Rates are holding steady at historic lows – and local rates are doing the same.  In fact, FHA rates are down to 4.25% for a 30 year fixed!  Both the 30 year and 15 year conventional mortgages are holding steady this week. These are incredible rates that are saving home buyers and those who refinance [...]

I was reviewing a National Association of Realtor’s newsletter and found this article about pregnant women having trouble getting approved for mortgages very interesting (Read the article here).  Put briefly, in the more conservative lending environmen,t lenders are sometimes refusing to approve mortgages based on the earnings of a woman who is pregnant because of [...]

You simply have to applaud the creativity of Wall Street investors and property developers… when a door for making money closes they know how to knock a hole in the wall and make a window for cash to pour in. In a recent trend that has been making it’s way across the country, property investors [...]

According to the Seattle Times, mortgage rates have hit historical bottoms for the 5th time in six weeks coming to rest this week at 4.54% for a 30 year fixed rate conventional mortgage. Check out the article here. Look for a local update on mortgage rates tomorrow when I get the newest rates from our [...]

The Seattle Times is reporting today on the latest edition of the Case Shiller home-price report which shows that Seattle area home prices are up 1.16% in May though still lower than the highs of 2007. Overall Seattle is middle of the pack for the 20 metro areas surveyed in the US whose composite index [...]

Just received a quick note on this weeks rate’s from our lending partner, Ann Liberato of Cobalt Mortgage.  Rates are holding steady at some of the lowest we’ve ever seen: 30 Year Fixed, Conventional: 4.375% 30 Year Fixed, FHA: 4.375% 15 Year Fixed: 3.75% This means the Buying Power is still exceptionally strong compared to [...]

It’s time to look again at market inventory – the balance of properties on the market versus the number of properties selling. In June 2010 in King County there were: 14,275 Available Properties (Residential + Condos) 2,158 Sold Properties 1,950 Pending Properties 6.6 Months of Inventory Months of Inventory was up 10% from May 2010, [...]

Mortgage rates continue to be at historic lows: 30 Year Fixed, Conventional: 4.375% 30 Year Fixed, FHA: 4.375% 15 Year Fixed: 4.00% Here’s how rates have looked since the beginning of the year: Affordability Keep in mind the huge impact that low mortgage rates have on affordability (the lower the rate, the greater the loan [...]

The stats are in for June and it looks like median home values in King County are mixed depending on where you look… Residential Median home price in June for residential property (houses/townhouses) is up 1.05% over May to $384,000.  This is the peak value for 2010, and represents a gain of 5.21% since the [...]

A Zillow Zestimate may not be worth the bytes it’s transmitted with…