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A recent video commentary from a senior exec at Auction.com discusses being cautious about the news you use when evaluating the housing market.  Today, year-over-year data in Los Angeles will probably show impressive gains in prices still but month-to-month data will most likely showing slowing growth or even price declines.  In a rapidly changing market, month-to-month data will show more

Freddie Mac says new mortgage applications are at recent lows due to three main reasons: First, the refinance boom is over.  Most people who can refinance already did so.  Rates do remain low so if you haven’t refinanced or couldn’t before because of value, please consider it now before rates go up.  Second, Home sales are slowing down.  Buyers are resisting

A New Jersey judge, who happens to have the last name of Escala, awarded an elderly borrower roughly $34,000 in damages and attorney fees over a refinance that only marginally dropped her payment and did little else.  The woman was elderly and originally wanted to cash out some equity.  As the loan process continued, what she got was a rate

A major lender recently announced reductions in minimum FICO scores to attain a loan through them.  While there are many lenders who already accept these types of FICO scores, the news is significant to me because it shows that lenders are dropping their criteria to sustain their loan activity and create more buyers in the market.  The general trend is

As prices go up, the key question inevitably comes up: How far can they go?  Everyone has an opinion.  A new bubble on the horizon?  Should you wait till prices drop?  In our opinion while there surely is a lot of hot air in the market, it’s not quite a bubble that will pop with a precipitous drop in home