If you haven’t read the 2010 Mortgage Rate Outlook by HSH Associates then you should. Especially if you are considering buying a home or refinancing a mortgage this year. Their forecast neatly lays out a case for higher mortgage rates by year end.

The driving factor will be the Fed’s program of purchasing mortgage-backed securities. It’s set to come to an end on March 31. By industry estimates the Fed’s current hand in the market means that conforming fixed-rate mortgages are about three quarters of a percentage point (0.75 percent) below where they would be otherwise. How much rates can rise depends on how much private investors will buy into the mortgage-backed securities market and how strong their demand will be. Right now it’s anyone’s guess. That to me is enough of a case that mortgage interest rates will be on the rise.

Need another reason? Here it is: the Home-Buyers Tax Credit will expire in April 2010. When this credit first neared expiration, there was a flurry of home-buying activity and an uptick in demand for mortgages, causing mortgage rates to rise slightly. So if there’s another rush of buying to take advantage of the credit between now and April, this could also cause rates to rise.

Also, with some improvement in the economy, the Fed will need to start laying out a plan to remove some of the massive amounts of liquidity it’s been pumping into the system. To that end, the Fed already announced it’s raising the interest rate it charges on short-term loans to banks by a quarter point. As the mortgage market transitions from near complete government support to being supported more by the private market, there should be a return to “normal” mortgage rates.

All this means so long to the low rates we are seeing now, which have been the best rates in nearly 50 years. Mortgage forecasters think rates could increase by a half percentage point to a full point, which is a big increase from the near five percent rates we are seeing now.

Home buyers on the hunt for bargains should still be able to find them. There is set to be another wave of failed loans driven by job losses and some that will fail again after unsuccessful loan modifications. Also, another batch of pay option ARMs will hit their five-year “recast” mark this year — many of these folks will not be able to afford the increased mortgage payments that include all the interest and a small amount of principal, even at interest rates of three to four percent. The result of this continued wave of loan failures is more homes on the already over-supplied market. Buyers should expect to continue to find reasonable or even cheap prices for existing homes. But the only direction for mortgage rates from here is likely up.
By Ray Martin

Home Buyer Workshop

hosted by
Cynthia Weber Vice President of Retail Lending, Guaranteed Rate

and Tammy Kilen Realtor, Direct Performance Real Estate Partners

These two proven experts will share valuable information and answer your questions!
* Time is running out to receive your federal tax credit! *
* Take advantage of historically low interest rates! *
* Is it time for you to refinance? *
* Have you been pre‐approved? *

Guaranteed Rate Office
7250 Peak Drive • Suite 210
Las Vegas, NV
Tuesday • March 16, 2010
6:00 pm
Q&A • Professional Advice • Refreshments
FREE however RSVP is required
Cynthia Weber 702.217.1472
cynthia.weber@guaranteedrate.com

Receive $1000 off Closing Credit Coupon just for attending!
As per this CBS Moneywatch.com news clip, Now is the time to buy

If your home is languishing on the market, there are many tips that promise to help bring about a sale. But there’s only one that requires a prayer and a spade. The solution to your selling woes? Bury a St. Joseph statue in your yard, head down.

Joseph may have been a carpenter who couldn’t find a real roof to put over Baby Jesus’ head that fateful night in Bethlehem, but apparently he can help you move on to your new home if you just have a little faith — and you needn’t be Catholic!

Whether for superstition or faith, a growing number of people have turned to the “Patron Saint of Real Estate” in the hopes that he’ll deliver, reported the New York Times. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures. And could covering up a saint with a little dirt really hurt?
Dubbed the “Underground Real Estate Agent,” St. Joseph statues have been steadily flying off the shelves of retailers from Catholic Supply of St. Louis and StJosephStatue.com LLC, a company started on a whim by a mortgage broker.

Legend has it that if you bury a St. Joseph statue in your yard, head down, facing the direction you want to move, your home will sell more quickly. When possible, place it near the for sale sign — mainly so that you can remember where you buried it and can dig it up after the sale. Then, it’s recommended that you put old Joe on a mantle or other prominent place in your new home, as a gesture of thanks. Or, just pass it on to a friend.

No yard? No worries. Bury a small statue in a potted plant, suggests the website LuckyMojo, which also offers a couple of prayers to recite on its site.

The statues are typically sold for less than $10 in kits, complete with an instruction booklet with burial prayer and a cloth carrying bag, such as the one pictured from StJosephStatue.com, which also throws in a free real estate listing on its site with every purchase (It currently boasts more than $2.4 billion in current listings.) Some people also obtain their St. Joe’s from their Catholic church, as was the case with Joe D’Eramo, whose tale will give skeptics pause.

“We were selling a home in Taunton, MA. It was an older home with a dirt floor basement. Two buyers had come and gone, each finding something during inspection to pass on the deal,” D’Eramo told HousingWatch. “I went to a local Catholic Church and asked where I could find a statue of St. Joseph. The receptionist had never heard the legend and brought me in to see the priest. He handed me a fairly large statue of St. Joseph and wished me well. By the end of that weekend, we had another buyer and this one closed.”

“Before moving, we gave the statue to my brother-in-law,” D’Eramo continued. “He, too, had been having difficulty selling his home, mainly because it had gone through some serious wear and tear. Lo’ and behold, they, too, received an offer and sold their home.”

So who exactly buys these statues? St. Joe’s popularity has shifted recently, Phil Cates, the owner of StJosephStatue.com, told HousingWatch.

“Caifornia, Florida and Arizona have consistently held the number 1, 2, and 3 spots for the most sales since 2005,” Cates said. However, over the last 60 days Florida took over the top spot, followed by Texas and New York. California moved to the fifth place after North Carolina.

Cates, a mortgage broker by day, speculates that California may have dropped on the list because more homes are being sold by the banks that foreclosed on the homeowners. “I’m not sure bean counters and spirituality have much in common,” he jokes.

Trisha Haas, head blogger at MomDot, has so much faith, she had her St. Joseph statue blessed by her brother-in-law priest before she buried it last month and caught it all on video for her readers. It’s been about 30 days and we are still waiting to hear if she’s had any offers.

In another case, it took just one weekend for a vacation home to sell after a burial. After close to two years on the market and a 20 percent price reduction on his Boulder ski home, Bob Webster of Webster Investment Advisers recalls, “I had now become desperate, as it had been 18 months and not a single offer…not even an embarrassing low-ball salvo. So casting my pragmatism aside, but still holding onto a sense of skepticism … I ordered .” The St. Joseph statue was buried on a Friday and on that next Monday night, he says his Realtor called with a full-cash, 30-day offer. The sale closed Christmas Eve 2009.

“To quote the classic band of the 70’s, The Monkeys, ‘Now I’m a Believer’,” says Webster, who grew up a Catholic kid in Brooklyn.

Stories like these have helped build a diverse following for Joseph. “Maybe half of our clients are Catholic,” says Cates of StJosephStatue.com. “The rest are Jewish, Hindi, atheist, Baptist. This cuts across all lines of thought. Some people look at it as ‘eh, what the heck do I have to lose.’ And others look at it as very holy.”

Cates started selling the statues 20 years ago after using them as a gimmick for marketing his mortgage business to real estate agents. He adds that some agents use statues to help gain their own business. About 40 percent of his sales are to real estate professionals.

Still, Cates doesn’t have his own head buried in the sand beneath the for sale sign. “While many people consider St. Joseph the silver bullet of real estate, I think we should leave the shiny ammo to ‘The Lone Ranger’ and magic to David Copperfield,” he concedes.

For this article I used a photo of my real live home office. These tips are important one to me as I am constantly trying to find the balance between spending 14 hours a day in the office working without ever seeing another room in my home not to mention the shower or being totally distracted by home projects, cooking, laundry, etc. I hope you find it useful and find that balance in working from home.
~Cynthia

More and more companies and organizations not only allow but also encourage telecommuting. If your organization offers that option, you can use your mobile PC to be productive in the comfort of your home or another remote location. In this article, I discuss the tools of the trade and provide tips to ensure that the familiar home environment doesn’t prevent you from keeping your focus and achieving your goals.

Tools of the trade
To efficiently telecommute, you’ll need the following tools.
Internet access: Most teleworkers have access to the Internet at home so that they can connect to their corporate network. As a home user, you can choose from three Internet access options:

•DSL: DSL stands for digital subscriber line. It uses ordinary telephone lines and a special modem to provide an Internet connection that can transmit high-bandwidth information to a user’s computer. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals. The data part of the line is a dedicated connection to the Internet and does not interfere with the use of the telephone. DSL is high speed and is always connected to the Internet.

•Cable Internet: Cable Internet uses your local cable TV line to receive broadband Internet content. This data rate far exceeds that of modems and is about the same as DSL. Your local TV cable company is typically the cable Internet service provider.

•Satellite Internet: If cable or DSL aren’t available in your area, or if the slow dial-up access speeds are not acceptable, consider using satellite internet. It’s available to you if you live in the northern hemisphere and have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. The service is expensive and the data rate is not as fast as a direct line, but it is a good connectivity alternative if you live in an isolated location.

Computer: Of course, you’ll need a computer! You can use a desktop computer or a mobile PC. If you can take your mobile PC home from the office, you won’t have to install the same programs on your desktop computer. If you do need to use a desktop computer to connect to your organization’s network remotely, you may need to install additional software to meet your company’s connectivity and security requirements.

Dedicated space with some privacy: I’ve heard more than one frustrated telecommuter state that they have a hard time focusing when they work at home. When I ask where their desktop computer or mobile PC is located, they usually say it’s on the dining room table. By setting up your workspace in a busy location, you almost guarantee distractions. Instead, set up a safe, healthy, and efficient workspace with easy access to your computer, a phone, reference materials, and supplies.

Communication tools: When telecommuting, make sure that your colleagues, customers, and manager can communicate with you at all times. Whether you’re in the office or working remotely, make it easy for people to contact you. Here are some suggestions:

•Share your phone number with people you work with regularly and leave your contact information with your manager and one or two additional contacts (such as your administrative assistant or receptionist). Also, consider using call forwarding to your home or cell phone so that you receive incoming calls wherever you’re working.

•Consider using instant messaging (IM). Similar to a chat room, IM is a fast means of communicating with one or more people in real time over the Internet. IM also gives you a way to show and update your communication status throughout the day. For example, when you need a couple of hours of undisturbed concentration, set your status as “Busy” and let everyone know that you’ll be slower than usual to reply to e-mail messages and phone calls.

Tips for staying focused
The tools of the trade don’t guarantee success—you’ll also need some strategies to help you stay focused.

•Start working at the same time. Treat telework days like regular workdays: get up, get dressed, and be “at your desk” at the usual time.

•Establish a schedule. Keep work hours similar to the ones you would keep if you were working at your office. Your manager and your co-workers appreciate knowing when you are available.

•Limit distractions. Be careful not to replace office-based interruptions with home-based ones (such as children, neighbors, and friends).

•Plan ahead. Take the appropriate work home. Some work may be better suited for the home office than other work, so be sure to plan the telework a day ahead.

•Take breaks. Plan time to get up and move around. Consider going for a walk or a run during your lunch break to keep your mind fresh.

•Focus on objectives. Work with your manager and colleagues to define clear goals and objectives against which your performance can be objectively measured.

Telecommuting is not for everyone, but if your job lends itself to working remotely and you are self-disciplined and highly motivated, you can reap the rewards of working effectively at home or remotely. Using the information presented in this column, you can take advantage of the opportunity to work efficiently away from the office while remaining in touch with your colleagues and customers.

This article was written by Armelle O’Neal.

This week home mortgage borrowers got the latest word on how much they owe compared to the actual value of their real estate – and the numbers are only getting uglier.

First American CoreLogic, a company that gathers data on millions of mortgages that have been packaged into securities for investors, reports that nearly one in four home loans nationally is now larger than the actual value of the home that backs it. In other words, one-quarter of all home loans are underwater!

In just the last three months of 2009, plummeting home prices and accumulating debts pushed 620,000 more homeowners into negative territory.By far the worst off are borrowers in Nevada, 70 percent of whom now owe more than their homes are worth. Not far behind is Arizona, where more than half of borrowers are underwater, and Florida, where 48 percent are in for more than their homes’ value. New York is weathering the storm the best, with just 6.3 percent of borrowers owing more than their homes are worth. (New Yorkers who own should be thankful for their perpetual housing shortage, since it helps keep prices strong.)

For most homeowners, negative equity is just a temporary setback – like watching your stock portfolio dip below where it was when you bought it. Eventually, odds are the values will recover.

But the new numbers show that for an increasing number of homeowners, negative equity is becoming a way of life – and that means living on the edge of foreclosure. Negative equity sharply increases the odds that a homeowner will decide to “walk away” and stop making mortgage payments. And even if a homeowner is eager to avoid foreclosure, owing significantly more than a home is worth usually makes it impossible to refinance or sell the home. If that owner loses his or her job and can’t find another, or needs to get out of an adjustable rate mortgage, a future foreclosure is likely.

Plummeting home values aren’t the only reason homeowners are sinking more deeply into the hole. Borrowers hold hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Option ARMs, which allow borrowers to pay less each month than it would actually cost to pay off what they owe on the mortgage so what they owe actually grows. Most borrowers with Option ARM mortgages have only been making those minimum payments. Interest rates are low right now, so some are managing to make a dent in their loan balances anyway. But as rates rise, which they inevitably will, these borrowers are poised to fall farther and farther behind – and when they fall too far below the total amount of principal they owe, their monthly payments are programmed to jump sharply.

In the coming two years, according to Amherst Securities Group, borrowers will see these payment spikes on more than $150 billion worth of Option ARM mortgages. That means that they’ll be forced to start spending more each month, and start catching up with what they actually owe on the house. And if they can’t? That’s when the sheriff comes calling.

The good news: nearly half of all homeowners with a mortgage still have equity in their home. Which side of the picket fence are you on?

Well, here we are two full months into 2010. This is usually right about the time of year when many people start to fall off the wagon and forget about those goals and resolutions that they set for themselves on January 1st. Hopefully you are still moving full speed ahead towards your goals, but if you need a little bit of extra motivation, I thought I would share some more of my favorite motivational quotes with you. I hope you enjoy them!

“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” – George Allen

“I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.” -Brian Tracy

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race” – Calvin Coolidge

“Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment can you grow more surely toward the stars.” -Brian Tracy

“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” -Earl Nightingale

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” -Henry Ford

“Become a ‘possibilitarian’. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities- Always see them, for they are always there.” -Norman Vincent Peale

“Your decision to be, have, and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.” -Brian Tracy

“Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.” -Jim Rohn

“Do not think of today’s failures, but of success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will have a joy in overcoming obstacles—a delight in climbing rugged paths which you would perhaps never know if you did not sometimes slip backward. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” -Helen Keller.

Hopefully these words of wisdom were able to give you some extra motivation- they always seem to do the trick for me!

The Good
Today’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed several cities enjoyed rising home prices recorded in the fourth quarter of 2009 like San Francisco where prices rose 4.8% from Q4 2008, followed by a 3% increase in Dallas and a 2.7% increase in San Diego. Washington, Denver, and Boston also saw price increases.

Nationally, the home prices dropped 2.5% but the numbers were massively drug down by cities like Las Vegas that dropped 20.6% and Tampa that dropped 11%, so the fact that so many cities increased is encouraging.

The Bad
Ending 2009, 25% of mortgage holders owe more than their homes are worth, according to First American CoreLogic with problem areas like Nevada plaguing the national average as 70% of borrowers underwater. More than 50% of borrowers Florida and Arizona as well as 33% of California borrowers are underwater.

The Ugly
The ugly of all of this news is that it’s great that some cities saw home price increases, that saves some homeowners from being underwater, but for the areas that are suffering in home prices, the rate of those underwater is exaggerated. Some areas appear to be experiencing some stabilization but others (most notably Nevada) are still in critical condition.

In this buyer’s market, along with the first-time home buyer’s tax credit stimulus, many people are finally able to take the plunge into home ownership. But for some, the waiting game seems to be paying off because, depending on the market, while some home prices are slowly creeping back up, some continue to drop. So in this stock market-type game, how do you know which way home prices are going in your neighborhood? Are there any indicators you could watch for to potentially give you a leg up?

Keith Vermilyea blogs about what you should be paying attention to if you want to get a better idea of which way home prices may be going.

“Traditionally, people have been willing to pay a modest premium to own a home rather than rent it. Recent studies report that in 1999 rents averaged 87 percent of the after-tax mortgage payment for houses and condos of similar size in the same neighborhood.

With historically low mortgage rates, plus the home buyer tax credit, this could be a great time to be buying or selling.”

Keith Vermilyea says that paying attention to rental rates in your area could serve as a good barometer as to which direction home prices may be headed in a neighborhood. If rental rates are going up, home prices will soon follow. Call me today for your free pre-approval. This way you will be armed and ready to purchase your home before it is too late~!!!!