James Ward's Blog

Houston, TX: The Federal Reserve announced today that it will begin to taper its bond-buying program known as Quantitative Easing (QE). This is the result of our nation’s strength in recovery but bad news for consumers who are certain to see mortgage rates increase. The speculation that the Fed ...

As many of you are already aware Congress was not able to come to a resolution by the midnight Eastern Time deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of the federal government.  As a result, this comes with some impacts to all lending institutions, including Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp (Fairway ...

Many times, new home buyers in Texas or current home owners wishing to refinance in Texas apply for mortgage financing only to discover that they have an IRS Tax Lien reporting on their credit report that has negatively impacted their credit scores to a point that they cannot qualify for a mortga...

Great News for our Veteran's Home Loans effective October 1, 2011. The VA Funding Fee is dropping! If you are a Veteran and looking to purchase a home in the Houston area and throughout the great State of Texas, now is the time to buy!  Not only does a Veteran qualify for 100% mortgage financing ...

Big Changes in Appraisal Standards Begin Sept 1 2011: Appraisals continue to be a challenge in many real estate transactions. If you live in Texas and have ever had value come in low, then you know how frustrating it can be to look at the comparable sales and try to make sense of how the Certifie...

Unless you have been completely out of the “loop” and not in tune with what has been going on in the U.S. financial markets as of late - on Friday evening, Standard and Poor’s (the S&P) announced a cut/downgrade of the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. Never in history has the U.S. been rated l...

According to the "psychometric consultancy' outfit AptiQuant, users of Internet Explorer have a lower than average IQ. Based on what? Who really believes this stuff? AptiQuant sent online IQ tests to more than 100,000 people and, based on the responses it got, came to the fascinating conclusion t...

To date, Fannie Mae recently required a minimum of six (6) months to elapse between the time a borrower purchases a home and subsequently applies for a cash-out refinance. Fannie Mae now allows a cash-out refinance within six (6) months of a purchase transaction when no financing was obtained for...

Well informed home buyers in Houston and throughout the State of Texas understand that the time to buy is now! Houston home buyers are more informed than ever before as a result of their Trusted Advisors (Preferred Lender and Realtor®) sharing great information and content to educate and assist t...