A San Francisco Chronicle mortgage rate story yesterday does a good job simplifying the factors affecting mortgage rates as we move through 2010. It’s a useful consumer-friendly piece on how the Fed’s mortgage bond program works, when it’s ending and what might happen when it does end. It also includes updates on the homebuyer tax [...]

After last week’s proposal by a democratic representative of a moratorium on the new appraisal rules imposed on residential mortgage lenders, this week republican congressman is on board. More on this below from San Francisco Chronicle. Even if this does go through, lenders won’t back off their implementation of new appraisal rules, because they have [...]

Bloomberg estimates that the government bailouts could total $8.5 trillion, which is about 60% of GDP. About $5.5 trillion comes from the Federal Reserve, about $1.1 trillion comes from Treasury, and the rest comes from the FDIC for banking issues and the FHA for housing issues. “Only” about $3.2 trillion has been used so far. [...]

The San Francisco Chronicle summarized the conforming loan limit changes in a story today which includes historical context and rates. The Basis Point contributor Julian Hebron was quoted, saying that it’s possible that conforming loan limits might not actually be dropped to $625,500 permanently because the housing crisis is still in full swing. This is [...]

The San Francisco Chronicle did a good summary of Senate-added provisions to the rescue bill (excerpted below) to make it more palatable to constituents. Some in the House may consider this pork, but this is at least how it passed the Senate for now. If the House didn’t pass it, a revised bill would go [...]

One common story during the past year of home price declines is how homeowners can go to their local tax assessors office and ask for their property to be re-assessed. In many counties across the country, it’s not as big of a deal because the assessors offices reassess properties quarterly or annually anyway based on [...]

Rob Chrisman, a writer for The Basis Point, was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle in a story about how rates have not come down even as the Fed Funds Rate has plummeted. Credit markets are still very jittery, but at some point the super conforming loans have to come down in price, or the [...]

Just got declined for a refinance loan because because your home’s value declined? Then you may want to check with your county assessor’s office to see if you qualify for a lower assessed value. Many states re-assess quarterly anyway, but in states like California, property taxes are approximately 1.2% per year and set using your [...]

One of the top stories this year has been higher conforming and FHA loan limits, and since limits were announced, many lenders and even FNMA call the loans Conforming Jumbo. Seriously. As if U.S. consumers weren’t already confused enough. One of our writers, Julian Hebron, has been calling these loans super conforming, which he says [...]

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, rates on the new conforming loan limits are up in the air. Basis Point writer Julian Hebron was quoted in the article.