Just a few weeks until spring and hopefully we can put this dreadful winter in our rearview mirrors!

I know that my topics have been real-estate heavy of late and I would like this to be my real-estate swan song, if you will. With springtime around the corner, I would like to start anew, repress our whole moving experience and share with you these final thoughts–some unsolicited advice because, frankly, it just feels wrong not to.

Since pigs will be flying and Hell will be freezing before we ever move again, I think I can now safely speak on the topic of realtors without “offending” any that I may later need (to take thousands of our dollars). Well, I mean, I will offend them, but I won’t need them later.

I predict that, by the time our son is shopping for a home, people will recall the Realatorus Rex as a creature who once roamed the earth, great and mighty, driving their Mercedes and earning a living off of other people’s equity until the day people realized the Internet can do all the same things that they could do.

Full story is available on Patch

When you are looking to buy a home, one of the things you need to figure out is what type of home loans are available. This is not a simple question to answer. Many factors contribute to the type of home loans you will qualify for and should pursue. Taking the time to educate yourself on the pros and cons of various types of home loans will help you find the one that best fits your current financial situation.

Types of Home Loans

One of the most common loan types for your home is the 30 year fixed rate mortgage. This loan will guarantee you the same interest rate for the life of your loan. Many people like the stability of this type of loan and it is generally what older generations have used. 15 year fixed home loans are shorter in duration, but function the same way. These are popular with people who want to pay off their mortgage quicker and have a fixed interest rate at the same time. There are also “adjustable rate” mortgages. These loans will give you a smaller monthly payment, but your interest rate is not fixed. This means if the interest goes up, your mortgage payment will also increase.

Full story is available on Credit Loan

Three years ago, Lamar Grace left Detroit for the suburb of Southfield. He got a good deal — a 3,000-square-foot colonial that once was worth $220,000. In foreclosure, he paid $109,000.

The neighbors were not pleased.

“They don’t want to live next door to ghetto folks,” he says.

That his neighbors are black, like Grace, is immaterial. Many in the black middle class moved out of Detroit and settled in the northern suburbs years ago; now, due to foreclosures, it is easy to buy or rent houses on the cheap here. The result has been a new, poorer wave of arrivals from the city, and growing tensions between established residents and the newcomers.

Full story is available on msnbc

A speedy resolution to the so-called “foreclosure-gate” looks less likely after recent events. Efforts to reach a coordinated settlement with mortgage servicers over alleged “robo-signing” foreclosure practices are still in the preliminary stages, with federal regulators and state attorney generals still hashing out the size and scope of any deal with banks. The Bedford Report examines the outlook for companies in the Financial Sector and provides research reports on Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). Access to the full company reports can be found at:

www.bedfordreport.com/2011-02-BAC

www.bedfordreport.com/2011-02-WFC

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Obama Administration is pushing banks such as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup that maintain loan-servicing platforms pay as much as $30 billion in fines to settle state and federal claims that they illegally foreclosed on homes and abused borrowers. As part of the settlement, the government wants a commitment from banks to reduce payments for borrowers who owe more on their homes than they are worth.

Full story is avaialble on at marketwire

If you’re taking out a mortgage for a house in Lee County, you’d better act by December, real estate broker Denny Grimes said — last December.

That was his tongue-in-cheek advice for potential home buyers who may find 2011 will bring interest rate increases that could erase any savings from further home price declines.

Grimes, president of Denny Grimes & Co. at Royal Shell in Fort Myers, was one of the four speakers Tuesday at The News-Press Market Watch, an annual symposium on the state of real estate here and around the country.

Full story is available on news-press.com

It’s been almost five years since the housing bubble popped. And, with a glut of homes still on the market, housing prices could fall further. Why is it taking so long for the housing market to sort itself out?

The answer may have something to do with a coin toss.

I recently visited Eric Johnson, a professor at Columbia’s Business School. He offered me a sweet bet on the flip of a coin. If the coin came up heads, I would win $6. If it came up tails, I would lose $1.

I told him I’d take the bet.

But then he changed the terms — if the coin came up heads, I would win $6. If it came up tails, I would lose $4. That bet I didn’t like.

Full story is available on npr

When you hold 90% of the market in something, how do you get out of it without tanking prices? That’s the problem the U.S. faces with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which requested $3.1 billion more in aid from the Treasury Department Friday as part of their ongoing conservatorship with the federal government. On the one hand, there’s a political imperative to fix the mortgage giants: everyone wants the government to diminish its massive footprint in the housing market and calls for reform have been mounting since the financial crisis. On the other, the housing market remains dangerously weak and the last thing anyone needs is for a sudden shock that could drive renewed economic crisis.

That’s how you explain the rhetorically dramatic but substantively cautious plan unveiled this month by the White House to diminish the government role in the housing market. The U.S. plans over the long term to scale back its role in the market, but will go very, very slowly to diminish its position over the next three years.

Full story is available on TIME

Is housing headed for a dreaded double-dip? Or are signs finally pointing to a long-awaited rally?

Despite the glum statistics recently, well-heeled buyers in many markets should feel comfortable betting on the latter.

Home prices nationwide in December were down more than 31% from their 2006 peak, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, including a 4.1% fall in 2010. And some economists see more weakness ahead, based on the so-called shadow inventory of foreclosures that haven’t yet been put up for sale.

Full story is available on The Wall Street Journal

Judy Moore’s office phone rings with increasing frequency these days, filling her calendar at the real estate firm, The Higgins Group Realtors, with client meetings, home prep sessions, and weekend open houses.

Her schedule is nowhere near as crazy as it was in 2005, when the local housing market peaked, or even 2007, just before the recession hit. But it’s busier than it has been in a long time. Moore has sold at least three properties since mid-December, and recently had four offers on one house listed for more than $900,000. With five other listings in Lexington and Bedford, Moore spent Presidents’ Day weekend showing homes to several families.

Having an excellent credit score is crucial when buying a home, bankers told Catawba College students.

“I can’t emphasize it enough — in today’s environment, credit score is king,” said Bob Setzer, vice president for mortgage lending at F&M Bank. “You are going to have to have a very, very good credit score to qualify for the best loan.”

Three years ago, a score of 620 would have obtained an excellent interest rate on a mortgage, Setzer said. But since the economic crisis, people who have scores of less than 660 may be declined for any mortgage, he said.

Potential homeowners need a score of 740 or above to get the best interest rates. Paying bills on time is one of the best ways to maintain a high credit score or improve a low one.

Full story is available on salisburypost.com