We’ve written several times over the last few months about the housing market finally being, if not fully, than at least very nearly fully recovered. Of course, that’s good for the housing market. But Bloomberg wrote yesterday about The End of The Housing Hangover. The phrasing is both important and pretty good. Because in many ways,…

In a fairly obscure piece of mortgage related news, the EU’s European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has proposed relaxing their current two-day liquidation period, at least when dealing with U.S. mortgage-backed securities (the U.S. has a one-day period). The change of one day may seem particularly obtuse to those not immersed in banking lore, but it…

There are a lot of regulations in the mortgage industry. Mostly, you don’t need to understand them — that’s why you have a loan officer and work with a professional institution. Nevertheless, you’ll get exposed to a bunch of acronyms, and it’s always frustrating when you don’t understand what people are talking about. Devon Thorsby,…

A couple of days ago, we shared the insights of one home buyer who extolled the virtues of shopping for a home in the depths of winter. But it isn’t all just about the buyer. U.S. News & World Report wrote about the advantages of selling in the winter from an investor’s perspective. Some of their reasoning…

There have been a number of articles over the last weeks indicating that the housing market is strong enough to continue growth, even in the face of a Fed rate hike. On top of that, Fitch released their ratings report today, backing up that conclusion. But in the face of that, 35% of major U.S. housing markets have…

Shopping for a house in the middle of winter isn’t for everyone — and neither is selling a house in the middle of winter. And that’s exactly why, if done correctly, this can be the perfect time to buy. Holden Lewis describes his lessons-learned from starting shopping for a home in December, in Toledo, Ohio. Of course,…

This is always a tricky topic, and we’ve even seen a series of articles recently suggesting that one should never pay off their mortgage — that having a large, long mortgage is nearly always the most sound financial decision. That seems a bit of a stretch, but Kristin McFarland of The Smarter Investor asks a…

We’ve reported quite a few times this year on the strength of new housing starts, and with today’s job report, that doesn’t look set to change anytime soon. So, in honor of all the new homes being built, we thought it was worth taking a look at the history of the American home. What we…

As much as I’ve been blogging about the successful recovery in the housing market, and as much as delinquency rates have gone down, CNN Money correctly points out that there’s one area of the housing market that, while better, is still weighing down the broader market: underwater homes  Down to 13.4%, the number of homes with…

This is such big news today that we can’t even find the original source — it’s literally all over the Internet — so we’ll just take this one from Detroit. The original cord cutters have reached a threshold. People canceling cable TV for Netflix may still have a way to go, but people ditching land-lines for…