Home Sales Today

30-year fixed rate at 5.68%
Overnight real estate rates idle. 30-year fixed rate at 5.68%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.59% [Today’s Real Estate News Provided by Inman News]

Worst Over For Housing, Realtors Group Says
Well, we all know my take on the situation (and if you don’t because you’re new here, you can read through the previous articles, explaining why the real estate bubble developed and why it popped), but the National Association Of Realtors has stated that the housing market situation will improve in 2007. I beg to differ… the glut of properties already on the market means that it will be at least until 2008 before things truly turn around. And if the Fed has to raise interest rates (as they most likely will have to in order to contain inflation, according to the Fed itself), and if the lenders tighten their lending practices (as they are already doing), then it may be even longer than that before real estate prices stop slipping.

Snippets From The Article:
The worst of the U.S. housing slump is
over, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the market
should improve in 2007.

New-home sales, about 15 percent of the market, won’t
recover until 2007’s fourth quarter, when transactions will grow to an
annualized rate of 967,000 after bottoming at 944,000 in the third
quarter, the Chicago-based group said.

Read More:
Worst over for housing, Realtors group says. The worst of the U.S. housing slump is over, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the market should improve in 2007.
Comment [Real Estate - Topix.net]

Housing Permits Fall For 10th Straight Month
Snippets From The Article:
The rate of residential building permit authorizations fell
for the 10th consecutive month in November, the U.S. Census Bureau and
Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today,
and was 31.3 percent below the November 2005 level.

Read More:
Housing permits fall for 10th straight month. Starts down 26% compared to November 2005 [Today’s Real Estate News Provided by Inman News]

30-year fixed rate at 5.68%
Real estate rates get overnight boost. 30-year fixed rate at 5.68%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.58% [Today’s Real Estate News Provided by Inman News]

Real Estate Gridlock
Snippets From The Article:
“We are currently experiencing the worst of the market freeze, which is
being exacerbated by the gap between the buyer’s desire for bargains
and the seller’s fantasy of what they once thought their homes would be
worth,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist for Chicago-based Mesirow
Financial, who forecasts a rebound in early 2008. “The good news is
that there are some signs of stabilization. The bad news is that a
substantial backlog of unsold homes still exists.”

Read More…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400846.html

Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady, While Warning About Inflation
Snippets From The Article:
The Federal Reserve signaled that while the economy looks a bit
weaker than a month ago, its forecast and concerns about inflation are
unchanged, and thus interest rates are still more likely to rise than fall.

The Fed yesterday left its short-term interest rate at 5.25%,
where it has stood since late June. In the statement accompanying its decisions,
the Fed downgraded its assessment of the housing market and acknowledged “mixed”
signals on growth. But its forecast of moderate growth is unchanged. Inflation
remains its principal focus, and it still says its choice is whether to raise
rates — not to lower them.

Read More…
Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady, While Warning About Inflation. Despite holding rates, the Federal Reserve is keeping the prospect of further rate increases alive. As sales of homes continue to fall, officials consider housing a risk factor to the economy. [RealEstateJournal.com Residential Real Estate News]

S.F. Bay Area Real Estate Sales Fall 26%
Snippets From The Article:
About 7,204 new and resale homes and condos
sold in the San Francisco Bay Area in November, down 25.9 percent from
November 2005 and down 9.7 percent compared to October, real estate
research company DataQuick Information Systems reported today.

Read More…
S.F. Bay Area real estate sales fall 26%. Price-drop steepest since February 2002 [Today’s Real Estate News Provided by Inman News]

Congress Creates New Tax Break For Mortgage Insurance

Snippets From The Article:
Households with annual
income of $100,000 or less can get a tax break on their mortgage insurance when
purchasing a home in 2007 using less than the traditional 20 percent down
payment.

That’s because a new tax deduction effective Jan. 1 will
allow them to write off the full cost of their private or government mortgage
insurance on their federal tax return.

Read More…
Congress creates new tax break for mortgage insurance. Families with income of less than $100,000 can claim deduction [Today’s Real Estate News Provided by Inman News]

30-year fixed rate at 5.61%
More gains in overnight real estate rates. 30-year fixed rate at 5.61%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.55% [Today’s Real Estate News Provided by Inman News]

What Is a Credit Score and Why Is It So Important?

Snippets From The Article:
When
applying for credit, lenders will check your credit score to see how
good it is. But what exactly is a credit score; how is it calculated;
and why is this number so darned important?

A credit score is a
number that strongly indicates to lenders and creditors how likely you
are to pay back the debt you owe, based on your past borrowing
behavior. The higher your score, the more likely you are, in their
eyes, that you will pay back the money you borrow.

Your credit
score is used to determine whether you can get credit for things like:
a credit card, a loan to finance your college tuition, a loan to buy a house or car, or even to start up a new business. Not only that, it is used to determine what kind of loan you qualify for, how much credit you qualify for and what your interest rate will be.

What’s a Good Credit Score?

The
most widely known type of score is a FICO score. FICO is short for Fair
Isaac Corporation and is considered by many to be the most accurate.
The three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and
Experian also calculate credit scores based on their own statistical
model.

Read More…
What Is a Credit Score and Why Is It So Important?. You know your credit score is important when applying for a loan or credit card. But how is it calculated and what’s considered a good credit score? [Mortgage News | Quicken Loans]