Mortgage rates are dropping this morning on weaker-than-expected Retail Sales data from December. Lower rates means more bang for your home-buying buck. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, December’s “ex-auto” sales receipts were down roughly $500 million from November. Analysts had...

Data was sparse through 2010’s first trading week last week, setting the stage for a week of momentum trading. In up-and-down trading, mortgage pricing improved overall but the best rates of the week didn’t last long. Rates improved Monday and Tuesday as an oversold market corrected itself...

FHA home loans are federal assistance mortgages made by lenders, and backed by the government. The FHA doesn’t make loans to homeowners — it insures loans made to homeowners by federally-qualified lenders. By all accounts, FHA home loans are surging in popularity. 2006, FHA insured 3.3%...

2010 is just a few days old and already the “experts” are making predictions for the year. Housing calls and mortgage rate predictions run the gamut: Home prices will fall in 2010 Home prices will rise in 2010 Mortgage rates will rise in 2010 Mortgage rates will rise by a lot in 2010 Given...

Fannie Mae raised the bar for mortgage applicants this past weekend.  Getting approved for a home loan just got harder. In its official announcement, Fannie Mae says the updates minimize long-term lending risks.  If that’s the case, this won’t be the last guideline change Fannie Mae...

Mortgage markets worsened for a second consecutive week last week amid debt default concerns and stronger-than-expected economic data. Dollars left the bond market and mortgage rates suffered. After re-reaching an all-time low December 1, mortgage rates have since rolled back to mid-November levels. Rates...

Mortgage markets finally reversed course last week, selling off with fury and causing prices to plummet. When bonds prices fall, rates rise. The action broke a multi-week winning streak, much to the disappointment of rate shoppers everywhere. Rate hikes came in stages. First, early in the week, mortgage...

Mortgage markets worsened last week on a mixed bag of economic data.  Inflation data came in soft, but so did the start of the holiday shopping season. For the first time in a month, mortgage rates worsened last week, adding roughly 0.125 percent on conforming fixed-rate products, and a little bit...

Mortgage markets improved last week as foreign buyers of mortgage debt helped to push mortgage rates to a 4-week low. It marked the 3rd consecutive week that rates improved, breathing extra life into this year’s ongoing Refi Boom. Fixed-rate, conforming mortgage rates fell about 0.125 percent...

Despite the economy’s improvement and prodding from Congress, banks don’t seem ready to open their purse strings just yet. Nationally, mortgage approval standards are tightening. The data comes from a quarterly survey the Federal Reserve sends to its member banks.  The Fed asks senior...