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Real estate investors and owner-occupiers should consider making home purchases in the near future, personal finance website Bankrate.com suggests.
One factor working in borrowers’ favor is low mortgage rates. Rates are hovering near five percent, and Bankrate reported this week that they edged up slightly. Thirty-year fixed-rate home loans are averaging 5.15 percent, a 2-basis-point increase [...]

Late in January, the Federal Housing Administration announced that it would expand an existing program to help homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments.
The aid program, called loss mitigation assistance, was already available to homeowners who had fallen behind on their payments.
Thanks to a law enacted last year, loss mitigation assistance will be available to people [...]

In a bid to contain the risk in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s mortgage portfolios, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Tuesday that those enterprises would buy and sell fewer mortgages this year.
In a letter to lawmakers, FHFA director Edward J. DeMarco noted that the agency’s conservatorships of the two government-sponsored entities were necessary [...]

Investing in Florida real estate became even more attractive on the news that mortgage rates in the state are near record lows.
Real estate website Zillow.com said this week that the average rate on its Mortgage Marketplace for a 30-year Florida mortgage was 4.82 percent, making it the least-expensive major market for home loans. California mortgages, [...]

The refinance share of the mortgage mix rose sharply last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.
Refinance activity jumped 26.3 percent from the previous week, spurring a 21 percent (seasonally adjusted) rise in the MBA’s composite mortgage activity index. Purchase activity was up, too, by 10.3 percent.
Still, MBA vice president of research and economics [...]

The western U.S. led the way in pending home sales in December, the National Association of Realtors said this week.

The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index value for the West was 119.9, a 3.8-point decline from November but more than 18 points above the PHSI’s year-ago mark. The South had the second-highest PHSI value at 98.4, [...]

Investors in Fannie Mae’s real estate owned properties can take advantage of a new rebate, the government-sponsored entity announced last week.
The rebate, for up to 3.5 percent of a home’s final sales price, can be used to pay closing costs or buy new appliances, Fannie said.
“Many families are taking advantage of the federal homebuyer tax [...]

In a sign that consumers are still wary about the prospect of a near-term economic recovery, fewer people were willing to apply for mortgages two weeks ago.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said last week that overall mortgage activity was down 10.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. Compared to the same week in 2009, mortgage applications [...]

The Commerce Department’s report on new-home sales and construction data, released last week, highlights the ongoing struggles of homebuilders.
New-home sales fell 7.6 percent in December to an annualized pace of 342,000 units. For the full year, the National Association of Home Builders estimates, 374,000 new homes were sold - the lowest full-year total since the [...]

The commercial real estate market was pummeled last year by rising delinquencies, falling tenant cash flows and hard-to-access credit, experts suggest.
And data from research firm Trepp corroborates those findings: the percentage of CRE loans 30 or more days delinquent rose to 6.07 percent in December, a 42-basis-point increase from the month before.
According to the Wall [...]