Mortgage Industry Blog

What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : May 31, 2011   Mortgage markets improved last week ahead of Memorial Day and a 3-day weekend. Bond pricing ending the week higher, pushing conforming mortgage rates in South Carolina down for the 5th week out of six. Most economic news reported worse-th...

  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 troublin...

New Home Sales Increase For The Second Straight Month Sales of newly-built homes surprised Wall Street, jumping 7 percent to an seasonally-adjusted, annualized 323,000 units last month. In addition, the supply of new homes dropped to 6.5 months - a 2-month decrease from October 2010 and the best ...

Memorial Day Messes With Mortgage Rates   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 volu...

What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : May 23, 2011   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 South Carolina budged. Instead, markets gra...

Distressed Homes Now Selling At A 20 Percent Discount   The housing market recovery stalled last month. At least temporarily. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, Existing Home Sales slipped 1 percent in April from the month prior, falling to 5.05 million units on a seasonally-adju...

Fed Minutes Put The Heat On Mortgage Rates To Rise   The Federal Reserve released its April 2011 Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes Wednesday. In the hours since, mortgage markets have worsened; rates in South Carolina are higher by 1/8 percent this morning, at least. The "Fed Minutes"...

Building Permits Fade Faster Than Expected   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 ...

Home Builders Seeing More Sales Today; Fewer Sales Tomorrow   Home builder confidence can't shake its range, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The group's monthly Housing Market Index put May's builder confidence reading at a level of 16. The Housing Market Index is scored o...

What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : May 16, 2011   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 high...