Northeastern PA Mortgage Blog by John Topa

Enclosed is a front page article from my local Scranton Times newspaper.  I just had to take action.  You should too.  Thanks, John Topa. Coziness returns to the Dunmore Senior Center     BY MEGAN REITER, STAFF WRITER Published: Friday, November 14, 2008 Updated: Friday, November 14, 2008 6:57 AM...

FHA, A Change Did You Good In the old days FHA loans had a stigma. A stigma of a hard to close loan where the seller had to help pay for alot of the buyers closing costs, make unnecessary cosmetic repairs, and just be a real pain to deal with.  Well those days are gone. Effective 1/27/06 (Mortgag...

More than a handful would-be home buyers stayed on the sidelines this year, waiting for Election Day to pass.  The prevailing thought was that once the new President-Elect was identified, credit markets will systemically unfreeze and housing markets will return to normal. If history is a guide, t...

To help ease everyones pain at the pumps, local mortgage advisor, John Topa of First Sunrise Mortgage is giving away $300 of gas rebates to everyone who gets pre approved before the end of the year.  According to John, the local Pennsylvania real estate market is stable compared to other parts of...

Thursday, federal regulators seized mortgage lender Washington Mutual.   The Seattle-based thrift became the third "big name" lender to close its doors since July, joining IndyMac and Lehman Brothers. In 2007, these 3 lenders represented about 10 percent of the mortgage market and their subsequen...

In an effort to provide "the most market support possible", Fannie Mae is cutting one of its mandatory loan fees by 0.250 percent, effective immediately. Fannie Mae introduced the Adverse Market Delivery Charge in December 2007 to offset foreclosure and delinquency losses.  The initial fee was a ...

Mortgage markets improved last week on Hurricane Gustav's less-than-expected damages and a strengthening U.S. dollar.  Even factoring in Friday's 0.125 percent run-up on most mortgage products, rates improved overall.   It's the second straight week in which mortgage rates improved. But for all t...

President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 into law and the press jumped on the obvious storylines: First-time home buyers get a $7,500 purchase "credit" Conforming loan limits move to $625,000 Delinquent homeowners get a lifeline from the FHA Local governments get federa...

High oil prices are derailing the mortgage market this week, taking an almost-vertical path higher.  Since mid-February, prices are up by 50 percent. Rising oil prices can be a threat the U.S. economy because with every extra dollar that Americans pay to energy companies, there is less money avai...

Three weeks after adjourning, Federal Reserve officials release detailed minutes of their most recent meeting.  The April 30, 2008 minutes were released Wednesday and it affirmed traders' beliefs that the Federal Reserve will not be in a hurry to lower the Fed Funds Rate again. This is bad news f...