In a new article released by the Federal government, nearly one third of all mortgage applications were denied nationally as well as in the Washington home loan arena.

In the annual mortgage practices report among lending institutions the Federal reserve said that the denial rate was about 32 percent, which was about the same as in 2007. This affects all of us here in the Washington Home loan arena as well as the rest of the nation. Being able to overcome these types of hurdles requires diligence in order to make a living in the Washington home loan area as well as the US. Loan officers must be at the top of their game and be diligent in making certain how to help their clients qualify and how to get them qualified.

Using different organizations one must first help their challenged customers become credit worthy. Using a good credit clean-up organization is key. I know from first hand experience it has made a difference for me in the Washington home loan area.

“The foreclosure plague is not going away — it’s only getting worse. A record 1.53 million properties were in the foreclosure process — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — during the first six months of 2009. That was 9% more than the previous six months and 15% more than the same period of 2008, according to a report released by RealtyTrac. There were a total of 1.91 million filings resulting in 1 out of every 84 U.S. properties receiving at least one filing in the first half of the year. Banks repossessed 386,800 properties. “What this means is, despite the intensity of the efforts on the part of government and lenders we don’t have a handle on foreclosures yet,” said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.”

I am a loan officer that lives in the Seattle Home Mortgage area – and recently took part in a marketing program for loan officers that not only gave me a free website, but taught me how to market more successfully using twitter, facebook, Search engine optimization, and so much more. The webinars were for free. Since then I have continued on in the marketing lab and have gained a ton of information that has helped me grow my business. This same organization is now offering this to Real Estate Agents. If you would really like to grow your business, this marketing lab is phenomenal. There is a preliminary meeting this Friday Sept. 18th at 10:00 am you may register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/350094379 this should give you an overview of the actual 3 day marketing webinar that will begin on Wednesday Sept 30 – Friday Oct. 2nd, 2009. Or you may go to www.freerealestatemarketinglab.com/landing and sign up. You certainly won’t be out anything checking it out and it has tons of things that will help you increase your business. So you might be thinking what is in it for me?? Absolutely nothing. I am just sharing information that I found to be truly valuable. Hope you have a chance to check it out.

I live and work in the Seattle home mortgage area and face the new challenges of being in the mortgage industry. It is a relief to know that there may be a simplified process of scoring which will help all borrowers with better and more accurate scoring regarding their personal credit.

It looks as though there maybe a new and better credit scoring system that is being considered by the 3 major credit bureaus – Transunion, Equifax, and Experian. Currently the mechanism’s that make up the scoring that is used today is extremely complex and seems to place to much emphasis on the small things that affect credit adversely.

Some of the positive things of the new system will be:

– The new system takes into account more of the borrowers history and will penalize individuals less for single unusual events.

– There are additional scoring card levels which will allow for finer adjustments of an individuals credit score.

– The new system will reduce the power of credit collectors, because of single events that are accidentally reported in error which will result in a less impact on your score.

– With a more accurate means of scoring, the result should mean that there will be less foreclosures, not only here in the Seattle Home Mortgage area but nationally as well.Sea

The major downside to this new scoring system is that it has not been currently adopted by the government agencies of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. It is however being considered by them and will most likely be approved in the near future. The ultimate attribute to this is that it can be a huge boost to the current housing market, because it will give lenders a truer insight as to a respective borrowers credit worthiness in buying or refinancing a home.

Pending Home Sales Soar to 2 Year High in July

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes raced to a two-year high in July. The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed but not yet closed rose 3.2% to a reading of 97.6. This is the highest reading since June of 2007.

Pending home sales contracts have risen for a record six straight months.

In other housing news, Reuters conducted an independent survey among top economists on the future of home prices. The consensus: Home prices will increase in 2010. This further stresses the point that the time to buy at the bottom might be slipping away. Courtesy of Sierra Pacific.

Here in the Seattle Home Mortgage area and nationally housing data that has been released over the past couple of months suggests a housing recovery is near or already underway. Low current mortgage rates along with historically high home affordability and the first-time home buyer tax credit of $8,000 has created a “perfect storm” for a housing turn around.

Housing sales are up, the price of homes has been going up the past five months in a row and the supply of homes for sale are down for both new home and existing homes. Keep in mind, this improved housing data is happening during a recession, raising unemployment and a slight uptick in mortgage rates in the past few weeks, even more reason to believe a turn around has started. This information courtesy of Monitor Rates.com

Here in the Seattle Home mortgage area and Nationally for a conventional fixed 30-year mortgage is at 5.22 percent today, down from last week’s fixed mortgage rate of 5.33 percent. Two weeks ago, the average home mortgage interest rate for a 30-year was just over 5.50 percent at 5.51 percent. The average conforming mortgage rate on a 15-year fixed is at 4.63 percent today, down from the prior week’s average rate of 4.75 percent. Courtesy of Monitor Bank rates.com

This week here in the Seattle home mortgage arean and Nationally. Mortgage rates have been fluctuating in a tight range for the past month now. The change in the direction of current mortgage rates is happening on a weekly basis, fluctuating in a range of 5.50 percent and 5.00 percent.

Today’s mortgage rates are nearing 5.00 percent again according to a survey released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Courtesy of Monitor Bank rates.

Mortgage Rates Drift Lower as Interest Rates Head Down, here in the Seattle Home Mortgage area as well as Nationally.

Mortgage-Rates-Drift-Lower-as-Interest-Rates-Head-Down, Mortgage rates are down this week over last week as 10-year Treasury notes are back below 4.50 percent as of this morning, brought on by a consumer confidence report on Friday showing a surprising drop in the Reuters/University of Michigan index.

Although the recession is expected to end this year, people are feeling less optimistic about their personal finance at anytime in the past 60 years. This information a courtesy of Monitor Bank Rates.com