Some of the Best and Worst Housing Markets

1:55 PM Unknown 0 Comments

I recently came across an article on www.bankrate.com titled Top 5 Sinking Housing Markets. It discussed the gains and loses in the current US housing market and the areas affected the most. The city that was hit with the biggest decline was Ocala, Florida with a 20% percent decrease and a median home price at $93,100. On the other end of the spectrum, Burlington, Vermont saw the biggest increase of 17.6%. Other cities that noticed a significant difference compared to 2009 were Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida with a 15% decrease, Tucson, Arizona noticing a 14.9% decrease, Youngstown, OH with a 14.6% decrease and finally Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi with a 14.4% decrease.

According to the article, a logical reasoning for this occurrence is the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit offered in previous years to potential homebuyers. Without the additional incentive to purchase a home, many home owners are keeping a tight watch on their wallets while the US continues to improve from the financial crisis of previous years. With that in mind, there are positive signs that home prices are making a come back and are continually increasing.

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Mortgage Rates Fall for Second Week in a Row

11:35 AM Unknown 0 Comments

Freddie Mac recently released its weekly mortgage rate survey which showed mortgage rates for both short and long term mortgage products falling including 30 year home loan rates which dropped to their lowest levels in four weeks. 30 year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.71% (.8pts) for the week ending January 13th, 2011. Last week 30 year fixed rates were at 4.77% and are down from 5.06% from the same period last year. 15 year mortgage fixed rate mortgages dropped to 4.08% (.7pts) from 4.13% from last week. Last year at the same time, 15 year home loan rates were at 4.45%.

ARM rates also saw improvement as 5 year ARM rates fell from 3.75% to 3.72% (.6pts). One year ago 5 year ARM rates averaged 4.32% during this same window of time. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's VP and Chief Econmist reported that "Bond yields drifted lower following the release of the December employment report , which was weaker than the market consensus forecast and implied that the labor market is still in a sluggish recovery.  Fixed mortgage rates followed bond yields lower for a second consecutive week, bringing them to a four-week low."

10 year home loan rates listed by providers in the MoneyRates survey on ForTheBestRate.com ranged from 3.750%-4.125% with zero points in North Carolina. To get a better idea of current mortgage rates, visit ForTheBestRate.com.

The data for the Freddie Mac portion of this article came from:
http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/release.html?week=2&year=2011

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