One step forward, one step back. This seems to be the trend these days in housing, mortgage and economic news. Certainly interest rates have been quite volatile over the past few weeks. Climbing from record lows this spring – rates are still very attractive but some of the glitter is gone from the very enticing low to mid 4% rates we were experiencing just a few weeks ago.

 Existing home sales are up – new home sales are down. Foreclosures are still a problem – housing inventories have improved. Companies are beginning to spend again, but the number of people filing for unemployment benefits climbed again last week.
It seems as though we’re stuck in trough of daily economic volatility. What’s going to bring us out of this?

 Jobs! We need people getting back to work. With employment returns people’s ability to purchase - and with that ability comes confidence to spend – and by spending on housing, durable goods...

We’re seeing some upward pressure on interest rates right now in a market that simply cannot afford to endure such a move. Here’s why…

 The unemployment rate has jumped to its highest levels in 26 years to 8.9% - obviously not a strong indication of economic conditions improving at this point in time.
Housing inventories have jumped to a 10.2 months’ supply – still too high an overcapacity number to have healthy statistics in housing. Consumer Confidence – while the sentiment number has increased recently – my concern is that there is a real disconnect between the Consumer Confidence number that was released and the reality of what is happening in the checkbooks and mindsets of consumers across the land. Foreclosures are still climbing within the US – adding to inventory levels, and still causing a serious financial hardship for many in the country today.

 To me it’s counter-intuitive that you would...

The tax credit available to first-time homebuyers is now available as an advance to be applied to your down payment.

Foreclosures are still the talk of the town. Nationally and here in the triangle, the foreclosure numbers have been climbing since the foreclosure moratoria was lifted earlier this spring – meaning that the foreclosure process can again be started by lenders, which will certainly be adding many more foreclosures to the already staggering figures out in the country today.

 But with every tragedy comes a silver lining and in this case it is the opportunity for many new first time home buyers to enter the home marketplace. During the real estate boom over the last ten years, many first time home buyers were priced out of the market forcing them to rent and delay their dream home purchases. There are many heavily discounted homes available across the country, just waiting for buyers to snatch them up. For the aforementioned first time homebuyers, now could not be a better time to be thinking about purchasing one of these homes. Tax credit incentives, historically low...

An estimated 9 million homeowners have been identified as a group which could greatly benefit from the government’s new foreclosure mitigation plan. The plan, which officially rolled out March 4, 2009, is the first real government plan which addresses foreclosures in such a large manner.

Details of the plan had been slow to roll out, but now that we’re six weeks or so into the program, I wanted to clarify for you the who, what, why and how of The Housing Stimulus Initiative of 2009.

Eligibility – to find out if you and your mortgage are eligible for this program, you need to go to www.makinghomeaffordable.gov and input your house address information to find out if you have a loan which is currently owned by either of the GSE’s, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac in the case of a refinance. If you are attempting to use the modification avenue then your loan does not have to be owned or securitized by the GSE’s.

If your mortgage...