Pinebrook (Largo, FL)
By Mindy Sylvester, Naples Fl Real Estate
(MVP Realty)
Search Pinebrook Estates Largo Florida homes for sale, including real estate, property, foreclosures, and short sales. MVP Realty is your Pinebrook Estates Largo Florida Home Selling Specialist.   FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PINEBROOK ESTATES LARGO FLORIDA: MVP REALTY Phone:  239-963-4499 http://PinebrookEstatesLargoFlorida.com  
Comments 0
By Will Merritt, Tampa Bay's Most Trusted Lender
(TampaBayLoanOfficer)
The Federal Housing Administration shook up Washington's mortgage and real estate leaders last week by announcing that it's shifting its entire production line to risk-based pricing -- starting this summer. FHA plans to abandon its 74-year policy of charging all borrowers the same insurance premiums and interest rates, and to move to a system where applicants who present high risks -- low credit scores and low downpayments -- pay higher premiums. Though private mortgage insurers have been using this approach since the mid-1990s, it's a big move for FHA. Currently the agency charges a standard one and a half percent up front premium, and a half percent annual renewal premium -- all of which are folded into monthly mortgage payments. Under the new system, applicants with FICO scores below...
Comments 6
By Will Merritt, Tampa Bay's Most Trusted Lender
(TampaBayLoanOfficer)
Here's a question which ought to cause some thought: Why is it -- if we're in the middle of a mortgage meltdown -- that interest rates are both low and falling? With fewer lenders, fewer loan products and tougher qualification standards you might reasonably expect nervous investors to want higher rates to compensate for more risk. Instead, we're seeing just the opposite. Freddie Mac reported that interest levels for 30-year fixed-rate financing dropped to 5.88 percent plus .4 points last week. This rate is not much above the historic levels reached during the summer of 2003 when fixed rates dipped to 5.21 percent with .5 points.  The one-year LIBOR rate hit 2.51 percent in March, according to HSH.com, a financial publisher. A year ago the index was at 5.32 percent.  The ever-conservativ...
Comments 4
By Will Merritt, Tampa Bay's Most Trusted Lender
(TampaBayLoanOfficer)
It's definitely one of the hottest subjects in Washington right now: Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's agreement last week to totally overhaul their appraisal practices, under pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo had been investigating the two company's standards on appraisals in connection with widespread foreclosure losses on subprime and other mortgages. New York State filed a suit last November charging that an appraisal unit of First American Corp. illegally caved into pressure from Washington Mutual Bank to raise property valuations to allow loan deals to go through. Both firms denied the allegations. Some of the loans involved were intended for purchase by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and that opened the door to Cuomo's probe into both companies' practices on ap...
Comments 12
Largo, FL Real Estate Professionals