Fed Funds RateThe Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begins a 2-day meeting today, its last of 8 scheduled meetings this year.

The Federal Open Market Committee is a 12-person subcommittee within the Federal Reserve. It's the group which votes upon U.S. monetary policy.

The monetary policy action for which the FOMC is most well-known is its setting of the Fed Funds Funds. The Fed Funds Rate is the interest rate at which banks borrow money from each other overnight. Since late-2008, the Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent.

Prime Rate, a business and consumer interest rate used in lines of credit and credit card rates, is based on the Fed Funds Rate. Prime Rate has been similarly unchanged since 2008.
One rate which the Federal Reserve does not set is the 30-year…

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FOMC meets this weekMortgage bonds worsened last week as Fiscal Cliff talks moved closer to resolution and as the U.S. economy showed continued signs of growth.

Conforming mortgage rates in Delaware rose slightly, edging off the all-time lows late in November.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey, the average 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgage rate was 3.34% last week for home buyers and refinancing households willing to pay 0.7 discount points at closing plus a full set of closing costs.

Freddie Mac also showed the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaging 2.67% with an accompanying 0.7 discount points plus closing costs.

1 discount point is equal to 1 percent of your loan size.

The two big stories that moved rates worse last week were the Fiscal…

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Rehoboth Beach REO (Real Estate Owned by a lender) houses have been a substantial part of the real estate conversation for some time.  Whether or not we ever need to delve into an REO transaction ourselves, well-informed local homeowners are familiar with some of the basic terms that come up when REOs are discussed:

  • Arrears: a home that is delinquent on payments – being there is red flags a possible future foreclosure.
  • Decree (short for decree of foreclosure): the ruling that declares a property should be sold to pay its mortgage.
  • Default property: a home behind in payments to a mortgager. May describe a property in (or close to going into) actual foreclosure proceedings.
  • Power of Sale: a legal decree giving the mortgager or lien holder the…

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