Why Should I Have A Buyer’s Agent?