When I am advising a client as to the best way to price their loan we usually look at three options. The most popular option is a mortgage loan with “no points”. This means there is no broker origination fee. The second most popular option is to price the loan with the lowest interest rate by “buying the rate down” by paying a point. This means inclusion of 1% of loan amount fee.

During the last few weeks the media wrote few interesting stories about the growing power that the lenders have in regard to home appraisals and how the appraisals are becoming pricier. However, let's look into the issue deeper. What really house appraisal involves. Ravisankar Poduval reports.

Down here in Florida, real estate sales have been up for the last 4 months. Existing sale prices have moved up 0.2%, and unsold home inventories have declined from a high of 16 months to a low of 10 months. So why are real estate agents seeing emotions ranging from amazement to anger among buyers when sellers refuse to yield much of a discount on their selling price in lower priced homes?

The aftermath of the financial crisis is that it torpedoed home values, sent mammoth financial institutions into the poor house, and drove unemployment numbers toward the double digits. The government, for its part, has taken increasingly drastic steps to put the real estate market right again, to mixed effect. From rock bottom interest rates to massive loan modification programs to tax credits to entice first time homebuyers, we’ve seen a lot of effort from Uncle Sam.

Interest only mortgages were going great guns until 2007? Nope, it was during 1925 when real estate prices peaked.

The Memphis Area Home Builders Association is set to unveil a program that will allow first-time home buyers to borrow their down payments from MAHBA Foundation Inc., the group's nonprofit division, and repay it with their $8,000 federal tax credits.

Mortgage rates unchanged for the second straight week. What a great deal for first time home buyers.

Century 21 Real Estate's first time home buyer survey shows that there is an increasing demand despite concerns about the economy. 78% of potential first-time home buyers say that now is a good time to buy.

The recent rise in the mortgage applications due to the all time low mortgage rates has increased the exposure of online lending organizations such as LendingTree.com and E-Loan in the public and private media. The commercial says "when banks compete you win at Lendingtree.com," but our online research showed that the winning experience was not the one that you had hoped for.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was recently signed into law includes an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, available through November 30, 2009.

For months now all we hear is how many foreclosures are happening “all around us.” RealtyTrac.com for example has made a huge amount of money focusing on nothing but foreclosures.

Study Finds First Time Buyers Optimistic, but Values and Attitudes Changing. “While half of all Americans are concerned they or someone they know will face foreclosure in the next six to 12 months, 23% of adults plan to purchase a home, and more than half of them are first time homebuyers,” according to a new survey by Move, Inc.