CurrentMortgageRateNews.com features news, tips on mortgage rates and home loan products 

CurrentMortgageRateNews.com is a new website that features useful news about mortgage rate trends and helpful articles that consumers can use to find the lowest mortgage rates and best home loan products for their needs.

Homeowners and homebuyers can visit the website to read about the latest developments impacting interest rates, which can help them decide when to lock into low current mortgage rates. The website reports on legislative and regulatory actions influencing mortgage rates and home loan qualification requirements, economic events affecting interest rates, home price trends, and other developments affecting mortgage and housing markets. Continue Reading »

In a sign of an improving economy, bank lending standards eased in the first quarter, according to the most recent Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey from the Federal Reserve.

While easier lending guidelines is a good sign for the economy, the bad news is that residential mortgage lending standards remained unchanged, according to the survey. In the last two quarterly surveys about 10 percent of banks, typically smaller banks, tightened lending requirements for nontraditional mortgages. While smaller banks increased restrictions, larger banks left them unchanged. Continue Reading »

Homebuyers can now obtain a home for just $100 down through a new Housing and Urban Development Department initiative. Continue Reading »

Homebuyers and homeowners refinancing their current mortgages may face higher mortgage rates when the Federal Reserve stops buying Treasury bonds this summer.

The Fed had kept mortgage rates, as well as other interest rates, low by purchasing massive amounts of Treasury bonds this year through its second round of quantitative easing, colloquially know as QE2. The Fed has purchase 70 percent of Treasuries since it began its plan to buy $600 billion of the government bonds last November.

When it ends its program as expected in June, look out. Some experts believe rates will increase by 0.75 of a percentage point.

The reason for increasing mortgage rates is relatively straightforward. The Fed has been the main buyer of Treasury bonds, which the federal government issues to finance its ever-growing debt. Without the largest buyer, prices of the government bonds will fall and yields will increase. Bond sellers will have to offer higher interest rates to entice investors to buy the government bonds. Many bond investors have already sold off much of their Treasuries, anticipating that their values will drop as their yields increase.

Because mortgage rates and other interest rates are based on Treasury rates, they will also increase.

With rates expected to increase, homebuyers should act sooner rather than later. Homeowners considering refinancing their current home loans to lock into lower rates and decrease their monthly payments should also act soon.  

Still, there are other possible scenarios. The end of QE2 may allow the emerging economic to falter. Stock values will decline, prompting investors to move their money into Treasuries, boosting demand and holding down interest rates.

New home sales jumped 11 percent in March, the Commerce Department announced today. The good news is that new home sales increased more than expected. The Commerce Department reported about 300,000 new home sales compared to the 280,000 sales predicted.

The number of sales was still smaller than the 384,000 homes sold in March of 2010. Continue Reading »

Homeowners can cut their energy costs through a new government-backed home loan program.

Homeowners can borrow up to $25,000 to make energy-efficient improvements to their homes, including installing insulation, duct sealing, replacement doors and windows, HVAC systems, water heaters, solar panels, and geothermal systems. Continue Reading »

Although real estate professionals are increasingly using social media, they have are not taking advantage of all the benefits of social media marketing.

Just consider this statistic. 73 percent of homeowners say they are more likely chose a Realtor who offers videos, but only 12 percent of the real estate industry now has YouTube accounts, reveals Postling, a social media marketing company. Is there an unexploited opportunity here?

Continue Reading »

An impending government shutdown will stop the FHA loan activities. The results, especially if the shut down is prolong, could be severe.

The FHA has become a critical part of the mortgage and housing industries, insuring almost 40 percent of home loans last year for total value of about $200 billion. Even a temporary halt of FHA activities will be highly inconvenient to home buyers, refinancing homeowners, real estate agents, and mortgage lenders. If the shut down lasts long, the impact could be disastrous. 

Tea Party members were unconcerned. “There is no such thing as an actual government shutdown,” Michelle Bachmann, a House representative from Minnesota told a group of Tea Party members yesterday. “It is a government slowdown.” Continue Reading »

Distressed housing markets throughout the American Sun Belt can turn to Canadian home buyers for help. One in five Canadians would now consider purchasing real estate in the United States, shows a survey by BMO Bank of Montreal. Lower prices for American homes and a strong Canadian dollar are prompting Canadian interest in U.S. properties. Home prices in the U.S. have dropped by about 30 percent, but have fallen even more in Sun Belt areas that traditional attract the interest of Canadian home buyers. Read full story.

In a departure from traditional behavior, more homeowners continue to pay their credit card bills while falling behind on mortgage payments. Experts predicted that behavior would return to normal after the recession ended, but instead it has become more widespread, according to a study by TransUnion. Read the full story.