by nate on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | Business, News | No Comments

A new report from Zillow.com finds home values stabilized in the third quarter of this year, as sales of new and existing homes grew.

“While 116 metropolitan areas experienced Q3 year-over-year declines in home values, only nine metropolitan areas saw accelerating year-over year home value declines,” according to the report.

Home prices have stabilized and in some regions begun to rise a bit, but foreclosures, unemployment and still weak consumer confidence are warning signals that they could dip yet again.

So with the real estate market on the mend, what are the country’s best performing zip codes this year?

1. Fayetteville, N.C. (28306)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 20.6%
Zillow Home Value Index: $142,768

2. Philadelphia, Pa. (19145)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 19.1%
Zillow Home Value Index: $144,558

3. Philadelphia, Pa. (19148)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 16.9%
Zillow Home Value Index: $164,661

4. Cleveland, Ohio (44110)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 16.7%
Zillow Home Value Index: $93,077

5. Atlanta, Ga. (30331)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 16.3%
Zillow Home Value Index: $149,426

6. Rochester, N.Y. (14620)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 16.3%
Zillow Home Value Index: $123,381

7. New Orleans, La. (70117)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 16.3%
Zillow Home Value Index: $76,868

8. Newark, Ohio (43055)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 16.2%
Zillow Home Value Index: $108,258

9. Piqua, Ohio (45356)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 15.5%
Zillow Home Value Index: $97,162

10. Rochester, N.Y. (14621)
Year-over-Year Price Growth: 15.5%
Zillow Home Value Index: $52,867

read more

Tags: home, Home Values, hot investment, hottest area, house pricing, Mortgage, Real Estate, US economy, Zillow

by wildcherry on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 | Life, Tips | No Comments

To qualify for FHA loans you must be a first time home buyer; however the FHASecure program is available for homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages who are at risk of foreclosure. All borrowers, whether they’re receiving a new loan or refinancing an old one, must meet the following basic FHA loan criteria:

* Have a valid Social Security Number (SSN)

* Be a legal resident of the United States

* Be of legal age to sign a mortgage in your state.

Some of the credit guidelines from the FHA are listed below.

• Most FHA lenders want to see FICO scores of 620 or higher to qualify you. Check your score with FICO® Quarterly Monitoring
• Even if you do not have a credit score, you can still qualify if you have other credit such as phone, utility or cable bills and can produce credit history with cancelled checks or printouts
• In Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can still qualify for a FHA mortgage 2 years after your discharge, and in Chapter 13 bankruptcy you can qualify if you are making payments on time and with the trustee’s permission
• You can qualify to get a FHA loan 3 years after a foreclosure.

FHA Underwriting Standards

As with all lenders, you must meet additional requirements regarding your credit history, income, and debt-to-income ratio. The FHA will also consider your down payment plus additional cash for closing.

Credit History

Unlike most other lenders, the FHA doesn’t require you to have a traditional credit history in order to consider your reliability. Instead, lenders can build a credit history based on utility payments, rental payments, auto insurance payments, and other payments that don’t appear in credit files. They will also consider whether you’ve had a bankruptcy in the last two years. You should have a good history of on-time payments in the last two years and be current on all payments. If you’re in default on any student loans, you will not qualify for an FHA loan.

Income and Ability to Pay

Regardless of the FHA loan limit for your area, the loan amount you qualify for depends on your income and ability to pay. Under FHA standards, you should spend no more than 31% of your monthly income on your mortgage, property tax, and insurance. In addition, you should spend no more than 43% of your income on total debt payments, including student loans, car loans, and credit card debt.

Down Payment and Cash on Hand

FHA loans require a minimum of 3% cash-on-hand for the down payment and closing costs. The following maximum loan-to-value ratios also apply to either the appraised value or sales price (whichever is lower):

Collateral

FHA underwriting standards determine the total loan you can receive. The home you use as collateral must be worth at least 3% more than the loan. A 20% down payment won’t increase the available loan funds, but it will enable you to buy a more expensive home. It might also make it easier to qualify for a conventional mortgage that doesn’t require FHA’s mortgage insurance premium.

FHA loan standards are much more generous than conventional loan standards, but you must still be able to meet their basic requirements and underwriting standards in order to qualify. Use the FHA’s loan estimate tool to determine how much home you can afford.

Tags: avoid foreclosure, Borrowers, Buyers, Federal Housing Administration, Fha, FHA Loan, Fha Loans, Fha Mortgage Company, FHA Refinance, First Time Homeowner, Foreclosure, Home Loan, Homeowners, how to qualify for FHA loan, Mortgage, Mortgages, Sellers

by wildcherry on Monday, October 12th, 2009 | Business, News | No Comments

About 30% of foreclosures in June involved homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16% when the foreclosure crisis began three years ago, according to new data from real-estate Web site Zillow.com.

The report shows that foreclosures, after declining earlier this year, began to accelerate in the late spring and that more expensive homes have more recently accounted for a growing share of all foreclosures. “The slope of that curve in recent months is much sharper than it was recently,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow. Rising foreclosures among more-expensive homes could create added pressure for a housing market that has shown signs of stabilizing in recent months as sales of lower-priced homes pick up.

The Zillow research compared homes against the median values for their local market and broke each market into three tiers by value. Zillow then looked at the share of monthly foreclosures in each tier over the past decade.

Foreclosures are rising in more expensive markets as home values in those areas fall, leaving more homeowners with mortgages that exceed the value of their properties. Prime loans accounted for 58% of foreclosure starts in the second quarter, up from 44% last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Subprime mortgages accounted for one-third of foreclosure starts, down from one-half last year.

The prime category includes so-called exotic mortgages that were increasingly used to buy more expensive homes, including interest-only mortgages that allowed borrowers to defer principal payments during an initial period. Borrowers often aren’t able to refinance out of these products because the drop in home values has left them with little equity in their homes.

Default rates are particularly high and expected to rise on option adjustable-rate mortgages, which allow borrowers to make minimum payments that may not cover the interest due. Monthly payments can increase to sharply higher levels after five years or when the outstanding balance reaches a certain level. A study by Fitch Ratings found that 46% of option ARMs were 30 days past due last month, even though just 12% of such loans have reset to higher monthly payments.

Source:WSJ

Tags: Defaults, economy, Foreclosure, Foreclosure Rates, Home Values, Housing Crisis, Housing Data, Housing Report, Housing Statistics, Mortgage, Mortgate Defaults, Prime, Real Estate, Recession, Subprime Mortgages, Zillow

by wildcherry on Friday, August 28th, 2009 | Knowledge, Life | No Comments

1. Close Credit Card Accounts.

2. Avoid Hidden Cost Of PMI.

PMI, private mortgage insurance, can hit you, if you do not do the refinancing right. Why? Around 30 % of the people, who will refinance their home loan take certain part of their home equity as a cash to pay home improvement or paying some other big costs.

By paying off credit cards or improving your home, this can be extremely smart, but if you borrow more than 80 % of the home equity, you must pay PMI, private mortgage insurance, which can be hundreds per every year.

3. Short Term Loan.

Usually short term mortgage loans offer lower interest rates than the long term ones.This means lighter monthly payments but also shorter payment time. The result is a larger monthly payment, but you can still save thousands later on.

4. Ask About Fees.

Every mortgage refinance case includes fees, which are costs you do not necessarily remember to ask. They have several fancy names: document prep fees, courier fees, administrative fees etc. And lenders must disclose these costs, fees, within three business days of a mortgage loan application.

Now you can do the following. Request an official list of these fees from every company, you have asked an offer. When you have them all, add the fees to the interest rate of the mortgage loan. You will be surprised, when you notice that the cheapest offer has not the lowest interest rate.

5. Pay Points.

When you plan to live in your home for many years, you can save money by paying points for lower interest rates. This happens by paying upfront fees by which you guarantee that the interest rates are lower during the rest time of your loan.

Tags: Low Mortgage Rate Refinance, Mortgage, Mortgage Refinance, Mortgage Refinance Tips, Refinance, Refinance Mortgage, Refinance Your Mortgage, Refinancing

by wildcherry on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | Knowledge, Life | No Comments

By handling these costs wisely, you can make your mortgage refinance even more effective and save remarkable sums in your monthly payments. The structure of your mortgage refinance loan, PMI avoiding and an ability to buy lower interest rates are the ways.

1. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Close Credit Card Accounts.

What credit cards have to do with your mortgage refinance tips? A lot! When you close inactive credit card accounts, you can improve your credit score, which means lower interest loans possibilities to you.

This is wise to do by a letter to the credit card company. In this way you will have a document, if there is a need to handle the issue later on.

As a second step you have to check your credit report after 30 days to make sure, that it includes the comment that your credit card accounts have been closed by Customers Request.

This is important, because this report can be seen by other lenders later on, so they see that you have done the closing and not the company. Remember to correct all the mistakes, which can affect your future possibilities to get a loan.

2. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Avoid Hidden Cost Of PMI.

PMI, private mortgage insurance, can hit you, if you do not do the refinancing right. Why? Around 30 % of the people, who will refinance their home loan take certain part of their home equity as a cash to pay home improvement or paying some other big costs.

By paying off credit cards or improving your home, this can be extremely smart, but if you borrow more than 80 % of the home equity, you must pay PMI, private mortgage insurance, which can be hundreds per every year.

3. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Short Term Loan.

Usually short term mortgage loans offer lower interest rates than the long term ones.This means lighter monthly payments but also shorter payment time. The result is a larger monthly payment, but you can still save thousands later on.

4. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Ask About Fees.

Every mortgage refinance case includes fees, which are costs you do not necessarily remember to ask. They have several fancy names: document prep fees, courier fees, administrative fees etc. And lenders must disclose these costs, fees, within three business days of a mortgage loan application.

Now you can do the following. Request an official list of these fees from every company, you have asked an offer. When you have them all, add the fees to the interest rate of the mortgage loan. You will be surprised, when you notice that the cheapest offer has not the lowest interest rate.

5. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Pay Points.

When you plan to live in your home for many years, you can save money by paying points for lower interest rates. This happens by paying upfront fees by which you guarantee that the interest rates are lower during the rest time of your loan.

Juhani Tontti, B.Sc., Marketing. Be Careful In Mortgage Refinancing. The Process Can Save You Lots Of Money, When You Do It Right, Click Here: Mortgage Refinance Tips.

Tags: debt, Mortgage, Mortgage Refinance, Mortgage Refinance Tips, Refinance, Refinance Mortgage, Refinancing