Your Home with Less Stress

(Money Magazine) — If you are among the 6.5 million homeowners who took out a low-rate adjustable-rate mortgage during the housing boom, you’ve probably spent the past couple of years waiting for your day of reckoning to come.
After all, you’ve probably heard repeated warnings that when your ARM resets your payments would spike dramatically: an [...]

By Nick Timiraos
Just how big a backstop is Uncle Sam providing to the housing market right now? Here’s one indication: The number of home buyers relying on low down-payment mortgages obtained via the Federal Housing Administration and other federal agencies.
Some 59% of new home buyers are using government-backed loans from the FHA and other agencies, [...]

First-Time Home Buyer $8,000 Tax Credit: 6 Things to Know

1. Eight grand, new buyers:  This credit is equivalent to 10 percent of the purchase price of the home–although it’s capped at $8,000–and applies only to first-time home buyers and principal residences. But unlike an earlier $7,500 home buyer tax credit, this one does not have [...]