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Each month, the National Association of Realtors® releases a study called the Existing Home Sales report. It’s a detailed look at “used” home sales data from all four regions of the country.

One of the key findings in each Existing Home Sales report is something called the “median sales price”, the statistical price point at [...]

The connection between the world’s political events and mortgage rates here at home is not always clear, but Russia’s invasion of Georgia provides a strong working lesson.

Georgia is a former Soviet republic on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. Oil pipelines within its territory supply about 1 percent of the world’s daily oil [...]

It’s not your imagination — getting approved for a home loan is becoming increasingly more difficult.

Taken from the Federal Reserve’s quarterly survey of 84 banks, it illustrates the changing dynamic of mortgage guidelines.

Most notable is the steep curve for “prime” mortgages, a type of home loan given to applicants exhibiting:

A well-documented credit history
High credit scores
Low [...]

When home sellers accepts a contract on MLS-listed property, the property’s official status changes from “Active” to “Pending”.

By measuring the number of “Pending” homes nationwide, the National Association of Realtors® publishes its once-monthly Pending Homes Sales Index.

The real estate industry group positions the report as a predictor of future home sales activity, stating that 80 [...]

In a week packed with mortgage news and economic data, mortgage rates swung hard in both directions last week before settling into the weekend slightly higher across the board.

Adjustable-rate mortgages worsened more than their fixed-rate counterparts and both broke a two-week streak in which mortgage rates had improved.

But, if we look at all of the [...]

The next time you think you may have outgrown your home, consider what it would be like living in The Little House.

Barely bigger than a school bus, the 312-square-foot home featured by CTV News occupies land once reserved for a city alleyway. When the alley went unfinished, a contractor decided to buy and [...]

Fannie Mae announced a new risk-based pricing model and additional mortgage delivery fees this week, adding to the cost of buying or refinancing a home.

Risk-based pricing was first introduced by Fannie Mae this past April. It added new, mandatory loan fees for high-risk borrowers while rewarding a small group of low-risk borrowers with fee credits.

In [...]

For the second consecutive meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee left the Fed Funds Rate unchanged at 2.000 percent.

In its press release, the Federal Reserve addresses inflation, saying that it “has been high”, fingering energy and commodity costs as culprits. The Fed does expects inflation to moderate later this year, however.

Regarding recession, the Fed [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee meets today and is widely expected to hold the Federal Funds Rate at 2.000 percent.

This does not mean that mortgage rates will stay flat, too, however.

The Fed Funds Rate is a different type of interest rate from the ones charged to American homeowners for their mortgages.

The Fed Funds [...]

In a week in which stock markets moved 1 percent or more on four separate days, mortgage markets displayed a relative calmness that helped pull rates lower.

It was the second consecutive week that mortgage rates improved.

Last week’s biggest story came Monday when the housing bill was passed into law. The new law provides [...]