Interest rates for our ever-lovin’ POV* loan product started down a tick from Monday’s Close and actually did not change today. Weird huh? Used to be the wholesale Lenders would zip out one ratesheet per day at the most and that was it. Conforming Rates (up to $417K) are at 4.75% and Jumbo Conforming (up to $729,750) just breaking the “5″ barrier at 4.875%. Super Jumbos (up to $2 million) at 5.875% or a tasty 5.0% for the five year fixed model. As always questions or scenarios can be sent to me at lololoans@yahoo.com.

To Cash or not to Cash? Remember earlier we touched on different rates for different loan products and scenarios and in this case we will look at Refinancing your current mortgage. Those of you who studied hard and subscribe to lots of rest and clean living will remember that usually the rate and/or cost for a Cash Out Refi are somewhat higher. For example let’s say you have a 30yr fixed and are quoted at 4.75% with a 1pt cost to you.  You have approx 70% loan to value (or 30% equity) in your home. The cost or “hit” on that with a 700 FICO score is .625 of a point.

Full story is available on Examiner

Massachusetts lawmakers will consider new rules today to protect consumers from abuses involving overdraft charges on bank accounts, unsolicited loans from financial institutions, and reverse mortgages.

For instance, State Senator Steven Baddour, a Democrat from Methuen, has filed a bill to require institutions that mail unsolicited loan offers – such as the checks sent out by many credit card companies – to comply with a set of conditions. The companies would be required to allow consumers to return the loan proceeds within 10 days at no cost, and not hold them liable if someone forges a signature to cash in on the loan.

Full story is available on boston.com

There were 680 single-family homes sold in the city of Springfield in the first eight months of 2009, a 9.5 percent increase from the 621 homes sold in the same time period of 2008.

But the median price paid for those homes fell 11.11 percent, from $135,000 in 2008 to $120,000 in 2009, according to statistics released Tuesday by The Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data.

“You are seeing both investors finding value now and first-time home buyers finding affordability,” said Robert P. Molta, president of Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Wilbraham and Chicopee.

Full story is available on The Republican – MassLive.com

Housing prices continued to climb but consumer confidence slipped, according to two reports released Tuesday, casting mixed signals about where the economy is headed.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, a closely watched measure of the housing market’s health, showed that prices of single-family homes rose in most parts of the country for the third month in a row, up 1.6 percent in July from June. That’s the biggest one-month jump in more than four years.

Meanwhile, a monthly survey by the Conference Board, a private research group, found that consumer confidence unexpectedly dipped in September after improving in August. The results, which largely capture consumer attitudes about the labor market, are “not as pessimistic as they were earlier this year,” but they are “not very encouraging news” for the upcoming holiday spending season, Lynn Franco, director of the board’s research center, said in a statement.

Full story is availalbe on The Washington Post

Fewer Americans told the Conference Board in September that they plan to buy a home within six months, indicating the effects of the government’s tax credit for first-time homebuyers may be fading, according to Wells Fargo Securities LLC senior economist Mark Vitner.

The Conference Board, a private New York-based research group, said yesterday the share of Americans expecting to purchase a home within six months fell to 2.3 percent this month from 3 percent in August. The measure was one of the components of the group’s consumer confidence report.

The government’s $787 billion stimulus included an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers that will expire at the end of November. Economists have said the incentive, combined with lower prices and mortgage rates, has helped lift sales from the depths of the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.

Full story is available on Bloomberg.com

Homeowners can get three breaks on insurance and taxes if they renovate their homes to be more storm-proof and compliant with statewide building standards enacted after Hurricane Katrina.

Though the codes already apply to homes built after 2006, older homes may lack the wind-resistant roofs, walls and windows required by the new rules.

Three incentives, each passed by state lawmakers in 2007, aim to have more homes meet new building-code standards through modifications, also called “retrofitting.”

Full story is available on HoumaToday

Homeowners in the south-east may be interested in the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Thames Barrier.

However, they will be aware that such technology is not available to homes in most areas.

As such, good home insurance is vital in the bid to protect a home against flooding.

The 520 metre barrier has been used 114 times to prevent homes and businesses in central London and 125 sq/km of land from flooding, the Environment Agency reports.

But people in other parts of the country often do not have such elaborate protection.

Home insurance that includes protection against flooding is likely to be a must-have for any homeowner.

Full story is available on uia.com

Nearly one in three borrowers who applied for a mortgage last year was denied as lenders kept their standards tight as the mortgage crisis accelerated, the government reported Wednesday.

In its annual look at mortgage practices among lending institutions, Federal Reserve said the denial rate for all home loans was about 32 percent last year — about the same as in 2007, but up from 29 percent in 2006. The denial rates for blacks and Hispanics were more than twice as high as the rate for white borrowers.

The report highlights massive changes in the lending industry after the housing market bust. Overall loan applications were down by a third from a year earlier, and were half the level in 2006.

Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration soared to 21 percent of all loans made last year from less than 5 percent in both 2005 and 2006.

Full story is available on Associated Press

That’s my take on the spate of mostly encouraging local and national real estate numbers that just came out.

The S&P/Case Shiller home-price index, which tracks 20 major metro markets, posted its biggest gain since 2005, rising 1.2 percent in July.

Boston prices rose another 1.2 percent. (Seasonally adjusted, it is a smaller, .6 percent gain.) Overall, Boston home prices are off just 4.9 percent from last year, compared to more than 34 percent in Las Vegas, Case-Shiller reports.

The local numbers also looked solid. The Warren Group reported that single family home sales were up 2 percent, year-over-year, in August, while the Massachusetts Association of Realtors cited a smaller, .4 percent gain.

Median sale prices for the state appear to be firmly back over $300,000 again.

Full story is availalable on boston.com

In a housing market plagued by one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, finding and buying a home would seem to be an easy hunt, especially if you’re armed with federal funding assistance.

The sheer mass of real estate available at a record-low price combined with a no-interest loan from the government and an $8,000 income tax credit for first-time buyers quickly persuaded 30-year-old Lisa Locascio to make the leap into home ownership.

It wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be, even for someone determined to buy her first home.

Locascio’s Realtor and long-time friend, Lance Connolly, started compiling foreclosure listings more than three months ago, as soon as Locascio was approved for a $15,000 down-payment loan through the federally funded Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Full story is available on CNN