Each month, researchers at The University of Michigan survey a small sample of the U.S. population about their thoughts on the economy — is it improving, it is worsening, is it staying the same.

May’s consumer confidence survey registered it’s lowest reading since 1980 — and for good reason:

Unemployment is [...]

RealtyTrac released its most recent foreclosure statistics and if you only read the headlines, you think the entire country was on the verge of losing its homes.

The underlying data tells a different story, however.

More than half of the country’s foreclosure activity in May 2008 was tied to [...]

When homeowners borrow more than 80 percent of a home’s value, mortgage lenders often require a corresponding insurance policy called Private Mortgage Insurance.

PMI provides a cash payment to lenders in the event of a homeowner defaults.

But because PMI policies are designed for high LTV loans only, they usually contain cancellation [...]

The Federal Reserve is stumping hard on inflation this week, creating speculation that Fed Funds Rate hikes may be in store for later this month.

This is a counter-intuitive development because increases to the Fed Funds Rate are typically associated with periods of rapid economic expansion.

Lately, we’ve seen anything but.

Witness:

[...]

Several years ago, when homes sometimes sold within hours, prospective buyers often drafted “Dear Seller” letters, an accompanying personal note to help purchase offers stand out in a multiple-bid situation.

Today, some buyers are writing a different kind of letter to win a seller’s favor — a letter explaining why the buyer’s offer is so [...]

For parents with college-age children, this NBC Today Show clip is worth watching. It discusses the “hows” and the “whys” of buying off-campus housing for your kids.

Real estate analyst Barbara Corcoran makes a few terrific points about:

Why June is the best time to look for off-campus housing Why you should hire [...]

On the first Friday of every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report.

More commonly called the “jobs report”, today’s 2-page analysis of May 2008 shows that the economy shed jobs and that unemployment surged.

This is terrific news for home affordability.

That may sound counter-intuitive, so let’s [...]

Mortgage rates are a big deal when you’re buying a home.

With even the slighest uptick in rates, 30 years of mortgage payments can get substantially more expensive and one of the most substantial threats to mortgage rates is an economic event called inflation.

Inflation’s influence on mortgage rates is [...]

When a home buyer is gifted cash for a downpayment, there is a right way and a wrong way to receive the funds.

The right way includes:

Completing an acceptable gift letter Documenting the withdrawal of funds with receipts Documenting the deposit of funds with receipts

The wrong way is to ignore the rules that [...]

Interior designers have 16 million colors in their palettes with which to work, but room planning often boils down to three other numbers — 60, 30, and 10.

As in, the 60-30-10 Rule.

As featured on HGTV.com, the 60-30-10 Rule says that decorating a room should be based on percentages:

60% should [...]