News You Can Use from Gary Moore

Home sales trends are demonstrating a modest recovery, although foreclosures and short sales continue to add to a glutted inventory and present exciting buying opportunities for owner occupants and investors.

If you are a first-time buyer---or if you know a family member or someone who should be---you can receive a downpayment gift from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency. "First-time buyer" is defined as either someone who has not owned a home in the last 3 years or who lives in an exempt rural county. If you need help with paying closing costs, I can work with your Realtor to get the seller to pay those for you, or I can show you lender-paid closing cost options.

Investors are also taking advantage of buying single-family homes while inventory is high and prices are low. Investors who buy Fannie Mae foreclosures need only 10% down, and there is no mortgage insurance required. Contact me for a list of eligible properties.

Presently, there are 149 such foreclosures for sale in Davidson County and 33 in Williamson County. Single-family detached homes are the bread-and-butter residential product, and they are the easiest to finance and sell later, beating condominiums and multi-family in that regard.

Housing starts rose in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000 from 512,000 in February, an increase of 7.2%. Existing home sales in March were up for the sixth out of the last eight months since bottoming last July. Sales increased 3.7% over February numbers and registered a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million. This lagged March 2010 which posted an annual rate of 5.44 million while first-time homebuyer incentive money was available from the U.S. Treasury.

Stocks were up for the holiday-shortened week---markets were closed for Good Friday---as the major indexes increased for the first week out of the last three.

Apple reported strong earnings as its shares hit $350, and stocks seem to have wind in their sails going into another week of earnings reports.

The Dow climbed as high as 12,506.06 on Thursday for its highest intraday level since early June 2008. The S&P 500 ran into resistance close to 1,340, a level that has triggered selling this month. Some market watchers see a failure to convincingly rise above 1,344, the recent high in the benchmark, as a bearish technical signal.

For the week, both the blue-chip index and the S&P 500 were up 1.3 percent while the Nasdaq, lifted by strong tech results, rose 2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week at 12,506; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed at 1,337, and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 2,820.

Mortgage interest rates were flat for the week. The 10-year Treasury closed yielding 3.4%.

Gary Moore 615-579-8658, email Gary@BrentwoodHomeLoan.com. Web site: www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

First Community Mortgage is a direct lender that does all processing, underwriting and funding locally in-house, so that sales close more smoothly, and you never feel left out of the loop.

30-Year Conventional Fixed

4.875% $200,000-$417,000

15-Year Conventional Fixed

4.25% $200,000-$417,000


30-Year FHA-100% VA

4.75% $100,000-$393,300


30-Year Jumbo Fixed

5.8% $417,001-$900,000

(Interest-only available-Call me)

Rural Development 100%

5.25%

THDA Great Start

5.35% $100,000-$393,300

4% of loan amount Gift

Call for free pre-approval and to discover

the best financing for you!

...by Gary Moore

Mortgage Planner, First Community Mortgage

...a subsidiary of First Community Bank

Cell: 615-579-8658 Toll-free fax: 866-321-6513

Quote of the Day

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate." --Bertrand Russell

Visit my mortgage website:
http://www.BrentwoodHomeLoan.com

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