Cost of Living Reaches An All-Time High, Pressures Mortgage Rates Higher - 02/25/11 09:56 AM
Cost of Living Reaches An All-Time High, Pressures Mortgage Rates Higher
 
Mortgage rates are up 0.875% since mid-November, causing home buyer purchasing power across Jupiter to fall more than 10 percent since.
Persistent concerns over inflation are a major reason why and this week's Consumer Price Index did little to quell fears. CPI rose for the third straight month last month.
Wall Street was not surprised.
As the economy has picked up steam since late-2010, the Federal Reserve has held the Fed Funds Rate near zero percent, and kept its $600 billion bond plan moving forward. The Fed believes this is … (0 comments)

Going On Vacation? Don’t Tell The Burglars! - 02/23/11 09:12 AM
Going On Vacation? Don't Tell The Burglars!
 

Want to help keep your home safe from burglars while on vacation? One smart way is to refrain from announcing your plans on various social networks such as Facebook. 
There's other common-sense tips, too, as shared in this 4-minute video from NBC's The Today Show.
Drawing from a series of interview with former convicts, you'll learn that there's more to keeping your home safe than just locking the doors and windows, and setting the alarm system for "away". You'll also want to make sure your home looks "lived in".
And some of … (4 comments)

Real estate Update - 02/22/11 01:24 PM
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Fed Minutes Show Lower Unemployment And Higher Growth For 2011 and 2012 - 02/21/11 09:05 AM
Fed Minutes Show Lower Unemployment And Higher Growth For 2011 and 2012
 
The Federal Reserve released its January 25-26, 2011 meeting minutes Wednesday afternoon. New York mortgage rates have been in flux since.
Fed Minutes are comprehensive recaps of Federal Open Market Committee meetings; a detailed look at the debates and discussions that shape our nation's monetary policy. As such, they're released 8 times annually; 3 weeks after the most recent FOMC meeting.
Fed Minutes can be viewed as the unabridged version of the succinct, more well-known "Fed Statement" that's released to markets immediately post-adjournment.
Just how much more lengthy are … (0 comments)

Single-Family Housing Starts Fell In January, Despite What The Headlines May Have Told You - 02/18/11 02:29 PM
Single-Family Housing Starts Fell In January, Despite What The Headlines May Have Told You
 
Annualized Single-Family Housing Starts dropped 1 percent in January to 413,000 units nationwide, it's lowest reading almost 2 years.
A "Housing Start" is defined as a home on which construction has started. 
Now, if you had only seen the Housing Starts story in the headlines today, you wouldn't have known that single-family starts fell at all. It's because of how the story is being reported.
Most commonly, newspaper headlines are reading something similar to "Housing Starts Jump 14.6%" with the lead paragraph making mention that "housing starts are … (0 comments)

Mortgage Rates Return To April 2010 Levels - 02/16/11 10:36 AM
Mortgage Rates Return To April 2010 Levels
 

Mortgage rates are surging.
Over the last 7 days, conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates have jumped 24 basis points, or 0.24%, according to Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
It's the largest 1-week spike in mortgage rates in recent history.
The 30-year fixed rate mortgage now averages 5.05% nationally. This is much, much higher than what we saw last November when mortgage rates were 4.17% and looked headed to the 3s.
That's not the case today. In fact, it's the opposite. 
Mortgage rates have risen quickly and fiercely this year. As … (0 comments)

Mortgage Rates Rise For The 7th Straight Day - 02/09/11 10:03 AM
Mortgage Rates Rise For The 7th Straight Day
 
Mortgage markets worsened for the 7th straight day Tuesday, equaling the longest losing streak of the last 5 years.
Conventional, 30-year fixed mortgage rates are now scratching 5 percent, with FHA mortgage rates running roughly the same.
This is a huge increase from just 11 weeks ago when mortgage rates were riding an 8-month-long hot streak, and appeared headed into the 3s. Then the Federal Reserve intervened.
On November 3, as additional support for markets, the Fed announced its second round of bond buys, a $600 billion program dubbed QEII - short for … (1 comments)

Unemployment Rate Drops To Lowest In 2 Years - 02/07/11 09:35 AM
Unemployment Rate Drops To Lowest In 2 Years
 
Americans are getting back to work. Sort of.
This morning, at 8:30 AM ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Non-Farm Payrolls report for January 2011. More commonly called "the jobs report", the government's data showed a large decrease in the number of working Americans as compared to December, but a sizable drop in the Unemployment Rate.
The job growth figures were much lower than consensus estimates:
Expected job growth in January : +148,000 jobs Actual job growth in January : +36,000 jobs January's Unemployment Rate surprised analysts, too, but not … (2 comments)

Mortgage Guidelines Starting To Loosen? - 02/04/11 09:03 AM
Mortgage Guidelines Starting To Loosen?
 
Mortgage lending appears to be loosening. At least for now.
In its quarterly survey of member banks, the Federal Reserve asks senior loan officers around the country whether their "prime" residential mortgage guidelines had tightened within the last 3 months.
A prime borrower is one with a well-documented credit history, high credit scores, and a low debt-to-income ratio.
Of the 54 responding banks, just 2 said its guidelines had tightened during the period October-December 2010. That's less than 4 percent. And, by comparison, 95 percent of banks said guidelines remained "basically unchanged".
The remaining banks … (0 comments)

Pending Home Sales At The Highest Levels Since April 2010 - 02/02/11 09:04 AM
Pending Home Sales At The Highest Levels Since April 2010
 
Another day, another strong report for housing.
The Pending Home Sales Index climbed 2 percent in December, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. A "pending home sale" is an existing home under contract to sell, but not yet closed.
Pending Home Sales are up for the fifth time in 6 months. The December reading is now its highest since the federal home buyer tax credit's April 2010 contract deadline, and the figure is well north of the Pending Home Sales Index 3-year average.
Coupling this data with December's strong … (0 comments)

Real Estate Update - 02/01/11 10:09 AM
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Carl Rizzuto

Hobe Sound, FL

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Keller Williams Realty

Address: 4455 Millitary Trail Suite 100, Jupiter, FL, 33458

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