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Rita Kerins
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Planning For A Memorial Day Closing
Planning to close on your home at the end of May? Plan ahead. Memorial Day is coming and the holiday may delay your closing. Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer and the 3-day Memorial Day weekend is a popular vacation time in real estate-related industries. Real estate agents tend to take time off because fewer of their clients are actively home shopping on a holiday weekend; mortgage... [Read more]
Make A Mortgage Rate Plan Ahead Of The Jobs Report
Been shopping for a mortgage rate? You may want to lock something down. Tomorrow morning, mortgage rates are expected to change. Unfortunately, we don’t know in which direction they’ll move. It’s a risky time for Illinois home buyers to be without a locked mortgage rate. The action begins at 8:30 A.M. ET Friday. This is when the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics... [Read more]
Home Values Start The Year Strong
Home prices started the year on an upswing. According to the Federal Home Finance Agency’s Home Price Index, home prices rose by a seasonally-adjusted 0.3 percent between January and February 2012. The index is up 0.4% over the past year, offering a counter-story to the Case-Shiller Index’s assertion that home values are sinking. Last week, Standard & Poor’s... [Read more]
Mother’s Day
Looking for some ideas of fun and unique things to do with Mom for Mother’s Day? Check out About.com’s handpicked list of things to do with mom this Mother’s Day. Chicago has so many great restaurants, events and businesses, it can be hard to pick!
Mortgage Guidelines Resume Tightening Nationwide
Despite an improving U.S. economy, the nation’s banks remain cautious about what they will lend, and to whom. Last quarter, by a margin of 3-to-2, more banks tightened residential mortgage lending standards for “prime borrowers” than did loosen them. A “prime borrower” is defined as one with a well-documented credit history, high credit scores, and a low debt-to-income... [Read more]
How To Clean Your Outdoor Gas Grill In Less Than 30 Minutes
Regardless of your hometown’s climate, outdoor gas grill cooking can be a four-season endeavor. Just remembe to keep your grill clean. According to Weber’s annual GrillWatch Survey, less than 40% of grill owners clean their equipment with any bit of frequency, and 6 percent admit they’ve never cleaned their grill at all. There are three main reasons to keep a clean grill. The first... [Read more]
Pending Home Sales Index Crosses The 100 Barrier
After a series of worse-than-expected data last month, the housing market appears to be back on track. The Pending Home Sales Index posted 101.4 in March, a four percent gain from the month prior and the index’s highest reading since April 2010 — the last month of that year’s federal home buyer tax credit. A “pending home” is a home under contract to sell, but not yet... [Read more]
A Simple Explanation Of The Federal Reserve Statement (April 25, 2012)
The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent Wednesday. For the fifth consecutive month, the Fed Funds Rate vote was nearly unanimous. Just one FOMC member, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker, dissented in the 9-1 vote. The Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent since December 2008. It is expected... [Read more]
New Home Sales Revised Higher In February; Slip 7% In March
Sales of new homes ticked lower in March, unexpectedly. Based on Census Bureau data, the number of new, single-family homes sold in March slipped 7 percent from February — the largest one-month drop in more than a year. On a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis, buyers in Illinois and nationwide purchased 328,000 newly-built homes last month. The decrease in sales from February to March... [Read more]
The Fed Starts A 2-Day Meeting Today. Make A Strategy.
The Federal Open Market Committee begins a 2-day meeting today in the nation’s capitol. It’s the group’s third of 8 scheduled meetings this year. Mortgage rates are expected to change upon the Fed’s adjournment. Led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, the FOMC is a 12-person, Federal Reserve sub-committee. The FOMC is the group within the Fed which votes on U.S. monetary policy.... [Read more]
Rita Kerins
