Blog – Page 699 of 812

17 Nov 2014

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – November 17, 2014

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Last week's housing related news was lean, with no scheduled reports released other than Freddie Mac's primary mortgage market survey. We'll start with some good news. The University of Michigan / Thompson-Reuters Consumer Sentiment Index reported its highest reading in more than seven years. November's reading of 89.4 surpassed the expected reading of 88.0 and was higher than October's reading of 86.9 Mortgage Rates Near 4.00 Percent, Weekly Jobless Claims Up Freddie Mac reported a one-basis point drop in the average rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgage from 4.02 percent to 4.01 percent; the average rate for a 15-year fixed…

14 Nov 2014

By Mark Feder

Save Money on Your Home Energy Costs This Winter in Just Three Easy Steps

Around The Home

It doesn't matter if you heat your home with electricity, natural gas or some other energy source; prices continue to rise and that means increased heating costs for most of us. In today's blog post we'll share three easy ways that you can save money on your home energy costs this winter. Install and Use Programmable Thermostats Now that Nest and other companies have brought Wi-Fi enabled, programmable thermostats on the market there's very few excuses to avoid using them. At bare minimum you'll want a digital thermostat that can be programmed to turn on and off at certain hours…

13 Nov 2014

By Mark Feder

Refinancing Your Mortgage: Understanding the Various Types of Refinancing

Home Mortgage Tips

Whether you've been thinking about ways that you can draw on your home equity to fund a renovation project or you want to take advantage of low interest rates before they rise again, refinancing your mortgage is an excellent option. In today's blog post we'll introduce mortgage refinancing and discuss a few of the ways that you can use this tool to help accomplish your financial goals. Cash-In and Cash-Out Refinancing Many homeowners refinance their mortgage in order to take some of the home equity out for other purposes. In a "cash-out" refinancing, you take out a new mortgage loan…

12 Nov 2014

By Mark Feder

How to Use a Mortgage Calculator to Determine Your Monthly Payments, Interest and More

Home Mortgage Tips

Are you thinking about using a mortgage to buy a new home? Buying your own piece of local real estate is a major financial investment and one that can require some pretty complex math to fully understand. In this blog post we'll discuss mortgage calculators and how to use one of these tools to determine your monthly mortgage payments, interest charges, amortization periods and more. Determining Your Principal and Down Payment Amounts To get started with a mortgage calculator you'll need to know how the price of the home and how much you intend to contribute as a down payment.…