Bob's Coto Blog

As a reminder, Fannie Mae is rolling out new lending guidelines Tuesday, September 1, 2009.  Starting next week, being approved for a home loan could be much more difficult. The new rules mark the first major underwriting update since April of this year.  The changes are mostly geared at fraud pr...

It's no wonder that builder confidence is soaring -- their inventory of homes for sale is depleting at a furious pace. For the 4th straight month, New Home Sales gained, posting the best numbers since last September's meltdown and handily beating economist expectations. The available supply of ho...

18 of 20 markets tracked by the Case-Shiller Index showed rising home values in June.  It's the 5th consecutive month with strong numbers and the best showing for the benchmark housing index since home values began deflating in 2006.  Some would argue it's a sign that housing has finally bottome...

Filing an official Change of Address form with the United States Postal Service is one of the most important steps in the moving process. It's how bills, letters and catalogs find you after your change of residence. Strangely, though, a lot of people wait until the last-minute-before-moving befor...

The housing market continues to surprise.  Last week, the latest good news came in the form of the monthly Existing Home Sales report. An "existing home" is a home sold by an existing owner as opposed to a developer.  It's non-new construction property. The data on Existing Home Sales was notewor...

If you plan to use the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit program, time is running out.  The program expires November 30, 2009 and closing on a home can take up to 60 days. That leaves you 6 weeks from today to find a home and go under contract. The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit program was passe...

Single-family Housing Starts rose for the 4th straight month in July, another sign that the battered housing market may be making its comeback. "Housing starts" are new homes on which construction has recently started.  Not surprising, in a related story, homebuilder confidence moved to a 12-mont...

It looks like banks are less scared of mortgage loans these days. In its quarterly survey to member banks, the Federal Reserve asked senior bank loan officers whether "prime" residential mortgage guidelines had tightened in the last 3 months. Just one-fifth of banks said guidelines tightened last...

Foreclosure-tracker RealtyTrac reports that the number of foreclosures nationwide rose 7 percent on a month-to-month basis last month. However, 3 states dominated the foreclosure list, tallying more foreclosures between them than the rest of the country combined. California : 30.0 percent Florida...

The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate within its target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. It also reiterated plans to support the mortgage market to the tune of $1.5 trillion. In its press release, the FOMC noted that the U.S. economy is "leveling off" and that financial...