Search results for mortgage
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Posted
Dec 19 2008, 03:41 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A story at USA Today -- "Mortgage rates at 37-year low: Average 5.19% for 30 years" -- disrupted our partner blogger J.D. Roth's vacation reverie. All of a sudden, J.D., who's not an impulsive guy, is thinking about refinancing his home. He checked Bankrate.com and found a low rate of 5.085%, which would reduce J.D.'s payments to $1,111 and save him $275 a month. But wait. It could get even better, he wrote in a post at Get Rich Slowly.
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Posted
Feb 01 2008, 04:46 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
News reports of people abandoning their pets in their repossessed homes or dropping  them off at overburdened animal shelters have prompted outrage across the blogosphere. "What is wrong with these people that they just leave them in the home after they have moved out? What is the reasoning behind their thinking?" wrote Texas real estate professional Stephanie Hansson at the Active Rain blog. "I am heartsick and just can't understand." Some bloggers are urging readers to take action as the foreclosure rate climbs. Deanna Raeke at For the Love of the Dog asked her readers to check the yards and look in the windows of vacant houses to see if pets were left behind. You also can adopt a "foreclosure cat" or dog from your local shelter.
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Posted
Oct 16 2008, 07:24 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
As people wait for the federal government's various bailouts and rescues to trickle down and stabilize the economy, they got more bad news: The cost of financing or refinancing a home purchase has gotten more expensive.
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to 6.74% (6.4% for a 15-year), the biggest weekly increase in 21 years, according to Bankrate.com's survey of lenders. Last week's Bankrate benchmark was 6.2%.
According to Bankrate, the new rate means the monthly payment on a $200,000 mortgage would be $1,295.87, about $70 more than it would be for a buyer who locked in a rate last week.
So we're right where we were eight weeks ago. Why is this happening? Weren't we supposed to see help for the housing market?
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Posted
Sep 09 2008, 05:41 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you closed on a house recently, prepare to kick yourself. One of the outcomes of the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is the lowest mortgage rate in five months.
According to Bankrate.com, the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped half a percentage point -- to about 6% -- on Monday after the takeover was announced. Rates dropped even further Tuesday, settling at 5.79%. (To figure out how long that rate will last, you will need a crystal ball.)
It's part of a mixed bag of results American consumers can expect now that the federal government has assumed responsibility for Freddie's and Fannie's debt. And it's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
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Posted
Jan 08 2009, 07:18 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com.
Congressional Democrats have wasted no time in advancing legislation to change bankruptcy rules with the aim of reducing home foreclosures. Under the proposal, judges could order lenders to forgive some mortgage debt.
The measure would change the law to give homeowners filing for bankruptcy the opportunity to restructure their loans so that they can save their homes from foreclosure. The bill would empower bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage terms to help homeowners stay in their homes.
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Posted
Oct 01 2008, 06:32 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The federal government's new $300 billion Hope for Homeowners program opened for business today with the intent of staving off foreclosure for 400,000 homeowners in trouble. But we just have to wonder how effective it will be.
Here's a clue, from an Associated Press report: "Lenders, rather than borrowers, will decide whether to participate in the program, which requires them to take a loss on the initial loan."
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Posted
Apr 02 2008, 04:24 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We'll give you the happy ending first: A funny noise in his pickup was the reality check -- he calls it a "gift from heaven" -- that kept blogger "JB" of Get Rich Or Die Trying from buying a house he couldn't afford. The rationalizations he had used up to that point -- spend the emergency fund, the wedding fund and the tax rebate, and stop contributing to the 401(k) -- to make him think he should buy it may seem sickeningly familiar to many struggling to hang on to their homes or facing foreclosure. It also started when JB and his fiancee found the house of their dreams.
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Posted
Jun 05 2009, 06:24 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.
You've probably heard of "good" debt and "bad" debt. Good debt is when we borrow to buy something that generally goes up in value, like a home. Bad debt is when we borrow for anything else, like a car, a boat, a meal, a dress, a cruise, a wedding and so on.
Many teach that good debt is fine, while bad debt is not. The theory goes that good debt makes us wealthy as the value of our purchased assets goes up, while bad debt makes us poor as we struggle to pay debts for which we have little to show. In fact, it's a philosophy I've followed my entire adult life.
And it's flawed.
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Posted
Dec 15 2008, 05:05 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What's the best route as you near retirement: Use extra money to pay off the mortgage or pad your investments? That question deserves a new look in light of the economic events of 2008, argues Mr. GoTo, a baby boomer and blogger who comes down on the side of paying off the house. The No. 1 reason: A guaranteed rate of return of 6% (or whatever your mortgage rate is) tax-free. "Compare that to what we have experienced in the markets recently," Mr. GoTo says.
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Posted
May 19 2008, 02:19 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
You don't need to have a crazy interest-only or adjustable-rate mortgage to feel the pain of the housing slump. A reader who posted a question at Free Money Finance wisely put 20% down and got a fixed-rate mortgage in Las Vegas when that housing market was sizzling hot. Now it's not, and he's upside down -- he owes more on the house than it's worth because of dropping values. His problem is that he wants to move.
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