educate2 earn's (educate2earn) Blog

Home affordability moved higher last quarter, buoyed by stable mortgage rates and falling home prices in AZ and nationwide. The National Association of Home Builders reports that Q1 2011 Home Opportunity Index reached an all-time high for the second straight quarter last quarter. Nearly 3 of 4 h...

Home values dropped for the sixth straight month in March 2011, according to the Federal Home Finance Agency’s Home Price Index. The Home Price Index is a government-sponsored home value tracker. The HPI report is the latest in a string of “falling home values” stories — a trend that’s troubling...

Mortgage rates across the state are near year-to-date lows, but locking them in this week may be difficult. As Memorial Day nears, and Wall Streeters get a head-start on the long weekends, trade volume in the mortgage bond markets will dip. When bond volume drops, mortgage rates get jumpy. It’s a...

Mortgage markets were unchanged last week, despite improving on four of five days. Economic data was worse-than-expected almost across the board, but neither FHA nor conforming mortgage rates in AZ budged. Instead, markets grappled with the just-released Fed Minutes which weighed heavily on inve...

The Federal Reserve released its April 2011 Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes Wednesday. In the hours since, mortgage markets have worsened; rates in AZ are higher by 1/8 percent this morning, at least. The “Fed Minutes” is published 8 times annually, three week after each scheduled F...

Single-family housing starts dropped by 21,000 units in April on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis. The Housing Starts report measures the number of homes on which new construction “broke ground”. It’s tracked by the U.S. Department of Commerce which releases new data monthly. Single-family hou...

  Mortgage markets worsened overall last week for the first time in 5 weeks. Better-than-anticipated economic data plus dwindling concerns for Greece’s sovereign debt combined to a spark a bond sell-off. Conforming mortgage rates moved higher in AZ as a result. Rate shoppers were hit especially h...

When a mortgage applicants chooses an adjustable-rate mortgage over a fixed-rate one, he accepts a risk that — at some point in the future — the mortgage’s interest rate will rise. Lately, though, that hasn’t been the outcome. Since mid-2010, conforming mortgages have adjusted below their initia...

When a mortgage applicants chooses an adjustable-rate mortgage over a fixed-rate one, he accepts a risk that — at some point in the future — the mortgage’s interest rate will rise. Lately, though, that hasn’t been the outcome. Since mid-2010, conforming mortgages have adjusted below their initia...

With housing prices down across the country, there are a lot of homeowners in Mesa barely breaking even on their respective home sales. Some are even losing money. You may find yourself in that position, too; wanting to sell, but worried about bringing cash to your own closing. It creates an int...