JP Marzano's (themortgagecall) Blog

Good afternoon...FHA announced that it will lower all loan limits beginning with case numbers ordered on or after January 1st. The Chicago-land area will see a drop from the current $410,000 maximum to $365,700 for 1-unit properties. The loan limits listed below are for the following counties:Ill...

  The Dodd-Frank Act is finally being implemented, and it's rules are far-reaching. The creation of the Consumer Protection Act in 2010, which spawned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is the end-all, be-all for mortgage related activity, and it's expected that many large banks ...

  Good afternoon...October's Non-farm payroll report showed 204,000 jobs added, far exceeding analysts prediction of 125,000. The figures for August and September were also revised higher. Mortgage rates reacted quickly and moved higher as a result of all of this. The mortgage market was feeling...

  Good morning...FHA recently rolled out their "back to work" program." In a nutshell, if you've had a foreclosure, bankruptcy, or short-sale at least 1 year ago and can prove this was due to an event of economic hardship (i.e. loss of job/income), you can be eligible for financing. This event w...

    Good afternoon...and Happy Halloween!This is just a quick post to let you know that rates have dropped for the second consecutive week and are now at their lowest levels since June. The Fed announced today that their bond-purchasing program (QE3) will continue for the time being (most analyst...

Hello...hope the day is going well... When it comes to obtaining financing, everyone is concerned with what rate they're getting. In some cases, the rate has more significance than in others (ie. rate/term refinance vs. debt consolidation). Everyone knows where to look for current rates, but man...

Good afternoon...At this point, the direct and indirect costs of the are expected to take .5% off 4th quarter GDP growth, and that could rise to 1% if it continues. There were hopes that the GDP would keep trending upward, but at this point 2013 will be the weakest year of the "recovery."The gov...

  After weeks of bickering, arguing, and filibustering between the two arms of Congress, the Senate rejected the House's budget bill today. The current resolution, passed in March oin order to resolve the "debt ceiling" controversy, expires today. The failure to get a bill passed all but guarant...

  Good afternoon...Today. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of  the Federal Reserve stated that they have decided not to scale down their monthly asset-purchasing program. They said they're unsatisfied with the pace of economic growth and the timing isn't right to taper the program. Mr. Bernanke then st...

Good afternoon...As a follow up to my blog from 8/23...I've included an article I saw on Yahoo in regards to things you can do to save money on your homeowner's insurance premium.Often times, I have a client present me his/her insurance policy and the premium seems pretty high. With all the insu...