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Mortgage Rates Trend
Back
Down
In late June mortgage rates
averaged 6.25 percent, plus .6 points, according
to Freddie Mac. One-year adjustable-rate
mortgages (ARMs) averaged 4.13, with an average
0.7 points.
"Mortgage rates have been remarkably stable and
affordable and borrowers responded
enthusiastically in May by pushing up new home
sales nearly 15 percent – the biggest one month
gain in more than 11 years," said Frank Nothaft,
Freddie Mac vice
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president and
chief economist.
"Our current
economic forecast sees 30-year mortgage rates
staying in their current and attractive range of
six to seven percent for the rest of the year."
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Homes Vs.
Stocks
 Housing continues to give the stock
market a run for its money.
In the past five
years, while the stock market has been relatively
flat with the Dow Jones Industrial Average stuck
around 10,000, home prices have boomed an average
of nearly 42 percent nationwide, according to the
first quarter 2004 report from the Office of
Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO).
What's more, home
price appreciation nationwide is up 7.7 percent in
the year ending the first quarter 2004 -- more
than twice the rate of inflation. Freddie Mac's
quarterly Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index
put even more stock in the housing market. saying
values are up 8.5 percent. |
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NY
Bank: Housing Bubble?
Fugedaboudit
 If you are balking at buying a home
because of all the bubble talk, don't, says the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Economists Jonathan
McCarthy and Richard W. Peach maintain that the
strength, not weakness, of market fundamentals is
responsible for the run-up in housing prices
nationally. Increases in family income and low
mortgage rates have kept homes affordable. Home
buyers look not at growing home prices but
month-to-month affordability when they budget a
home purchase.
Two
other studies, Harvard's "2004 State of the
Nation's Housing Report" and Homeownership
Alliance's "Home Sweet Loan" both say the housing
market is positioned for 10 more years of
growth. | |
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Easy
Gardening Makes Lasting Impression
Whether you've just moved into your new
home or you settled in several months ago, the one sure
trick to a lived-in look is greenery and flowers. If you
have a green thumb, you're way ahead of the game. But if
the powers of proper planting elude you, there's still
plenty of hope. Here are just a few tricks for keeping
the green going throughout the summer and beyond.
Set the stage. Few
houses look good without some "foundation planting" --
plants set around the bottom edge, or foundation, of the
home. Ideally, choose a no-fuss evergreen. If it's
slow-growing, you won't have to trim it back often, and
you won't have to worry about it covering your windows
(a safety no-no).
Bring on the borders. Use other simple greenery to
accent the dark green foundation plantings or to soften
"hard" areas of your landscape, such as the edges of
patios, decks or driveways.
Spotlight Areas with
Color. It's fairly easy to plant annuals -- those
once-a-year plants that you pull up in the late fall --
in areas where you want to add just a bit of brightness.
Just be sure to leave some space in front of your other
plants but inside your brick, plastic or fence-like
border. If you're not sure if you'll keep up the
annuals, don't leave too much space at first; you don't
want it to look barren if you decide to scale back or
skip annuals one year. |
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