What a wonderful way to honor the 30th birthday of the most addictive arcade game there is…..PAC-MAN. For all you fans, Google has their logo changed and given the ability to play the game. Just wait on the screen for about 10 seconds and the game will start up. Just use the arrows on your key board to control the game. Hope you guys enjoy the game and remember……….don’t get drawn into the game and get back to work 
Of coarse I think everyone knows the link but if you don’t, just go to: www.google.com
This will only last for today!
Yes this is true that this special benefit was extended……..for members of the military and certain other federal employees serving outside the U.S. have an extra year to buy a principal residence on or before April 30, 2011. Basically it will be the same set up as it currently is for all home-buyers, sales contract by April 30, 2011 and close by June 30, 2011. Just so you guys know about the current home-buyer tax credit just out these summary’s below and strongly encourage you go double check the main guidelines from the IRS and get the forms. I have all this summarized for you at the previous post about updated tax forms.
Summary on Current Home-buyer Tax Credit:
1. First-Time Homebuyer claim up to $8,000 credit or 10% of sales price which ever is the lower of the two. A first-time homebuyer is an individual (and that individual’s spouse if married) who has not owned another main home during the 3-year period ending on the purchase date and meets other requirements discussed in the Form 5405 instructions.
2. Long-time resident can claim up to $6500 credit or 10% of sales price which ever is the lower of the two. A long-time resident is an individual (and that individuals spouse if married) who has owned and used the same home as that individuals main home for any 5-consecutive-year period during the 8-year period ending on the purchase date of the new main home and meets other requirements discussed in the Form 5405 instructions.
Below is the direct wording from the IRS.gov site talking about the home-buyer tax credit extension for military and certain other federal employees. Hope this helps
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After the Fed’s two day meeting it is expected that they will continue with the language for keeping the rates low for “an extended period”. This is the over night rate that the banks get charged for using money and that are at near zero rates. What does this mean for mortgage rates? Well, there are many different factors that make up the movement of the mortgage rates just like the treasury note auction and any other items like employment and general markets. The Fed will give their announcement at 1:15pm CST. Below is an article that talks a little bit more about Fed’s meeting and the market. Hope this helps
Fed Set to Renew Promise of Continued Low Rates
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Here we go again, with the 10 year treasury note auction coming up May 5th is the announcement and May 12th is the auction date and it will be interesting to see where the mortgage rates go. So far the 10 year treasury notes have found demand but how long will this last for………who knows. You also have another factor which is the government now has a bunch of mortgage backed securities and will want to start selling them off soon. It will be interesting to see how the pricing goes for mortgage backed securities and what it will cause the mortgage rates to do. Now for the answer to the always asked question, “What are the rates going to be?” or “When are the rates going up?” ……….the answer………… don’t know. The reason for not know is because we just don’t know how everyone’s demand is going to be for the items that tie into the mortgage rates. Best way to look at it, rates are truly at an ALL TIME LOW and you will never be able to get the EXACT lowest mortgage rate, so instead of trying to shoot for the lowest, just lock in and pay an extra $50 to $100 a month towards principal and it will all work out. Since my previous post about the treasury note auctions had the dates for the auctions, thought I would give the link for the schedule again……….here is the treasury note auction schedule. Hope this helps Love to hear your comments and what you think as well.
Looks like rising mortgage interest rates might be delayed as I stated before. Treasury auction today shows demand is still there for 10 Year Notes which are one of the key plays tied into what mortgage rates look. Found this good article below and wanted to share with you guys. The key now is to watch the Treasury note schedule of when the auctions are for the 10 year notes and see how demand will be for the notes. If the auctions do not find demand then rates will rise, just not sure how high. Right now the mortgage interest rates are mainly speculation on the demand and this will cause a roller coaster ride. Hope you find this helpful
Treasury Auction Finds Strong Demand For 10-Year Notes
Published: Wednesday, 7 Apr 2010 | 1:10 PM ET
By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com http://www.cnbc.com/id/36220519
Investors showed surprisingly strong appetite for long-dated Treasurys in a Wednesday auction that saw high demand and lower-than-expected yield.
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Since Feb. 1st Condo’s and FHA have changed as people are starting to find out. More changes are happening for FHA with the costs for an FHA mortgage are going up after April 5th to find out about those details just check out FHA higher costs. With the previous post about the FHA condo changes I touched on this breifly but wanted to summerize it for you.
The good things with this change are that once you gather up all the information like you would have had to for a “spot approval” in the past, submit the info through a Direct Endorsed Lender, then they can work on getting the condo approved. Once the condo is approved for that one buyer going into the project……..THE WHOLE PROJECT IS APPROVED and everyone within the project should be thanking that one buyer and everyone involved who went through the process.
Couple of key things you need to watch out for that would be red flags up front:
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What you need to watch for to see if mortgage rates will rise is the 10 year Treasury Note sale date after the end of March. The FED is ending their stimulus program for buying mortgage backed securities and debt which comes in one form as Treasury Notes. The mortgage rate market will be pretty bumpy up until the 1st auction is held without one major buyer which is the FED and that date is April 7th according to the Treasury Note auction schedule. Some of this is explained in this old prediction post mortgage rates will rise by end of 1st quarter 2010. I decided to put out a couple of key dates you should be watching for, but in the mean time get ready to hold on to the interest rate roller coaster for the next month or so.
March 31st — Ends the FED stimulus of being a 1.25 Trillion dollar buyer in the market of our debt.
April 6th — this is the auction date for 3 year Treasury Notes. (are not tied into mortgage rates as much but a good indication of the demand for buying Treasury Notes.
April 7th — 10 Year Treasury Note Auction, the bid day of determining what the demand will be for this debt and one of the key elements tied into mortgage rates. This is also the first auction after the FED pulled out of being a 1.25 Trillion dollar buyer in this market.
Be interested in hearing what you think about this. Hope this helps
Here comes more changes! We all have hopefully heard about the FHA Condo Changes that took place in February, but now the cost of an FHA mortgage is going up. It was only a matter of time this would happen because you have major market share of people now only able to go under the FHA product since that is the only product with the lowest down payment available right now, unless you fit into THESE categories. Looks like April 5th, 2010 is going to be the date FHA (HUD) will make some changes and here is a summary of them.
1. Increase in upfront MIP from 1.75% to 2.25%
2. Reduction in maximum seller contributions from 6% down to 3%
3. Congressional request to increase monthly mortgage insurance premiums. For a 30 year fixed FHA those are currently .55% a month.
4. Minimum credit score of 580 in order to have only a 3.5% down payment. If below 580 then a 10% down payment is required. (of coarse most all banks are currently at 580 to 620 so this will not be a concern unless the markets credit score requirements go lower)
Want to read it for HUD’s website then keep on reading below. Hope this helps
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Just like in an earlier post Mortgage Rates Will Rise, looks like demand is slowing down at least at the 5-year auction. The big one will be watching for the 10-year Treasury auction since they are the ones that are tied into mortgage rates. It will be very interesting over the next few weeks to see how the market will react about mortgage rates. Some are saying mortgage rates will stay the same and the market has already set the price. Others are saying that mortgage rates will be jumping up by maybe one whole percentage point. Only time will tell which way the mortgage rates will go, and we will not know for sure until we are fullying into April and after the 10-year Treasury note aution takes place then. Here is an article from CNBC, Hope this helps
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Ok……..maybe smashes was a little extreme but when any website beats out google for the most visited one week in a row, then for Google that would be smashing. Looks like more and more people are jumping on this wave called facebook so what is next? Found this great article down below and thought I would share it with you guys. As always, have a glorious day!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35908591/
Facebook Becomes a Bigger Hit than Google
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