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Thu May 17, 2012
Interest rates for mortgage loans saw new, all-time lows this week as investors fled debt crises in Europe. Freddie Mac found the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage sliding to 3.79 percent, down from 3.83 percent last week and a far cry from 4.61 percent last year. The 15-year loan fell from 3.05 percent to 3.04 percent. Adjustable-rate mortgages went up. The finance Web site Bankrate.com likewise saw new record lows for mortgage rates, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropping below 4 percent for the first time by arriving at 3.97 percent.
Housing permits dipped in April for the first time in four months, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported jointly Wednesday but housing starts improved. Both indicators remained far above year-earlier levels. The month-over-month increase in starts in April appeared still larger because of a downward revision to March’s report. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected permits to drop month-over-month and starts to increase over the same time.
Southern California saw a 5.1 percent increase in home sales year-over-year in April. Read More
Residential Capital LLC, the embattled mortgage subsidiary of Ally Financial, filed Chapter 11 Monday, with Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. set to acquire it. The Detroit-based company framed the move as a way to shave ... read more
Three federal regulatory agencies finalized stress-testing guidance Monday for financial institutions with total assets worth more than $10 billion. The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currenc ... read more
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