http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1 Your platform for voicing your opinions about the housing market. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:26:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en For the first time in its history, the FHA changed its funding fees and mortgage insurance structure this week.  FHA-insured home loans are now subject to a risk-based pricing adjustment, as shown by the table above. Because of risk-based pricing, FHA home loans are now more expensive for borrowers with less-than-ideal credit profiles, ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/18/mandatory-fha-loan-fees-increase-for-some-fall-for-others/ Another day, another piece of inflationary data. June's Consumer Price Index showed a 5 percent year-over-year increase in what is now the largest annual Cost of Living increase for Americans in 17 years. This is bad news for both home buyers and homeowners in want of a new mortgage because rising costs ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/17/mortgage-rates-spike-on-highest-cost-of-living-index-since-1991/ Last week, Forbes Magazine published a Top 10 list that should grab the attention of housing market bottom-feeders. The Top 10 list of Increasingly Affordable U.S. Housing Markets shows that falling home prices and steady mortgage rates are providing a support floor in some of the country's most beat-up regions. The report's methodology ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/16/10-cities-that-may-be-signaling-that-the-worst-of-housing-may-already-be-over/ Mortgage markets have turned their attention back to the U.S. economy this morning, causing yesterday's rate improvements to unwind a bit. Rates had fallen Monday after the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury's joint announcement in support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Today, it's the data that is taking center stage. Most ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/15/fannie-and-freddie-are-yesterdays-news-says-the-market/ Mortgage rates fell slightly in a week that included a bank failure, more oil price spikes, and questions about the health of the nations' mortgage market. Rates would have fallen more if not for a late-Friday sell-off that added 0.125 percent to most products. As financial markets fell under stress, most ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/14/looking-back-and-looking-ahead-july-14-2008/ "Economic uncertainty" is turning into a 2008 buzzword and there's good reasons why. On the one hand, there are precursors to inflation in the economy: Rising oil costs Rising food prices Higher Cost of Living On the other hand, there are precursors to recession in the economy, too: Mounting job losses Less access to credit and/or loans Falling ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/11/how-is-the-economy-doing-it-depends-who-you-ask/ According to RealtyTrac, the rate of foreclosures across the U.S. is slowing. Versus May, June foreclosures fell at a 3 percent clip. 25 states showed improvement month-over-month, led by many of the same areas that had fueled foreclosure activity in 2007. A sampling of RealtyTrac's data includes: California : Foreclosures down 4.54 ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/10/foreclosure-rates-are-falling-despite-what-you-see-in-the-headlines/ A noon-hour, mortgage-bond rally rendered homes more affordable for Americans Tuesday. It was the second straight day on which this happened.On both days, the action was swift. The speed at which Monday's and Tuesday's respective rallies tore through mortgage markets illustrates how deep the uncertainty that surrounds the U.S. economy really is. One ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/09/the-sheep-effect-on-your-housing-payment/ It's a terrific time to buy a home, but not because homes happen to affordable.It's a terrific time to buy because the variety of mortgage products available to home buyers looks poised to shrink. Monday, Alt-A mortgage lender IndyMac Bank stopped accepting mortgage applications and it's likely that other Alt-A lenders ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/08/why-july-may-be-the-best-time-to-write-a-purchase-contract-in-2008/ Last week was fairly uneventful in the mortgage markets, with rates slightly edging lower across the board and without much data to influence trading. Even Thursday morning's hotly-anticipated jobs report was met with lukewarm interest; many traders had already left for the weekend. Mortgage rates just drifted -- a little up and little ... http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/07/looking-back-and-looking-ahead-july-7-2008/