Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey®, showing average fixed mortgage rates finishing the year near their all-time historic lows helping to keep homebuyer affordability high. Averaging 3.95 percent, the 30-year fixed has been at or below 4.00 percent for the past nine consecutive weeks …

Although selling in a recovering market can be a challenging task, there are still steps sellers can take to entice buyers to bite. If you've already followed the usual protocol for staging and curb appeal, try the following:

Get a professional opinion. Knowing what a professional appraiser deems …

Every year, it seems like the same things are on the list but this could be the year you really do invest in a rental home.

Rents are climbing, home prices are cheap and mortgage rates are low for even non-owner occupied properties. A $125,000 home with 20% …

Mortgage applications decreased 2.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 16, 2011.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from …

Foreclosure is every homeowner’s worst nightmare. However, there is no need to panic! Here are ten suggestions to avoid foreclosure, both now and in the future.

1. Don't ignore the problem. The further behind you become, the harder it will be to reinstate your loan and the more likely …

Lately, you've been thinking a lot about investing strategies. You have a small nest egg that needs to grow, but frankly you don't trust the stock market. (If you're like many investors, your 401(k) hasn't fared well in recent years.) And while real estate has been somewhat of a rocky …

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes edged up two points from a downwardly revised number to 21 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for December. This marks a third consecutive month in which builder confidence has improved, and brings the …

In this tough economy, more and more individuals are looking at the potential long-term investment of rental property to provide a supplemental revenue stream and/or tax shelter. Like anything that appears too good to be true, beware of rental rehabs.

Mark Fitzpatrick of Lenox Home Loans (lenoxhomeloans.com) recently blogged …

In early 2011, the Census Bureau released a statement noting that the national average for vacant homes in the U.S. rested at over 11 percent, placing more pressure on the housing market. Selling a vacant home is more difficult than selling a furnished one, in any market. A vacant home—regardless …

Amid a spate of positive economic news during the November survey period, consumer sentiment appears to have stabilized from previous levels, with only incremental improvement in the deeply negative housing market sentiment witnessed this summer.

According to results from Fannie Mae's November National Housing Survey, home price expectations moved …