Rochester MN Real Estate Market Blog

Tuesday, the Fed’s surprise announcement of a new $200 billion lending facility led to a 400 plus point rally in the Dow, the biggest one day percentage gain since March 2003. The effect on mortgage rates was also favorable. The newly available funds will make it more appealing for financial institutions to borrow money from [...]

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In a week packed with major economic news, the biggest story for mortgage markets was the widening spread between mortgage backed securities and Treasury bonds. Issued by the US government, Treasury bonds are generally considered to be the benchmark for a “safe” security, since the risk of default is extremely low. During the week, the [...]

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Effective today the new maximum FHA loan limit for Olmsted county has increased to $271,050.  FHA allows a little more flexibility for borrowers with less then perfect credit or down-payment money that is being gifted to them. This is also  good news for sellers up to this loan limit as the pool of buyers of perspective [...]

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The biggest economic news of the week was expected to come from Fed Chief Bernanke, but a surprise announcement from OFHEO had the greatest impact on mortgage markets. Wednesday, OFHEO, the government regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced that it will remove the limits placed on the portfolio sizes of the two companies [...]

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