Mortgage Rate Hits Record Low

September 30, 2012

The rate on 30 year fixed rate mortgages dropped to 3.40 percent which is the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s. The Fed is spending $40 billion a month to buy mortgage-backed securities. The goal is to lower mortgage rates and help the housing recovery. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the program will continue […]

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Home Prices Rise for Seventh Consecutive Month

September 27, 2012

The July S&P Case-Shiller 20 city composite report showed continued appreciation in home prices for the seventh consecutive month (after bottoming in the beginning of the year). The 20 city composite had a month-over-month gain of 0.44%. The year-over-year increase in home prices was 1.2%. The New York metro area had the smallest year-to-date gain of any […]

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New Jersey – Now Has Second Highest Mortgage Delinquency Rate in U.S.

September 19, 2012

New Jersey passed Nevada in the second quarter in the rate of homeowners with seriously delinquent loans, those 90 days late or in foreclosure, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Only Florida had a higher rate of serious delinquencies. The state’s judicial review of all foreclosures, which delays seizures to help borrowers, threatens to hold down prices […]

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Fed’s New Round of Stimulus Likely to Lower Rates

September 17, 2012

As of Thursday, homebuyers could get a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at an average interest rate of 3.55%, according to Freddie Mac, meaning borrowing money to buy a home is very close to as cheap as it has ever been. Those rates could fall even lower. The Federal Reserve is launching a third round of “quantitative easing,” and […]

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Home Prices Rise Modestly in June

August 29, 2012

The S&P/Case-Shiller index showed home prices rose by 0.5% in June, compared with a year ago, to end a 20-month streak of declines. Home prices are still down by nearly 31% from their 2006 peak but have returned to mid-2003 levels. The rebound began to take hold months ago, as the number of homes for sale […]

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$13,000 Gift Exclusion Not Expiring

August 21, 2012

One of Uncle Sam’s most useful tax benefits isn’t expiring, shrinking or otherwise under threat after 2012. The annual gift exclusion allows each taxpayer give anyone else up to $13,000 of assets per year, tax-free. There’s no limit on the number of gifts if they are made to ifferent people, and recipients don’t have to be relatives. […]

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Home Prices Rise as Supply Dwindles

August 8, 2012

Home prices rose by their largest percentage in at least seven years during the second quarter, propelled by low inventories of properties for sale and higher demand for bargain priced foreclosures. Wall Street Journal  August 8, 2012

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Fiscal Cliff Impacting High End Real Estate Market

August 7, 2012

RealtyTrac is reporting that prices for homes listed at $1million or more have fallen 20% this year. That is in contrast to the broader housing market where prices have stabilized. According to an article on the USA Today’s website, “Wealthy Home Sellers Capitulate, High End Prices Drop,” one of the reasons that home prices are […]

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New Jersey Real Estate Prices Slow to Recover

August 2, 2012

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, prices in the New York metro area are up just 0.6% in May from April and down 2.8% from a year ago. Prices in urban and rural markets have been hit the hardest; affluent areas are generally improving. During the first quarter 8.4% of all New Jersey homes […]

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Does Forgiveness Fit In Housing-Fix Toolkit?

July 31, 2012

With prices down by one-third from their 2006 peak, more than 11 million homeowners are underwater, or owe more than their homes are worth. That is about 24% of all homeowners with a mortgage. The situation is reviving calls for policy makers to embrace principal forgiveness. One problem is deciding who deserves help and who doesn’t, and […]

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Housing Shortage Slows Sales

July 22, 2012

Sales of previously owned homes fell 5.4% in June from May.  Some economists and the National Association of Realtors attributed last month’s decline to a sharp drop in the number of homes on the market, leaving would-be buyers with less to choose from. Wall Street Journal  July 20, 2012

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Tax Liens Trigger More Foreclosures

July 18, 2012

Although mortgage default is behind most home foreclosures in the U.S., the number of foreclosures tied to delinquent tax payments is climbing. The National Consumer Law Center estimates that $15 billion of tax-lien foreclosures happened in 2010, the latest year for which data are available. Wall Street Journal   July 15, 2012

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