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With Congress reaching agreement on a $789 billion stimulus package for Americans and the President expected to sign it into law, the clock may be ticking for this year’s home buyers and homeowners.

The package contains two benefits related to housing.

The first provision is fairly well-known. It gives first-time home buyers an $8,000 tax credit [...]

His speech was much anticipated, but it was what Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner didn’t say Tuesday that caused mortgage markets to improve.

Mostly it was because of “safe-haven” buying.

Safe-haven buying is when investors move cash to the safest investments possible for fear of losing their money elsewhere.

This existence of the pattern is [...]

Friday, Fannie Mae rolled-back one of its least popular mortgage guidelines updates of the last 12 months.

Effective March 1, 2009, real estate investors can once again own and finance up to 10 individual properties. The restriction reversal does come with new minimum requirements, however.

Homeowners buying a 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th [...]

Despite a weakening employment outlook for Americans, the economy flashed signs of a rebirth last week. It wasn’t enough to reverse the recent mortgage rate trend, however.

For the fourth week in a row, mortgage rates increased, if only slightly.

The biggest story of last week was the revelation that 2.5 million jobs have [...]

Employment figures released this morning show that the economy has now shed 3.6 million jobs since December 2007, included close to half that in the last 3 months alone. The Unemployment Rate is now 7.6%.

But jobs aren’t fading in every housing market equally.

As reported by Ajilon Professional Staffing, there are still areas around [...]

Comparing July’s conforming mortgage rates to today’s average rates, there’s a 1.5 percent difference in favor of homeowners.

Rate drops like that make big differences in a household budget. Look at these before-and-after payments, based on rates from the chart:

$150,000 mortgage ($144 savings/month)

July 2008: $958 monthly
February 2009: $814 monthly

$250,000 mortgage ($240 savings/month)

July 2008: [...]

A real estate trade group reported Tuesday that Pending Home Sales ticked higher in December 2008. A “pending home sale” is a home under contract to sell, but not yet closed.

The group positions Pending Home Sales report as a predictor of future activity, suggesting that home sales will spike 60 days hence.

This [...]

If the unfreezing of credit is paramount to an economic rebound, the first signs of a thaw may be here.

Monday, the Federal Reserve released its quarterly survey of 84 member banks. In it, the Fed says that fewer than half of its responding banks tightened “prime” mortgage guidelines over the last 3 months.

This is [...]

Consumer confidence reached an all-time low and 100,000 Americans were issued layoff notices last week, each playing a role in the mortgage market’s relative worsening.

For the third consecutive week, mortgage rates rose and average loan fees increased, too.

Amid all of the negative economic news, however, there were two bright spots worth identifying and discussing. [...]