Leave it to congress to try to get in the way of the current housing recovery. Even though the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) is the only lending agency that those who aspire to purchase homes can currently turn to, a House subcommittee has decided that the FHA’s assets suddenly require scrutiny.

While the general trend with the current mortgage rates in the past few months have been pretty stable, Zillow shows that today's mortgage rates are nationally sharply up. That has actually been the direction in the past two three days according to Zillow graph.

The current mortgage rates that we see from today's major mortgage providers show one interesting trend. We can say that they have been trading from flat to downward direction.

As current mortgage rates in U.S. moved downward, the average landing at 5.4 percent according to today's numbers by Bankrate, the report by the European Mortgage Federation shows that in the first quarter Swedent had the biggest decrease in in mortgage rates when considering developments on a year on year basis. The second and third places are shared between Ireland and Portugal. UK and Denmark came fourth and 5th.

Today Zillow released its survey results about the current mortgage rates, which are based on the polls that were conducted last week. According to it, today's mortgage rates for the 30-year fixed mortgages are lower and the low interest rates continue to inspire home buyers.

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.

In a recent movement by the government to help stimulate the economy and provide immediate relief to homeowners facing unaffordable payments, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has raised the HECM reverse mortgage limits to $625,500. The implementation of this limit has increased financial options for senior homeowners during this difficult time and will significantly ease the burden of retirement during the economic downturn.

The goal of the The Fighting Real Estate Fraud Act of 2009 is to fight the mortgage fraud, to be a kind of mortgage policing legislation.

First Internet Bank on April 13 announced that it has begun to offer jumbo loans. Jumbo loans are mortgages that exceed conforming limits ($417,000 in most parts of the country and as high as $729,750 in certain markets) and are not guaranteed by government-backed mortgage agencies Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Americans are spending less on luxuries these days. That includes luxury houses. The number of jumbo mortgage originations declined an estimated 70 percent nationwide during 2008. The most recent Affluent Market Tracking Study conducted semi-annually by the American Affluence Research Center, reveals that among luxury consumers, plans to purchase a primary residence of a vacation home have declined to record lows and home remodeling plans are only one-half of what they were a year ago.

We have seen extraordinary actions in the past couple of months in terms of efforts, both on the side of mortgage lenders and government, to help those who are struggling with their mortgages loan payments. The question is do these affordable mortgage programs help those who need it or not?

When conforming mortgages adjust, they're often tied to an interest rate index called LIBOR. LIBOR is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. But what LIBOR stands for isn't as important as the role it plays.