When you’re out for a run, wearing an outfit without pockets, or just feel like “traveling light”, the last thing you want to do is take your house keys with you.

Thanks to advances in home security technology, now you don’t have to.

It may sound like science fiction, but there are several [...]

As mortgage guidelines loosened between 2002 and 2006, homeowners often used their home equity to retire credit card and other consumer debt. They did this by increasing the size of the mortgage and taking “cash out” from their home.

As you’d expect, this type of mortgage transaction is called a “cash out” refinance.

Well, now [...]

When the National Association of Realtors® releases its monthly Existing Home Sales report, people tend to watch every word, fact and figure in the statement in hopes of decoding the real estate market.

It’s all wasted energy.

It’s impossible to use the NAR report in everyday living because the NAR report is a [...]

This chart shows how home buyers with jumbo loans — loans over $417,000 — are being impacted by the recent mortgage market uncertainty.

Similar to sub-prime borrowers, rates have jumped higher for jumbo borrowers in the past four weeks.

For some jumbo clients, the expected payment on a $500,000 mortgage increased $508. Rates have [...]

The kitchen table serves as a home’s “center” for many families. It’s often the place where the kids do their homework, the parents do their taxes, and a few weekend projects get finished.

It can sometimes seem like the kitchen table is used for everything but meals.

But studies show that busy families can [...]

With tomorrow morning’s New Home Sales report, markets will get a look at the number of newly-constructed homes sold in July.

The figure is expected to be in the 825,000 range. This is lower than June’s 834,000 figure.

But — as always — there is more to the story.

When the Census Bureau

Suddenly, Private Mortgage Insurance is back in vogue. If only by default.

The story background is well-documented in this Bankrate.com article from 2002. The article is five years old, but it still raises some salient points.

What the article doesn’t highlight is that second mortgages such as home equity loans are typically sold [...]

Friday, the Federal Reserve lowered its Discount Rate by 0.50% in an effort to preserve liquidity among our nation’s banks.

This has nothing to do with mortgage rates that people like you and I get for our homes. Well, not directly at least.

The Discount Rate is the rate at which [...]

As Hurricane Dean charts a path through the Gulf of Mexico, let’s not forget that Mexico and Venezuela are the #3 and #4 importers of crude oil to United States, respectively.

Because of the storm, many Mexican oil fields and facilities will be forced to operate at reduced capacity. In addition, rough waters will [...]

Original art brightens a home and bring a personal touch to your space.

One common method of buying art is to find an empty wall space — especially near a doorway or in a main room — and purchase artwork to fill that space.

If the wall space is large, look for a [...]