MLS Real Estate & Listings Blog

Mortgage rates rose slightly this week, the lowest-fee 30-year from just below 6 percent to a hair above. Spreads still gape versus Treasurys, at 2.5 percent above the 10-year defying all of the Fed’s latest efforts. Five-year ARMs, both conforming and jumbo, are better in availability and rate, but both are scarcer and higher than in January.

The economy itself is in a curious place. This morning’s report of a half-percent gain in February personal income was head-scratching good news, not squaring with consumer confidence measures at 16-year lows, some components at 41-year all-time lows.  more…

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It’s easy to complain about government paperwork, but sometimes something as seemingly simple as a new form can be worth much more than the paper it’s printed on. Such is the new standardized and borrower-friendly Good Faith Estimate that has been proposed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  more…

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Federal regulators on Thursday unveiled a set of recommendations for strengthening regulations governing mortgage lending, including improved disclosures and the adoption by all states of a nationwide licensing standard for mortgage brokers.  more…

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Re: ‘Judge throws out ban on down-payment assistance‘ (March 5)

Dear Editor:

It blows my mind how a scam like the FHA down-payment-assistance programs could be allowed to continue. All you have to do is look at the levels of default on these loans to know that those loans raise the cost of FHA loans for everyone else. It’s a shame, but at this point FHA could easily and justifiably make changes now that will make the programs very hard to utilize.  more…

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