I have my own spin to put on the news that sales of existing homes plunged 27 percent in July: Stop thinking of your home as your cash cow.
In the last several decades, borrowers have heavily leveraged themselves using their houses to buy the things they’ve wanted – cars, vacations, college educations, better kitchens.
That’s one of the advantages of having a mortgage for a home. You can still use the home as collateral to borrow more money.
But an estimated one in seven homeowners now has a home worth less than …

U.S. mortgage rates dropped to a record, the 11th straight week of matching or setting a new low, reducing borrowing costs for homebuyers as demand slumps.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.32 percent in the week ended Sept. 2 from 4.36 percent, Freddie Mac said in a statement. That was the lowest since the McLean, Va.-based company began compiling the data in 1971. The average 15-year rate was 3.83 percent, also a record.
Low home-loan rates have yet to boost home sales, depressed by unemployment and the …

Tiger Woods has taken out a $54m mortgage to build his new home.
Woods has spent years planning his dream house on Florida’s exclusive Jupiter Island, which is also home to Celine Dion, Burt Reynolds and fellow golfer Nick Price.
The sprawling estate will include a tennis court, oxygen therapy room, multiple pools and a state-of-the-art fitness centre.
On August 27, just four days after his divorce was finalised, Woods filed legal papers on a $54m mortgage for it, according to TMZ.
The papers, which TMZ said were filed in Martin County, also show …

When is the timing right to lock in your mortgage rate?
With a rate lock, lenders are obligated (with a few exceptions) to offer a home loan at an agreed-upon rate regardless of whether mortgage rates have changed between the time of the loan approval and the closing date.
Consumers looking for a mortgage who find a great rate typically choose to lock it in for a specified period of time. Todd Dal Porto, a national sales executive with Bank of America Home Loans, says most lenders offer a loan-lock period of …

Here’s a challenge. How fast could you pay your mortgage off? The sad realisation hit me earlier in the year that I’m not likely to get rich anytime soon. I know – why did I even think that would happen?
The only path to financial freedom is going to be to make sacrifices – some pretty big ones – and slash the mortgage as soon as possible. Then compound interest and investing will be able to actually earn us money. The sooner the mortgage is gone, or at least significantly reduced …

Many homeowners behind on their mortgages stopped paying because they simply didn’t have the money. A growing number, though — one in eight, by some counts — defaulted on purpose.
They’re generally far underwater on their mortgages and want their lenders to foreclose because they want out. When stories started popping up several years ago, they were all anecdotal because no one was attempting to count. Now researchers are finding that these walkaway borrowers are pretty numerous — and debate is raging about whether it’s a reasonable reaction to a difficult …

Recent low mortgage rates have brought out many homeowners to refinance their home mortgage loan. Many applicants want to take advantage of these rates and lock them as long as they can. In uncertain economic environment, certainty of fixed monthly mortgage payments is very appealing.
It has been getting tougher to get mortgages and it may get even tougher. Mortgage interest rates have been hitting record lows in recent weeks. As a result, there have been substantial increases in refinance home loan applications. A few lenders show sign of tightening their …

Palm Beach Country Convention Center of Florida has become the heart of the foreclosure crisis.  A “Save the Dream” tour from the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA, takes mortgage modification to troubled borrowers who want to save their home.
Over 20, 000 desperate American mortgagees travelled from as far as California, Georgia and Maryland arrive early to the biggest jamboree of struggling borrowers.
Omayra Delgado, a 33-year-old special education teacher whose Miami house has slumped in value from $160,000 (£103,000) to $60,000, says, “My home is in foreclosure. I’m trying …

The promise, by the builder of Saffron on the Park, of home-ownership for as little as $485 a month inserts a preciousness into the new-home project worthy of its namesake spice.
“We can do it because we have made our one-bedroom homes very affordable at $299,000,” says Nadee Myers, Ledingham McAllister’s vice-president of sales. “We will tailor the mortgage to the client’s financial capabilities, to come as close to or to $485 a month.
“We will be offering them the financing over a two-year term.”
Saffron has always been among the most precious …

When the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers expired in the spring, Michael Kunz thought he missed his chance.
“I definitely did feel like I missed out,” he said. But then Kunz learned there’s second chance for first-time buyers – in Minnesota, at least – through a state agency called Minnesota Housing.
At the moment, Minnesota Housing, which helps an average of 2,300 first-time buyers find homes each year, is offering interest rates as low as 3.75 percent on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. That’s more than half a point lower …