Mortgage rates ended last week by inching their way down to new record lows, and according to HSH.com’s Weekly Mortgage Rates Radar, rates are still falling.

The average rate for conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell by 3 basis points (0.03 percent) to 3.97 percent, while conforming 5/1 hybrid ARM rates decreased by a single basis point, closing the Wednesday-to-Tuesday wraparound weekly survey at an average of 2.92 percent.

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Fewer and fewer Americans are homeowners these days, according to the Gallup Poll.

People who describe themselves as homeowners reached a peak in 2006 and 2007 when 73 percent said they were property owners, according to Gallup. For 2012, the self-reported ownership rate dropped to 62 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

Below is an excerpt from HSH.com’s latest Market Trends newsletter, written by Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com. Sign up and receive the newsletter in your inbox Friday evening.

By a whisker, mortgage rates eased to new record-low levels last week, as neither the economy nor the Federal Reserve gave any indication that there is a reason for them to rise at the moment.

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If you received an email, phone call, letter or overnight package from your mortgage lender with a refinance offer, your first reaction may be a self-congratulatory pat on the back. While hundreds of other homeowners are pounding the pavement looking for a lender who will approve their refinance, you’ve been selected by your lender as a customer they want to keep.

Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and Ally (whose home loans are serviced by GMAC) all practice strategic marketing to their customers, targeting mortgage borrowers with a record of on-time payments for refinance offers. In addition, these lenders are feeling the pressure to refinance their customers because of the recent attorneys general settlement.

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There’s been a big dispute of late regarding plans by the FHA to consider credit disputes when insuring mortgages. While it’s been widely reported that the FHA plan has been put on hold, it does raise the issue of what borrowers should do when faced with an unjustified claim regarding prior debts.

What the proposed rule said was that lenders need not worry when all disputed credit claims were worth less than $1,000 and at least two years old. What that also means is that FHA borrowers with recent credit disputes which total more than $1,000 could face the rejection of an FHA loan application.

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This week on the blog it’s been all about mortgage rates. Today is no different. According to the latest Mortgage Rates Radar report from HSH.com, our Wednesday-to-Tuesday wraparound weekly survey, mortgage rates remained mostly unchanged from the week prior.

The average rate for conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was unchanged at 4.00 percent, while conforming 5/1 hybrid ARM rates increased by 3 basis points to an average of 2.93 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

Every nine weeks or so, HSH.com releases a new “Two-month forecast for mortgage rates.”

Here’s the mortgage rate prediction we offered back on February 17: Read the rest of this entry »

Although the economy isn’t back to “square one,” mortgage rates are. Of course, that’s to the benefit of homeowners looking to refinance and potential homebuyers shopping for homes. Whether you are able to or will respond to these recurring interest-rate opportunities remains to be seen, and will largely depend upon the economy continuing to recover. Unfortunately, it looks as though we have entered an economic soft patch, and the kind of upward momentum needed to move us to “expansion” from “recovery” isn’t happening.

Mortgage at or near record lows

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HAMP, the Home Affordable Modification Program, has been around since 2009. Originally, the program was slated to end at the end of this year, but its expiration date was recently extended until the end of 2013.

Over a year ago, I asked if it was time to kill HAMP based off of comments by a few politicians and the lack of overall success the program has had over the years.  

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Mortgage rates returned to record lows at the end of last week and the trend has continued into this week. Below is an excerpt from the latest Mortgage Rates Radar weekly survey:

Rates on the most popular types of mortgages shrank back to record lows, according to HSH.com’s Weekly Mortgage Rate Radar. The average rate for conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell by 6 basis points (0.06 percent) to 4.00 percent. Conforming 5/1 hybrid ARM rates decreased by 5 basis points, closing the Wednesday-to-Tuesday wraparound weekly survey at an average of 2.90 percent.

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