" " " Maine's Waterfront Real Estate News: August 2007

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Mortgage Rates Fall Again

Washington D.C. - Mortgage rates fell for the third straight week after rising substantially over the previous two months, according to Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored loan buyer. They reported the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan declined to 6.59 percent for the week ending August 9,2007 -- from 6.68 percent the previous week.

Both the tightening of underwriting standards and slackening house price appreciation are possible contributing factors to the declione.

In its latest report, Freddie Mac said that rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans averaged 6.25 percent, five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 6.33 percent and one-year ARMs averaged 5.65 percent.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Just the Facts: June Home Sales

It's beginning to sound like a broken record but, once again, the monthly figures reported by the Maine Association of Realtors indicates June sales were down -- but prices went up. There were 1,316 single family homes sold in June 2007 -- a 16.76% decrease from June 2006, when 1,581 homes sold. The median sales price for homes sold in June 2007 reached $199,950 -- up 0.48%. The median sales price indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half were sold for less. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing single-family homes fell 12.1% in the past year, while the national median sales price increased 0.1% to $230,300. Regional sales were down 7.3% in the Northeast, with prices up 1.8% to $294,400 from last June.