Carl Rizzuto's (crizzuto) Blog

Make A Mortgage Rate Plan Ahead Of The Jobs Report Been shopping for a mortgage rate? You may want to lock something down. Tomorrow morning, mortgage rates are expected to change. Unfortunately, we don’t know in which direction they’ll move. It’s a risky time for Florida home buyers to be without...

Mortgage Guidelines Resume Tightening Nationwide Despite an improving U.S. economy, the nation’s banks remain cautious about what they will lend, and to whom. Last quarter, by a margin of 3-to-2, more banks tightened residential mortgage lending standards for “prime borrowers” than did loosen the...

Pending Home Sales Index Crosses The 100 Barrier After a series of worse-than-expected data last month, the housing market appears to be back on track. The Pending Home Sales Index posted 101.4 in March, a four percent gain from the month prior and the index’s highest reading since April 2010 — t...

The Fed Starts A 2-Day Meeting Today. Make A Strategy. The Federal Open Market Committee begins a 2-day meeting today in the nation’s capitol. It’s the group’s third of 8 scheduled meetings this year. Mortgage rates are expected to change upon the Fed’s adjournment. Led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, ...

Homebuilder Confidence Slips 3 Points In April For the first time in 3 months, homebuilder confidence has slipped. As measured by the National Association of Homebuilders, the Housing Market Index dropped three notches in April to a reading of 25. The report measures homebuilder confidence in the...

Mortgage Rates Fall For Third Straight Week After a brief surge north of 4 percent last month, mortgage rates have settled down, near their lowest levels of all-time. According to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, for applicants willing to pay 0.7 discount points plus a complet...

Homes Get More Affordable On March Jobs Data Americans continue to get back to work. Last Friday, in its Non-Farm Payrolls report for the month of March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced 120,000 net new jobs created, plus combined revisions in the January and February reports of +4,000 jo...