Suze Orman on Underwater Mortgages
Home Ownership at 46-Year Low
Couple Threatens to Foreclose on BofA
MORTGAGE RATES » Home Mortgage Loan News
Photo by Jeff Turner (Repres)
Homeowners and job seekers alike could benefit from new energy initiatives being offered by the government. Vice President Joe Biden said at a recent event that in the near future, not only will new home energy efficiency options be available to save money for homeowners who want to make upgrades, but workers interested in the industry will have new job opportunities.
New Options for Homeowners 
If you’re looking to purchase a home, one of the most important things to know is how much your monthly mortgage payment is going to be. Use our mortgage calculator to figure out how much home you can afford.
Input the entire balance of the mortgage amount, how many years left you have on the loan, the mortgage rate and the type of repayment.
- Mortgage Amount: Input the remaining balance of your mortgage.
- Mortgage Term: Length of your mortgage in years.
- Interest Rate: Put in your mortgage rate in this field
A new report indicates home prices are expected to drop 8 percent through the third quarter of 2011 due to a lack of sales. This news comes only days after a report from S&P that home prices increased more than expected in August 2010.
Home Prices Will Continue to Decline
This post comes from Michael, chief editor of DoughRoller.net, which helps consumers find the best online banks available today.
The loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is a measurement that expresses the ratio of a first mortgage debt to the value of a home. For example, if you wanted to borrow $150,000 to buy a $200,000 home, the LTV ratio would be 75 percent. How is this factored into borrowing decisions?
Retirement planning is important–there’s no debating that. Saving and investing in your 401(k) or IRA accounts is something all financial planners advise. However, for many people, allocating money to a retirement fund takes up a big chunk of a paycheck. If you’re maxing out your annual 401(k) and IRA contributions as you’re advised to do when possible, you might not have much money left over to fund other major milestones in life, like, for example, buying a home.
The 2010 limit for 401(k) contributions is $16,500 and the limit on IRAs is $5,000. That’s $1,350 and about $415 a month, respectively, of your gross income set aside just for retirement. As daunting as it may seem, financial planning for retirement shouldn’t be delayed or pushed aside unless there are very valid reasons.
The record-low mortgage rates we’ve grown accustomed to could very well see their end in the coming months, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The association released an economic forecast on Tuesday predicting that mortgage interest rates will begin to rise as soon as 2011.
Rates to Move Back Toward 5 Percent in 2011
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A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that 36 percent of homeowners feel it’s okay to walk away from a mortgage loan, depending on the situation. In many cases, the present circumstance may be the result of something beyond the homeowner’s control, including job loss or an underwater mortgage.
When it comes to home prices, there’s always someone who benefits and someone else who suffers. Today, news that prices didn’t increase as much as had been predicted in August 2010 is likely to disappoint many. For the housing market and those looking to get away from an underwater mortgage or sell their home, a small increase in prices is bad, but for those looking to buy, this could be good news.
S&P Index Shows Home Prices Increased Less than Hoped
In late September, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced the end of the most difficult recession since the Great Depression had come to an end in June 2009–over a year prior to the announcement. Many find this hard to believe because at the time, thousands were still losing jobs and homes were being foreclosed upon in record numbers every week.
Even now, we’re still in the midst of a difficult time and are still seeing job losses and record foreclosures. This makes many of us wonder if, despite what NBER says, the recession is really over.