Before making an aggressive offer on a house, some homework is in order, real-estate professionals say. Buyers need to explain why the homeowner should knock down the property’s price.

Will mortgage Market Mess Crimp homeowner’s Teardown Project?
Columnist Nancy Keates is in the midst of a plan to knock down her house and build anew. She’s already spent thousands of dollars on the project, and worries that she won’t be able to secure a loan to finance the construction of her new home.

home Buyer Survey Ranks Features That Are Important To Buyers
A recent survey of recent home buyers conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) pointed out a bunch of home features that rank high with homeowners. The 2007 Profile of Buyers’ home Feature Preferences found that buyers preference for… Read More Now

Housing Starts Hit Ten Year Low While Builder Confidence Sets Even A Longer Record
Residential building permits and housing starts continued to fall in July with the latter measure of the nation’s economic health dropping more than at any time since January 1997. NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders cited the subprime mortgage situation as being a part of the problem but said, “… the government-related parts of the mortgage market still are functioning well and…” Read More Now

Inflation is down, but not out
The good news is that price increases are slowing down. The bad news is that they are slowing down from rather high rates.

Looks like fixed rates are falling
Yields on mortgage debt are falling. They’re even dropping faster than yields on 10-year Treasuries. Not by a lot, but still.

mortgage Rates Increase Despite Job Figures
“Interest rates on prime conforming fixed-rate mortgages eased further in the past week, according to the Primary mortgage Market Survey, even though other sources such as HSH Associates reported that jumbo fixed rates increased by a quarter percent or more last week,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Freddie Mac reported that the amount of home equity cashed out through refinancing totaled… Read More Now

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 5:56 am and is filed under Mortgage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.