Finance Point

January 12, 2008

Mortgage lending rise fails to dent credit crunch fears


THERE was an unexpected increase in mortgage lending in January, figures published yesterday revealed.
But the credit crunch might still take its toll, with lenders warning that a downturn over the next few months was likely.

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed that gross lending rose to an estimated £26.5 billion last month, up 11 per cent from £23.9bn in December 2007.

Despite the current tough economic environment, the figure was only down by a modest 0.5 per cent on the £26.6bn reached in January last year.

Yesterday, the CML said that the figures showed a "good performance" given that January figures are usually lower than December’s. But it admitted that volumes are expected to decline in the coming months as the fall in mortgage approvals towards the end of last year start to feed through. Read More

December 20, 2007

A Guide to Home Refinancing

You have heard of home refinancing too many times, and yet there is huge possibility that you do not know too much about it. Though this aspect is often left to the home loan lenders, it is still very important for you to at least learn the basics. Keep in mind that you may never fully trust a lender. Moreover, you need these lessons in home refinancing so you can help your home loan provider in choosing the best options for you.

Why Do You Go for Home Refinancing?

There are a number of reasons why you should go for home refinancing. You can make use of it so you can apply for a loan with much lower interest rate. The funds that you will obtain from home refinancing can be utilized to pay off your existing mortgage debts, which could have a very high interest rate and thus higher monthly payments. If this goes on in a considerable amount of time, there may come a moment when you can hardly cope with the payments and hence go on default. As you know, any missed payment can tarnish your credit report. Before it gets worse, use home loan refinance to close it and just look for another loan for your home.

On the other hand, you can employ refinancing for your home so you can lower down your expenses ever month. This is because with this new loan, you can reduce your interest rates as well as lengthen the payment terms for your loan. Furthermore, refinancing a home is ideal if you want to shift from a mortgage with variable interest rates to one with a fixed rate.

With fixed-rate home loan, the interest rate does not change all throughout the duration of your loan. It is considerably higher than variable interest rates, but it remains unaffected with the changes in the economy, such as Fed rates. Meanwhile, variable interest rates will be able to guarantee you very small interest rate; however, this can only be good at the first few years of your loan. It will usually increase significantly, which will then also increase your payments for your home loan every month.

Stop the Wishful Thinking

Perhaps you are thinking that refinancing a home can solve all your financial woes. This is not completely true. As a matter of fact, you cannot really look forward to such high cut-down on your interest rates. Nevertheless, as a home owner who may be facing other forms of loans and payments, a small reduction in the interest rate can already go a long way, more so when you are going to calculate how much you will likely save on your refinancing over the life of your loan. You can also make use of your savings for other important and immediate expenses.

If you are considering refinancing, you can begin by getting quotes from various lenders. They can provide you of interest rates that are suitable to your current needs.

September 25, 2007

Nationstar Mortgage stops making home loans as US sub-prime woes deepen

Nationstar Mortgage, the Dallas-based sub-prime home-lending unit acquired by Fortress Investment Group in July last year, stopped making loans through brokers on September 21 after foreclosures soared and loans declined industrywide.

Nationstar’s wholesale-loan offices will honour applications already approved, and the company continues to service existing loans, the company said on its website.

Nationstar, formerly Centex Home Equity, was purchased last year by New York-based Fortress, a manager of private-equity and hedge funds, for about US$554 million ($747 million) in cash. It had been owned by Dallas-based Centex, the fourth-biggest US homebuilder. Read More

September 12, 2007

U.S. MBA’s Mortgage Applications Index Increased 5.5% (Update1)

By Bob Willis

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) — Mortgage applications in the U.S. rose 5.5 percent last week, reflecting gains in both purchases and refinancing.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan rose to 657.4 from 622.9 the prior week. The group’s purchase index rose 5.2 percent and its refinancing gauge rose 6 percent.

The two-year housing recession is likely to deepen as stricter lending rules make it harder and more expensive to get loans or refinance. Some economists say the applications report overstates activity because the survey only includes retail lenders, which have probably seen an increase in business as many wholesale brokers closed their doors.

“The survey overstates activity,'’ said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York. “We discount the MBA survey and continue to look for home sales to fall through next year.'’ Read rest of the entry.

June 18, 2007

Best Buyers Real Estate Market Ahead, Says New Report

Filed under: Real Estate Tips
The next 12 months will be the best time to invest in the U.S. housing market, according to a new report by Housing Predictor. The sub-prime loan melt down has produced a near record level of foreclosures, providing the highest number of lower priced homes in many years in a majority of the nation’s real estate markets.

Housing prices in three out of four markets have fallen. Some markets located in California, Florida and Nevada have seen closing prices drop from their peak as much as 40%. Many markets are still suffering the after affects of the national real estate slowdown. Economists say it will take another 18 months for the markets in many states to recover with higher sales volumes.

Housing Predictor forecasts more than 250 local housing markets futures in all 50 U.S. states. Eighteen states markets are appreciating, including Texas and New Mexico, which are the strongest appreciating states in the nation. Pending sales of homes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, selected as Housing Predictor’s top appreciating market in 2007 are rising. Read More

Some More Real Estate Resources :-

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June 14, 2007

California Real Estate Investor Survey Results Released

Filed under: Real Estate Tips
(PRLog.Org) – San Francisco (6-13-2007) – The Trada Group, a national apartment development and management company, just released the results of a Real Estate Investor Survey conducted among prospective and current California real estate investors during March 2007. Overall the survey shows that real estate investors remain optimistic about the real estate market, with 82.1% planning to purchase investment property within a year. The results show that nearly one-third (32%) of investors are looking to purchase multifamily property in the future, a 68.4% increase over the 19% that currently own multifamily property. Only 22.2% say they are looking for single-family property to purchase in the future, a 51.5% decrease in interest in single-family homes from the 45.8% of investors who currently own single-family investment property. The majority of California real estate investors (54.5%) are looking to purchase property in 24 states outside of California, a 29.4% increase over the 42.1% who currently own property outside of California. On the other hand, only 45.5% are looking for property in California, a 27.2% decrease compared to the 57.9% who currently own property in California. Read More

June 7, 2007

International Real Estate Funds

Filed under: Real Estate Tips
Roger Nusbaum submits: Last September I wrote an article for TheStreet.com pooh-poohing the RMR Asian Pacific Real Estate Fund (AMEX: RAP - News). This was a bad call.

Lately I have been learning about, and warming up to the idea of adding a little bit of of international real estate, probably not RAP however, to client portfolios.

I am trying to learn about the various products out there. Alpine has a CEF (NYSE: AWP - News) and an OEF (NASDAQ: EGLRX - News). StateStreet has the SPDR DJ Wilshire Intl Real Estate ETF (AMEX: RWX - News). There is the ING Clarion Global Real Estate Fund (AMEX: IGR - News), Cohen & Steers Worldwide Realty Income (NYSE: RWF - News) and WisdomTree has an ETF (AMEX: DRW - News) that came out on Tuesday, and could yield in the mid-threes or higher. Read More

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