Lori’s Blog

Economic Update January 9, 2012 Provided courtesy of Marie Richarz, Prospect Mortgage Factory orders rose 1.8% in November to a seasonally adjusted $459.2 billion, following a revised 0.2% decrease in October. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders rose 0.3% in November. Retail sales rose 1.2% for the week ending December 31, according to the ICSC-Goldman …

Economic Update January 2, 2012 Provided Courtesy of Marie Richarz, Prospect Mortgage  Pending home sales, a forward-looking indicator based on signed contracts, rose 7.3% in November after a 10.4% increase in October. On a year-over-year basis, pending home sales are up 5.9%. The number of pending home sales in November was the highest level in …

FHA Anti-flipping Regulations

Article Courtesy of mtgprofessor.com December 5, 2011Q: What is the down payment? A: The down payment is the property value less the loan amount. It is not the same as the borrower’s cash outlay if some of that outlay is used for settlement costs. On a newly constructed home, the land value can be part …

Article Courtesy of wsj.com By Amy Hoak  Coming up with a down payment is often a first-time home buyer’s biggest challenge. That’s why many of them get a little help from relatives or friends.  In 2010, 27% of first-time buyers received a gift from a friend or relative to use toward their down payment. That was …

December 11, 2011 Article Courtesy of latimes.com By Kenneth R. Harney Got a beef with your mortgage lender? Is your bank unresponsive when you complain that your escrow account is fouled up and making your monthly payments needlessly high? Did your loan officer switch you into a more costly home loan than you were promised? …

Article Courtesy of nahb.com December 8, 2011 One out of three builders are reporting losing signed sales contracts during the preceding six months because appraisals on their homes are less than the contract sales price, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). “The inappropriate use of distressed …

Friday, December 9th, 2011, 3:35 pm  Article Courtesy of housingwire.com Written by Jon Prior Bank of America is looking at a new program to rent a home back to the borrower after foreclosure. “There are programs that we are quite interested in,” said Ron Sturzenegger, who leads the bank’s legacy asset servicing division, in an …

Courtesy of Marie Richarz, Prospect Mortgage The combined construction of new single-family homes and apartments in November rose 9.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 units. Single-family starts increased 2.3%. Multifamily starts rose 25.3%. Applications for new building permits, seen as an indicator of future activity, rose 5.7% to an annual rate of …

Courtesy of Marie Richarz, Prospect Mortgage The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending December 2 rose 12.8%. Refinancing applications increased 15.3%. Purchase volume rose 8.3%. Factory orders fell 0.4% in October to a seasonally adjusted $450.03 billion, following a revised 0.1% decrease in September. Excluding …