Free Republic

Higher mortgage rates and concern over the broader economy are making for a weak start to the all-important spring housing market. Sales of previously owned homes in March fell 5.9% from February to 4.02 million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s the slowest March sales pace since 2009. Sales were 2.4% lower than in March 2024 and slumped across all regions month to month. They fell hardest in the West, the priciest region of the country, down more than 9%. The West, however, was the only region to see a year-over-year...

New York Attorney General Letitia James has tapped criminal defense attorney Abbe Lowell — who previously defended Hunter Biden against federal tax and gun charges — as she fights mortgage fraud allegations. Lowell, a partner at the Winston & Strawn LLP law firm, was hired by the Office of the New York State Attorney General and not retained personally by James, according to the Times Union. The decision to hire Lowell, a prominent white-collar defense lawyer, was based in part on the AG’s office belief that the bombshell criminal referral filed by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte earlier...

State Attorney General Letitia James’ attorney blasted the Trump administration Thursday for using “cherry-picked” information against her in a federal criminal referral — although she admitted to “mistakenly” listing a Virginia home as the Democrat’s primary residence. In a fiery, five-page letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, James’ lawyer Abbe David Lowell picked apart the accusations that James committed mortgage fraud, calling the referral a meritless, hypocritical salvo in President Trump’s “revenge tour” against the prosecutor. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte’s bombshell criminal referral was based off shoddy media reports and a selective reading of public records,...

Embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James is hitting up supporters for big bucks just days after the Trump administration accused her of alleged fraud involving several homes she owns. The money bid is in the form of an invitation to an event on Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. calling for contributions starting at $500 and climbing to an eye-popping $18,000, the maximum allowed by New York law, in support of her 2026 re-election bid. The invite features a photo of James framed by a circular gay pride flag. The high-dollar fundraiser will be hosted at the home of...

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is saying the Trump administration’s criminal referral for mortgage fraud is “baseless” but declined to give details, in a new interview. James appeared on Spectrum NY1’s “Inside City Hall” Thursday, attempting to swat down allegations from the Trump administration that she falsified real estate records in Virginia and New York. “Let me just say to all New Yorkers and to all Americans: the allegations are baseless. The allegations are nothing more than a revenge tour,” James told NY1 political anchor Errol Louis. When pressed about the amount of units in her Brooklyn home...

The ABC, CBS and NBC evening news networks completely ignored new damning data that bookended Bidenomics as arguably the dumbest set of economic policies the U.S. experienced in its history. So much for all the media kerfuffle about how President Donald Trump was inheriting a Biden economy in tip-top shape. The Wall Street Journal reported January 16 that “Mortgage rates rose above 7% for the first time since mid-2024, an early setback for a housing market that is coming off two consecutive years of poor sales.” The data on the 30-year fixed mortgage, which was released January 16 by Freddie...

As deadly wildfires continue scorching their way through Los Angeles and the surrounding area for the second straight week, homeowners are worried about the prospect of defaulting on their mortgages in the wake of the unprecedented disaster were offered some reprieve from the nation’s major lenders. On Monday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveiled mortgage assistance and relief options for customers reeling from the historic Southern California fires.

A little over a year after my husband and I bought our house, we refinanced our mortgage. Refinancing means paying closing costs again, but we'll break even after just four years. We could pay off our 30-year mortgage in just 23 years with the money we save, but we're putting it in a brokerage account...... The pros and cons of refinancing our mortgage Refinancing has pros and cons, and the decision to do so was one we didn't take lightly. One of the cons is that you typically have to repay closing costs. Anyone who has closed on a home...

Americans are becoming all too familiar with the phrase “house rich, cash poor,” as a growing number of middle-class adults report spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs. With rising home prices, stagnating wages, and relatively high mortgage rates, that once-reliable housing benchmark is becoming harder to maintain.

Mass illegal migration has been tough on the finances of small cities and towns throughout the U.S. So, many of these towns are raising property taxes -- through the roof. South Portland, Maine, which has seen a mass influx of illegals flown in by the Harris-Biden administration, has raised its property taxes for residents 25% in the last five years as a result. Some have seen hikes as high as 60%. Spending for illegals and their NGO "services" keeps piling up, always going higher than the previously promised budget for them.

In a city that has raised taxes by almost 25% over the past half-decade, the mayor has made the obvious suggestion: use your home's equity to hand over your wealth to keep the city's gravy train going. You will own nothing and be happy. ⚡South Portland Mayor Misha Pride tells seniors to take out a reverse mortgage to afford the city's sharp increase in property taxes. pic.twitter.com/auJK1pzAdt— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) September 23, 2024It's a brilliant solution if you think about it. You worked all your life to buy your house outright, happy that you can pass along the value...

For a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the average rate you’ll pay is 6.27% today, a decrease of -0.17% since one week ago. The average rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage is 5.53%, which is a decrease of -0.25% from the same time last week. For a closer look at mortgage predictions this week, see here. With inflation at its lowest level since spring 2021 and a weakening labor market, the Federal Reserve is set to make its first interest rate cut in September, which should help mortgage rates fall in the coming months. Generally speaking, bad news for the economy means...

Homebuyers stuck on the sidelines waiting for mortgage interest rates to fall (or home prices to level off) may not have to wait much longer. With a combined cooling inflation rate and concerning unemployment figures, the Federal Reserve is now poised to issue its first cut to the federal funds rate since 2020. And some economists think it could be a substantial reduction. While the Fed doesn't directly dictate what lenders offer borrowers, it goes a long way toward influencing their rates, as homebuyers contending with the highest mortgage interest rates in decades can attest. But a reduction in the...

If you own a home, you've probably heard the age-old advice to pay more on your mortgage so you can pay it off faster. But what happens when you don't have thousands extra to throw at your mortgage each month? There's a really simple way to pay a little extra -- by making mortgage payments every two weeks. Don't worry, you're not doubling your costs! Instead, you pay half your mortgage payment each time. It's a great strategy for sticking to a budget since many jobs pay every two weeks. And, because there are 52 weeks in a year, you'll...

Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff have refinanced their luxury properties on the east and west coast ten times with loans totaling $13M. The second couple, both 59, have borrowed way in excess of what they’re worth – their joint fortune estimated at $8 million by Forbes. And, surprisingly, their various home loans and lines of credit are all with Wells Fargo Bank, the lending giant Kamala battled when she was Attorney General of California. Harris was in litigation for years with Wells Fargo just as she and Emhoff were living in a luxury property in the...

Home prices reached a new record in May amid an ongoing housing shortage, even as high mortgage rates continued to push affordability out of reach for millions of Americans. Prices increased 5.9% nationally in May when compared with the previous year, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed on Tuesday, down from the 6.4% pace recorded the previous month. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3%, according to the index. "Home prices hit a new high in May," said Lisa Sturtevant, Bright MLS chief economist. "But with affordability a growing challenge for homebuyers and more new listings coming onto the market,...

In LA in 2020, I was living with three other roommates — one was my sister, and the other two were friends. There were four of us in this five-bedroom townhome, and the rent was $3,800 a month — which was actually pretty good. My portion of that rent was $1,100 because I had the master bedroom. I bought the house in Tulsa in November 2020, and it just sat vacant until I moved there in December. It's a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a two-car garage, and my mortgage is $1,185.

Joe Biden and First Lady Jill have been using their homes as an ATM, taking out multiple mortgages and refinancing their Delaware properties an astonishing 35 times, a DailyMail.com investigation has revealed. The president has lived in two houses in his home state since 1975, when he bought his first property in Wilmington that he later sold in the late 1990s. But records obtained by DailyMail.com show the couple have had a habit of negotiating a new mortgage or credit deal on both homes every 17 months

Mortgage rates dipped just under 7% this week after crossing above that threshold in the prior reading as rates remain stubbornly high, stifling the housing market. Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage ticked down to 6.99% this week from 7.03% last week. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 6.71% a year ago. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage also decreased to 6.29% from 6.36% last week. One year ago, the rate on the 15-year fixed note averaged 6.07%.

With the terrible mortgage applications index from Wednedsay, we are seeing US pending home sales crashiing. As Joe Biden handles the economy his way. After an unexpected jump in March, pending home sales were expected to drop 1.0% MoM in April as mortgage rates pushed back above 7.00% and stayed there. Well, the analysts had the direction right but magnitude was way off as pending home sales plunged 7.7% MoM – the biggest drop since Feb 2021 (and below the lowest estimate), leaving sales down 0.7% YoY… Source: Bloomberg This is the 29th straight month of YoY declines for non-seasonally-adjusted...