Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told the U.S. House Budget Committee yesterday that tight mortgage conditions are preventing a stronger economic revovery because their adverse effect on home buyers is keeping inventory levels high, damping appreciation, and holding back (more…)
One of the best things about any Super Bowl telecast is the ads. And this year advertisers will pay a whopping .5 million for 30 seconds of air time for the largest television audience all year. Century 21 will be the only real estate franchise advertising for the big game and (more…)
NAR appreciates remarks made by Ben Bernanke in support of homeowners and the struggling housing market in testimony before Congress. (more…)
President Obama’s plan would help eligible, underwater homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments to refinance or modify their loan. (more…)
By Moe Veissi, 2012 President, National Association of REALTORS®
Moe shares a huge victory for REALTORS® in Louisiana and the REALTOR® Party Initiative, where the two groups came together to permanently ban real estate transfer taxes in that state.
NAR President Moe Veissi made a forceful case before a key congressional committee yesterday to protect FHA from potentially destabilizing changes to the agency’s main insurance fund. Some lawmakers have been talking about curbing the agency as a step toward reducing the federal (more…)
By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine Federal banking regulators’ proposed qualified mortgage rule, which comes out of the big Wall Street reform act last year, is all about ensuring lenders only write loans that borrowers can reasonably be expected to repay. NAR’s (more…)
I wanted to share with you some progress we REALTORS® are making on extending the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Thanks to your responses to the Call for Action we issued, the House and Senate are close to reauthorizing the program for another FIVE years. The House and (more…)
In this issue: FHA to Adopt Uniform Appraisal Dataset; Uniform Appraisal Dataset Goes Into Effect (more…)
By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
A few months ago we heard from real estate practitioners about a short-sale contract addendum that lenders were requiring of borrowers to curb fraud, so we talked with David Sunlin, Bank of America senior vice president and operations (more…)