What You Can Do to Improve Your Credit

What You Can Do to Improve Your Credit Credit scores, along with your overall income and debt, are big factors in determining whether you’ll qualify for a loan and what your loan terms will be. So, keep your credit score high by doing the following: Check for and...

What Happens When You Walk Away From Your Home?

Courtesy of Reuters through Yahoo News By Chris Taylor | Reuters – Mon, Jan 30, 2012 Editors Note: LRA Real Estate provides clients with successful property search results. CONTACT US TODAY to find your property! It was just last summer that Charlotte Perkins made the...

Mortgage rates tumble to record low

Courtesy of msnbc.com staff and news service reports, LinkedIn Editors Note: LRA Real Estate provides clients with successful property search results. CONTACT US TODAY to find your property! Average on the 30-year home loan slides to 3.87 percent from 3.98 percent The...

5 uncommon ways to raise your credit score

When it comes to cultivating a credit score, you’ve probably got the good citizen routine down cold. You pay on time, try to wipe out the entire balance every month and never close too many accounts at once. Beyond the basics, though, many consumers are still in...

Home Sellers Become Lenders to Poor-Credit Buyers

By Prashant Gopal – May 10, 2011 Bloomberg News Sue and Douglas Reed knew no bank would give them a mortgage — not with a bankruptcy and two foreclosures fresh in their credit history. They turned to Hilarie Walters, whose childhood home on 15 acres (6...

Mortgage Rates Decline

By NATHAN BECKER APRIL 28, 2011 Wall Street Journal Mortgage rates declined in the latest week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages edging lower, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage rates. “Mortgage rates followed...

Credit Score Confusion Leads to Controversy

AnnaMaria Andriotis Published April 8, 2011 Wall Street Journal Smart Money For a key to your financial future, $7 to $20 doesn’t seem like much to pay – which is why consumers regularly pony up for a peek at their credit scores. Now a new lawsuit suggests that...

Mortgage Rates Rise; 30-Year Fixed Is at 4.91%

Wow, can anyone remember 18% mortgage rates under Pres. Jimmy Carter? I can. This is so amazing that rates are STILL under 5%. And some are probably still thinking they are too high! By NATHAN BECKER Mortgage rates rose slightly, with the average rate on 30-year...

Commercial, Multifamily Markets On The Mend

Courtesy of Mortgage Orb The commercial and multifamily markets are healing, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports in its Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Quarterly Data Book for the fourth quarter of 2010. Improved property fundamentals, modest...

Should You Pay Off the House?

by Lisa Gibbs, Money Magazine Saturday, February 26, 2011 via Yahoo Finance When there was easy money to be made in real estate and stocks, mortgage debt seemed like nothing to fear. Now an increasing number of homeowners are wondering if it makes sense to hasten the...

Obama offers 3 options for mortgage overhaul

Feb. 11, 2011 Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is laying out three broad options for overhauling the mortgage lending system, but will let Congress make the final decision. The Treasury Department says in a report released Friday that the...

Home Equity Lending Is Back

REAL ESTATE by AnnaMaria Andriotis, Wall Street Journal Once every homeowner’s answer to a cash shortfall, the ability to borrow against your home equity all but disappeared a few years ago right along with, well, home equity. But now, at a growing number of...

House panel probes Fannie, Freddie legal fees

Jan. 31, 2011 Associated Press Arizona Republic WASHINGTON – A leading Republican lawmaker is asking regulators to explain why taxpayers have spent more than $160 million in legal fees to defend the giant mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their...

HAMP Redefault Rate Low At One-Year Mark

BY MORTGAGEORB.COM ON MONDAY 31 JANUARY 2011 The U.S. Treasury Department says that permanent modifications executed under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) are performing well over time. Of HAMP loan mods that became permanent in the fourth quarter of...