Mortgage Rate Trend Index Bankrate.com Nov 13, 2008 This week (Nov. 13 - Nov. 19) the experts say: Rates are destined to fall even more.With the TARP shift in focus away from mortgages and into the asset-backed market (car loans, credit cards, and student lending), expect the influence of mortgage relief to be short lived. The good news is we are seeing prices on homes going lower and rates are expected to also head lower as the bond market rallies. The bad news is we are expecting a continued decline in consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the GDP, and consumer confidence is at its lowest level since at least 1967, when records began. Cameron Findlay, chief economist, LendingTree.com, Charlotte, N.C. - RATES DOWN
Mortgage Rate Trend Index Bankrate.com Nov 06, 2008 This week (Nov. 6 - Nov. 12) the experts say: It's almost a three-way tossup, with a slight plurality saying that they expect rates to fall.Election results have influenced equities, but bonds have remained range-bound with mortgage coupons trading in a 60-basis-point window. (Up 60 basis points, then down 60 basis points, and the same cycle over and over.) That said, it's not the magnitude of the change. Rather, it's the time frame in which the change occurs that has been very tight, showing there is still elevated uncertainty. This situation is not helping the credit markets and consequently, will be negative for borrowers in the coming weeks. Cameron Findlay, chief economist, LendingTree.com, Charlotte, N.C. - RATES UP
How to Beat 'Card Bind' The Wall Street Journal Oct 26, 2008 Let's call it the "credit-card bind."You're trying to get your life established. You get a job. Then you set out to buy a car, rent an apartment, maybe even you plan to buy a house -- all of which require credit. But you resisted getting a credit card in college. So now your credit history is pretty much nonexistant. And getting a card after college is harder, since most lenders stop advertising to graduates the same generous deals that they routinely offer students.What do you do? How do you get a credit card when you need one but can't get one because you did the right thing in college and didn't get one? That's the credit-card bind, and here are five tips that can help you get out of it.1. Do your research."Shop around," says Nicole Hall of LendingTree.com. "Some of those student offers may still be available -- you just might have to look a little harder."Research will help you find the card that you have a better chance of getting approved for, such as ones requiring an "average" credit history.Ms. Hall recommends her site and CreditCards.com for comparing cards.
Consumers addicted to plastic? South Bend Tribune YaVonda Smalls Oct 22, 2008
$8,000. That's how much the average American family is said to carry in credit card debt.If they pay the minimum of this balance every month, it could take more than 20 years to get out of the red. That means two decades from today, you could still be paying off that DVD player, laptop computer and shirt you bought in the heat of the moment last Christmas.It's an overwhelming reality for the many consumers who have fallen victim to a buy-now, pay-later society, where people take out loans and carry multiple credit cards without giving it a second thought....Fortunately, whether you're a few thousand dollars or half a million dollars in the red, you can take steps to rise above it, experts says:Chip away at old debt. Make your biggest payments on debts with the highest interest first, and pay more than the minimum on your loans, says LendingTree.com. Also be sure to earmark end-of-year bonuses, raises and income tax returns for paying off debt, too.
Mortgage rates skyrocket Bankrate.com Holden Lewis Oct 16, 2008 Mortgage rates skyrocketed this week as Wall Street tried to discern the ever-shifting contours of the Great Bailout. The benchmark 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage rose 54 basis points to 6.74 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. ...The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 0.42 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.16 percent; four weeks ago, it was 6.49 percent....Cameron Findlay, chief economist for LendingTree.com, says the roots (sorry) of the increase in mortgage rates lie in technical matters. The money in a mortgage-backed security goes in three directions: the investor, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and the servicer who handles billing and collections. Lately, as prices for mortgage-backed securities have plummeted, investors and servicers have been squeezed -- so they demand higher coupon yields and therefore higher mortgage rates. See? Techinical.It comes down to unpredictability. When mortgage rates are so volatile, no one can predict how long borrowers will keep their loans before they refinance them. "Those expectations are being totally blown out of the window," Findlay says. "There are no models out there that are coming even close to predicting" how mortgages will perform.