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There is no such thing as a “national real estate market”.

Real estate is local.

We know this is true because even cities don’t have their own real estate market.

This chart shows how home prices have diverged across adjacent zip codes over the last 12 months.

Some influencing factors:

School systems
Infrastructure
Proximity
Supply of homes

Stories about “The U.S. Real [...]

When mortgages began to sour last Fall, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac instituted “loan-level pricing adjustments”.

The concept is basic: For mortgage applicants with less-than-ideal credit profiles, mortgage pricing is adjusted to compensate for the added risks.

It’s still a conforming loan, but with adjustments.

Effective March 6, though, Fannie and Freddie’s definition of “high-risk” changed [...]

The Unemployment Rate fell to 4.8 percent in February.

This is 0.1% lower than from January and that’s confusing to a lot of people; it’s been highly publicized that U.S. companies shed 63,000 jobs last month.

Americans are losing jobs at the same time that the Unemployment Rate is falling. Seem strange?

Well, it’s possible [...]

Gasoline prices reached an all-time, inflation-adjusted high yesterday, averaging $3.23 per gallon nationwide.

According to GasBuddy.com, this represents a 25% increase in the last 12 months.

Higher gas prices are leaving Americans with fewer discretionary dollars to spend and that is playing a role in the U.S. economy’s slowdown. It’s one reason why mortgage [...]

Between Tuesday and Thursday, mortgage rates rose as much as during any three-day period in recent memory before settling back a bit on Friday’s jobs data.

Fourteen speeches from members of the Federal Reserve were partly to blame for the mortgage rate chaos, but several other factors played a part, too.

One of the biggest other factors [...]

“Foreclosure” is the legal process by which a bank repossesses a home from a borrower and, according to RealtyTrac, 1 out of every 100 homes were in some stage of the foreclosure process in 2007.

This figure is astounding because foreclosure is expensive to both homeowners and banks. Both parties have an interest [...]

One of the most popular questions that home buyers ask real estate and mortgage professionals is “How much home can I afford?”

It’s a normal question to ask, but it’s not the most effective way to plan your finances.

Banks will almost always approve you for a home loan in excess of your household budget.

The [...]

With Friday’s jobs report looming, mortgage markets are especially skittish about whether the economy is in a recession, or facing inflation.

Four Fed speakers Tuesday did little to quell the debate:

9:00 A.M.: Fed Chairman Bernanke stayed on message that foreclosures and falling home values are dragging down the economy.
10:00 A.M.: Fed Vice Chairman Kohn said that [...]

After briefly exceeding its all-time high, oil closed Monday at $102.45.

Rising energy costs can lead to inflation because American Business eventually passes on its higher costs to American Consumers.

When consumers have to spend more money for the same amount of product, it’s called “inflation”.

Another way to look at inflation is like [...]

Mortgage rates edged lower last week but it was another wild ride. Market players continue to deal with competing economic forecasts.

When the economy shows signs of brightness — like it did Monday and Tuesday — mortgage rates tend to rise.

This is because markets are currently equating growth with inflation and inflation pressures [...]