Mortgages Archives

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Community bank failures are accelerating and some experts believe as many as 100 may go under this year, the most in 16 years. Many of the banks were caught up in lending money to developers to build neighborhood strip malls and other commercial or industrial buildings that in this recession have attracted too few tenants or sit empty. Read more»

Want to hear a frightening number?According to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC), U.S. home foreclosure rates rose 20% in the first quarter of 2009.The OCC says that represents one-in-forty U.S. homes in foreclosure right now. Imagine that the next time you get on the train to work, one person in that train car could be in the midst of losing their home. Read more»

A reverse mortgage can help you pay for at-home health care, but if you might eventually move to a nursing home, here’s what you need to know. Read more»

Mortgage shoppers inclined to look for silver linings can find one in the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold steady with its low-rate policy. After a couple of weeks of worry that mortgage rates would continue climbing, they’ve actually fallen, though slight, and seem likely to hang around their current levels for some time. Read more»

Mortgage rates continue their two-week slide, with 30-year fixed rates falling from 5.62% to 5.58%, and 15-year fixed rates slipping from 5.12% to 5.06% last week. Read more»

Receiving additional income from a reverse mortgage doesn’t automatically disqualify you from getting Medicare or Medicaid, but in some cases it could affect your eligibility for those and other government-backed programs that benefit your health. Read more»

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rates for 30-year home loans edged up this week, remaining above record lows reached over the spring.The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.42 percent, up from 5.38 percent a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday."Mixed economic reports on the state of the housing market helped hold mortgage rates fairly flat," Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said in a statement. Read more»

If you’ve been making mortgage payments for years, you may have long forgotten all the bits and pieces that go into that monthly bill. As a result, you could be cheating yourself, paying more than you have to.One possibly unnecessary expense: private mortgage insurance. Read more»

After a three-week climb that saw mortgage rates on 30-year fixed loans flirt with the 6% barrier, rates finally receded last week, falling from 5.88% to 5.70%, according to the BankingMyWay weekly mortgage rate tracker. Read more»