As this week’s signal that homebuyers are returning to the market, both Existing Home Sales and New Homes Sales posted improvement versus month-prior figures this April.

According to the National Association of REALTORS, the number of Existing Home Sales rose by 130,000 units in April.

New [...]

Conforming mortgage rates rose by 0.625 percent Wednesday. Yes, you read it right. Zero-point-six-two-five percent.

The surprise surge in pricing started shortly after 1:00 P.M. ET, then continued all the way until the market’s closing. It was the sharpest one-day surge in mortgage rates in recent history. Perhaps ever.

For mortgage rate shoppers swept up [...]

Each month, researchers measure home values in 20 large U.S. cities, then compile their findings in a report called the Case-Shiller Index. It’s a popular measurement of housing health across the country, but it’s far from perfect.

As 3 examples:

It gives more weight to expensive [...]

When sinks deliver low water pressure or “spray”, homeowners like to blame faulty plumbing. A more likely culprit, however, is a neglected faucet aerator. Built-up dirt and sediment eventually slow down water delivery on most faucet types.

In this 1-minute-40-second video, DIY [...]

Rates go up, rates go down. Catch them while you can.

After Wednesday’s mortgage market rally drove rates down by a bunch, Thursday’s sell-off pushed them right back up.

This has been a common pattern in the skittish world of mortgage rates this year.

With the U.S. economy still teetering between recession and growth, markets [...]

Mortgage rates fell after the Federal Reserve released its April 28-29, 2009 meeting’s internal notes Wednesday.

Officially known as “Fed Minutes”, the report is an in-depth account Federal Reserve’s last get-together, detailing the discussions and decisions that create our country’s monetary policy.

It’s the lengthy companion to the Federal Reserve’s brief, post-meeting press release.

[...]

A “housing start” is a new home on which construction has started and, for the fourth straight month, single-family home construction remained flat in April.

For the battered housing market, this is the latest in a series of signals that a long-awaited turnaround is coming.

The number [...]

According to the American Resort Development Association, there are more than 4 million timeshare owners across the United States. There are ample buying opportunities, but what if you want to sell your timeshare?

In this 4-minute piece with NBC’s The Today Show, Barbara Corcoran talks about the [...]

More than 18 million freight containers make 200 million trips per year, moving the world’s goods from port-to-port. It’s system that’s been in place for 50 years.

But ever since a California architect used the containers to build the world’s first Uniform Building Code-compliant

Getting approved for a home loan isn’t getting easier, but it doesn’t appear to be getting much more difficult, either.

In its quarterly survey to member banks, the Federal Reserve asked senior bank loan officers whether “prime” residential mortgage guidelines had tightened in the last 3 months.

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