Headlines in Real Estate for week ending September 14th 2012

Housing not in the election conversation, Chase surprises with refis, new home sales and much more. Here are this weeks real estate headlines you might have missed:

Is a mortgage refinance right for you? (via Sacramento Bee)
With rates for 30-year mortgages hovering below 4 percent since last October, all kinds of homeowners are trying to get their monthly mortgages reduced, say lenders and mortgage experts.

Along with months of record-breaking low interest rates, other factors are driving the refinancing boom: a competitive lending market and changes in some federal refinancing programs for struggling homeowners.  It’s prompted many established homeowners with old-school, high-interest mortgages to decide it’s time to refi.

Housing on mend, but full recovery is far off (via Wall Street Journal)
Home prices during the first half of 2012 posted their strongest gains in six years, the clearest sign that more U.S. housing markets have hit bottom.  But the housing market remains far from normal. Hitting a bottom shouldn’t be confused with a full-on recovery, which looks a ways off. Read Full Story

Are jumbo home loans coming back? (via U-T San Diego)
Higher-dollar mortgages that typically finance bigger, pricier homes, widely called “jumbo loans,” may be getting easier to obtain.  Such loans became popular during the housing boom as home prices soared and lending guidelines were lax. But they petered out after the housing bust, when banks became extra cautious about lending. Read Full Story

The new new-home market (via Wall Street Journal)
Six years after the U.S. housing market tumbled into the abyss, demand for brand-new homes is picking up. Sales are on the rise, and prices in many areas are inching higher. Read Full Story

Why the candidates aren’t talking about housing (via Wall Street Journal)
Few events have reshaped the nation over the last half-decade as much as the housing crisis—particularly in key battleground states such as Florida, Ohio, and Nevada. But housing’s absence from the presidential campaign debate has led to lots of head-scratching among pundits, though there is an obvious explanation for why it has taken a back seat: housing is a political loser. Read Full Story

Surprise, Chase is refinancing your mortgage (via CNN Money)
While millions of struggling homeowners have had to jump through all sorts of hoops trying to refinance their mortgages, some have barely had to lift a finger.

As part of 25 billion mortgage settlement that was struck between the nation’s five biggest banks and the state attorneys general and federal government, JP Morgan Chase had pledged $4.2 billion in mortgage relief for tens of thousands of borrowers by either reducing the interest rate or the principal owed (or both) on their loans. Read Full story

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