Today, there are very few options for families and individuals of moderate income to purchase a home with downpayment assistance.  The USDA Rural Development Guaranteed Loan Program offers an incredible opportunity for buyers seeking housing in unincorporated, rural areas, cities and towns with populations of 10,000 or less (other areas up to 20,000 may also qualify).  Approved mortgage lenders provide up to 100% financing...that means no downpayment and no mortgage limit.  Not all properties qualify for the program, so it's important to communicate with your Real Estate Agent and your Lender once you've found a home you'd like to purchase.

http://www.takemehomerealestate.com/find_a_home.html

Mortgage Rate Trend Survey
Monday, May 11, 2009

The Mortgage Rate Trend Survey summarizes where mortgage professionals think mortgage rates are headed in the future. To conduct this survey, Mortgage-X asks more than 250 experts in the mortgage field about their expectations for the mortgage market.

Over the next 30 days: Over the next 90 days: rates will rise significantly: 0.0% rates will rise significantly: 0.0% rates will rise slightly: 6.9% rates will rise slightly: 20.7%  rates will remain unchanged: 48.3%  rates will remain unchanged: 51.7% rates will decline slightly: 44.8% rates will decline slightly: 27.6% rates will decline significantly: 0.0% rates will decline significantly: 0.0%

Currently, about 48% of the participating mortgage professionals believe mortgage rates will remain unchanged over the next 30 days and 52% believe mortgage rates will remain unchanged over the next 90 days.

The Treasury department announced today that there will be increased incentives to mortgage lenders to accept short sales, making it possible for more homeowners to avoid foreclosure.  The incentives will be based on local market declines in the worst hit areas. See more details: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54D3NO20090514 

For those homeowners who have been unable to qualify for a loan modification and whose property value is below their pay off amount, this is good news.  Typically, short sales have taken upwards of 6 months or more to be accepted by lenders and even then, many were not approved or closed.  Now, the incentives could streamline the process beginning the healing of our housing market.