Photo: kid_proquo If you’re a first-time home buyer you might be interested to know that Dan Marino’s 10-bedroom, 12-bathroom mansion in Weston, Florida, is up for sale for $13.5 million. Marino originally listed the home in 2006 for $15.9 million, but recently decided to make his offer more enticing by cutting the price and throwing in some designer furniture and an autographed football. If those new incentives get you excited, you need to stop and take a breath. Would you really be induced to spend $13.5 million on a house only because the seller throws in an autographed football? ...

Housing sales have been on the rise thus far in 2009 as confidence in the real estate market rebounds. Though September saw a decline in the median sales price to $174,900 for a single family home, the number of homes sold each month has been steadily increasing. With consumers once again shopping for homes, we look at what the “average” home looks like around the country. Note: Scroll over a house to view the average home price in that area Real Estate Investing – Mint.com ...

AARP’s Sheilah Kast covered reverse mortgages in a 30 minutes session for Inside E Street on Retirement Living TV.  The segment includes an interview with Illinois Rep. Judy Biggert who said reverse mortgages are “a great financial tool”. Kast also interviewed Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank who is clearly behind the product and said that, “I’ve been a strong supporter of reverse mortgages, we improved it, expanded it, we did some protection against people being defrauded”. Frank also pointed out that until recently, reverse mortgages have always received a positive ...

Photo: kid_proquo If you’re a first-time home buyer you might be interested to know that Dan Marino’s 10-bedroom, 12-bathroom mansion in Weston, Florida, is up for sale for $13.5 million. Marino originally listed the home in 2006 for $15.9 million, but recently decided to make his offer more enticing by cutting the price and throwing in some designer furniture and an autographed football. If those new incentives get you excited, you need to stop and take a breath. Would you really be induced to spend $13.5 million on a house only because the seller throws in an autographed football? ...

The national housing supply fell to a 2-year low last month, according to the National Association of Realtors®. At the current sales pace, existing home inventories would sell out in 7.8 months -- 30 percent faster versus November 2008. For a 10-month window, that's a major housing supply reduction and it helps to explain why multiple-offer situations have been so common lately. Moreover, the same report from NAR showed sales activity reaching its highest point since July 2007, too. If you're looking for evidence that the long-standing Buyers Market is ending, this month's ...

With crude oil at its highest levels since October 2008, retail gas is up 8 cents per gallon this week. It's bad news for home buyers and mortgage rate shoppers.  The same force that's driving oil higher is linked to rising mortgage rates. We're talking about the weakening U.S. Dollar which is now at its worst levels versus the Euro in 15 months. Crude oil is priced in U.S. dollars, by the barrel.  When the dollar loses value, more of them are needed to buy the same barrel of oil.  As a result, predictably, the price of crude oil goes up. Now, there are other reasons why ...

Housing Starts on single-family homes gained last month, marking the 8th time that's happened this year. A "Housing Start" is a home for which the foundation has been excavated and, considered alongside other key market metrics, September data suggests that the housing market stabilization is complete. Momentum in housing is overwhelmingly positive: Homes under contract are soaring National home supplies are way down Home values are up in a lot of markets Despite the positive news, the press is calling September's Housing Starts data a "bummer". Citing a drop in monthly ...

The new Good Faith Estimate makes its debut January 1, 2010. Expanded from 1page to 3, the legislators responsible for the new Good Faith Estimate want it to be simpler for homeowners and home buyers to understand than the former version. By most accounts, Congress will meet this goal.  The new Good Faith Estimate includes plain-English explanations of every fee, charge, and interest payment involved in a purchase or refinance.  It also includes a section called "The Shopping Cart" in which applicants can compare lenders. The new Good Faith Estimate is concise, too.  Using ...