Mortgage Loans

If you’re looking for a mortgage these days, either to buy a home or refinance your current home loan, one option you should definitely consider is a credit union.
Interest rates are often better than you can get from a commercial lender. And credit unions are often more flexible than big banks in who they’ll [...]

In the current real estate market, lots of potential home buyers are looking to pick up a great deal. But beware – some deals that look great on the outside could have a rotten core.
Say you’re been looking around, but you don’t have a lot of money for a down payment, so you’ve been looking [...]

Thinking about buying a second home? If you’ve been fortunate enough to come through the economic downturn relatively unscathed, you can get some real bargains on vacation properties these days. But getting a mortgage may be a challenge, even if your own finances are in good order.
The downturn in the real estate market has created [...]

With sharp declines in home values leaving millions of homeowners “underwater” on their mortgages, there is a growing clamor that many such borrowers would be better off to simply walk away and let their property go into foreclosure.
You can walk away from your mortgage. But you might not get very far.
Here’s the problem: giving up [...]

Shopping for a mortgage can be an intimidating process. If you think you’d like some help, you might consider going through a mortgage broker.
A mortgage broker doesn’t actually make loans, but instead helps you find a lender who will offer you a loan on attractive terms. In that respect they function like an independent insurance [...]

Looking for a great deal on a home? Buying through a short sale may soon become a lot faster and easier to do, thanks to a new federal program.
New rules for the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA), which take effect April 5, 2010 are designed to standardize the short sale process. The rules require [...]

Home prices appear to be very attractive right now, after sharp declines following the collapse of the housing bubble. It would seem to be a good time to buy, but what if prices fall still further? Is there a good way to tell if your area is overvalued?
Judging whether a housing market is overvalued is [...]

If you’re thinking about taking out an FHA mortgage to buy or refinance a home, there are some new rules you need to be aware of.
Beginning April 5, 2010, the up-front mortgage insurance premium on FHA mortgages is increasing substantially. Instead of 1.75 percent of the loan amount, the new premium will be 2.25 percent, [...]

Midnight has struck. The low-interest coach is turning back into a pumpkin. Borrowers who did not refinance or purchase a home by stroke of twelve have lost forever their opportunity to get a handsome prince of an interest rate.
At least, that’s the popular perception of what’s happening now that the Fed has officially concluded its [...]

If you’re looking to purchase a home or refinance a mortgage, your options are getting a bit slimmer.
Interest-only loans, already a rarity after the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, are just about to dry up completely. They won’t totally disappear, but getting one will go from difficult to extremely hard.
What’s happening is that Freddie [...]