Realtors welcome new guidelines on nontraditional mortgages

Trade associations representing Realtors and lenders differ on new underwriting and disclosure guidelines for nontraditional mortgages.

The guidelines, issued last week by federal bank regulators (see story), require banks to use more restrictive standards in evaluating borrowers' ability to repay interest-only and pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages, and to more fully disclose their costs.

The National Association of Realtors says it "strongly supports efforts to educate consumers" and that the guideli  more...

Mortgage rates hover near 6.3%

Mortgage rates posted mixed results this week as weak economic growth and cooling real estate markets took pressure off inflation, according to surveys conducted by Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com.

In Freddie Mac's survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dipped to an average 6.3 percent, down slightly from last week's six-month low of 6.31 percent, while the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage remained at its six-month low of 5.98 percent.

Points, which are fees charged by lenders for loan processing expressed as a percent of the loan, averaged 0.3 on the 30-year and 0.4 on the 15-year  more...

Home buyers take the driver's seat

Only about half of U.S.  more...

Web analytics company debuts click-fraud detection

A Netherlands Web analytics company this week debuted a product that aims to sniff out online click fraud in which a person or programmed script incurs a pay-per-click charge for an advertiser by making it appear that a legitimate visitor has clicked on their Web site.

OneStat.com, based in Amsterdam, released its click-fraud detection reports, which it says will present evidence of potential click fraud such as technical details of data collection and analysis that will help to negotiate a refund.

The company in an announce  more...

Toronto home sales end summer lower

Home sales in the Toronto, Canada, market dropped for the fourth straight month in September, while prices increased, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported Wednesday.

The 6,622 sales recorded through the TorontoMLS system last month were 10 percent below the 7,326 sales in September 2005, according to TREB, and were down 5 percent from August 2006.

The average price of an existing home in the metro area registered $349,142 last month, up 5 percent from the $335,334 recorded last September, and up from $338,192 in August 2006.

"We are still seeing healthy sales levels  more...

Apartment-search site integrates Wikipedia, Census information

HotPads.com, an apartment-search site with interactive mapping, today launched a series of new features that provide Census statistics, aerial imagery, Wikipedia articles and other detailed community information.

"The goal is to allow people to not only shop for their next home online, but also their next neighborhood," according to Douglas Pope, vice president and director of operations for HotPads.

The site  more...

Overnight real estate rates steady

Long-term mortgage interest rates were unchanged again Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield sank to 4.56 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average remained at 5.81 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate held at 5.51 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.33 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield declined to 4.72 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...