The Home Price Index Shows Some Regions Up, Some Regions Down

Publishing on a 2-month lag, the Federal Home Finance Agency said home prices fell by 1.6 percent nationally in December. And that’s an average, of course. Some regions performed well in December as compared to November, others didn’t.

Housing Starts Soar To 6-Month High In January… Or Do They?

Sometimes, headlines for housing can be misleading and this week gave us a terrific example. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department released its Housing Starts data for January 2010. The data showed starts at a 6-month high. The real story is something different.

Mortgage Rates Spike On The Federal Reserve’s January 2010 Meeting Minutes

The Fed Minutes is a follow-up document, delivered 3 weeks after an official FOMC meeting. It’s a companion piece to the post-meeting press release, detailing the debates and discussions that shaped our central bankers’ policy decisions. The Minutes is a terrific look into the Fed’s collective mind and, yesterday, Wall Street didn’t like what it saw.

Separating FHA Fact From Fiction : Mortgage Insurance Premiums

Because of how frequently bank rules are changing, it can be hard for laypersons to distinguish between mortgage fact and fiction of what’s coming next. Recently, we saw this with respect to FHA home loans.

Mortgage Approvals Are Getting More And More Scarce

The economy’s improving but lending standards are not. Nationally, banks are making mortgage approvals harder to come by. Underwriting guidelines are tightening.

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