Consumer News and Tips

Obama Moves Forward with Foreclosure Prevention - Last Wednesday, February 1, President Obama announced the details of a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages in hopes of bolstering the housing market. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, this proposal will allow buyers …

Rand on Real Estate: Disaster on the Horizon - The federal government is planning a major new initiative to convert foreclosures into rentals. But as Greg Rand (@gsrand), CEO of OwnAmerica and host of Rand on Real Estate on WABC Radio in N.Y. explains, we need to …

Don’t Forget a Home Inspection with a New Construction Home - Every home—whether it’s a resale or new—has some kind of an issue, and the reality is that there is no “perfect” house. Many homebuyers embark on their search for a home with the belief that new homes should be flawless, …

Information Is Power…Again - Setting yourself apart from your competition is becoming increasingly difficult. The emergence of social media into the business world has created platforms where constant, ongoing contact is possible. As a result of this desire to be in constant contact, many …

Facebook Files for Initial Public Stock Offering - (MCT)—Facebook has filed papers for what’s expected to be the largest initial public offering ever to come out of Silicon Valley and one of the largest in U.S. history. Ending months of breathless speculation, the 8-year-old social networking company has …

Mortgage Applications Down Nearly 3 Percent Last Week - Mortgage applications decreased 2.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 27, 2012. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, …

FHFA Responds to NPR Freddie Mac Refinance Story - A ProPublica–NPR news story recently suggested that a mortgage financing vehicle utilized by Freddie Mac may be preventing homeowners from refinancing. While FHFA does not typically comment on its supervisory activities, the circumstances here require some clarification, according to the …

Consumer Sentiment Picks up in Fourth Quarter - (MCT)—The lower-than-expected annualized growth rate of 2.8 percent reported Friday for the final three months of 2011 raises doubts about the strength of the U.S. recovery, and concerns that 2012 may be another year of muddling along. Most mainstream economists …

Mixed Mortgage Messages: Originations Decline but Quality Soars - Mortgage originations plunged 10.1 percent from November to December, continuing a decline from 2011’s September peak. At the same time, loans originated over the last two years have proved to be some of the best quality originations on record. New …

Investors with Cash Fuel Uptick in Home Sales - Regional Spotlight—Investors with cash continued to reap a harvest of bargain-priced bank-owned and short sale properties across the San Francisco Bay Area in the fourth quarter of 2011, sparking a slight uptick in home sales compared with the same period …

The Power of Belief and Expectation - While you may not always get what you want, you will almost always get what you expect. Surprisingly, the power of belief and expectation work just as effectively on your feelings of self-doubt and limitation as they do on your …

New Initiative Will Coordinate Probes of Mortgage Meltdown - (MCT)—The Obama administration’s new effort to investigate the causes of the nation’s mortgage meltdown will focus on coordinating the often overlapping state and federal investigations and on holding accountable those whose misconduct led to the global financial crisis. A team …

Take Advantage of Record Low Rates before They Rise - Low interest rates, as we all know, are making history. Last week, according to an article found on CNNMoney, “rates on both the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans fell to new records, at 3.89 percent and 3.16 percent, respectively, according …

Remodeling Market Index Rises to Five-Year High - Remodeling sentiment rose to the highest level in five years, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the fourth quarter of 2011. Released yesterday, the RMI increased to 46.6 in the fourth quarter …

Obama HARP Expansion Builds on New Refi Momentum - In his recent State of the Union speech, President Obama announced he will push for legislation that will significantly expand the newly revised HARP program that allows underwater homeowners to refinance at today’s historically low rates. Obama’s expansion would allow …

Builders Commend White House Focus on Helping Homeowners - The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) commends President Obama for offering proposals in the recent State of the Union address to help families stay in their homes and stanch foreclosures, and is urging policymakers to take additional actions to …

Look for Continued Housing Market Recovery in 2012 - The end of 2011 brought good news on the nation’s economic front, with unemployment in December falling to its lowest level in three years and the economy adding 200,000 jobs during the same month. Dave Liniger, chairman and co-founder of …

Water-Wise Bathroom Redo Gives Consumers a Chance to Win $100 - HouseLogic.com, a comprehensive website about all aspects of homeownership from the National Association of REALTORS®, has launched a new online sweepstakes. Readers who leave comments on a blog featured at the site will have a chance to win a $100 …

Success Strategies: 4 Quick Ways to Be More Productive - If being connected 24/7 was supposed to make our lives easier, the business world didn’t get the memo. Most American professionals just can’t shake the end-of-the-day feeling that they didn’t get enough done. So day after day, they find themselves …

Real Estate Trend: More Buyers Pay In Cash - In another sign that investors are more important to residential real estate markets than ever, nearly one out of three home sales in December went to buyers who paid all cash. In fact, so many investors are winning sales with …