Recently all twelve Democrats in the Senate Banking Committee pressured the Federal Housing Finance Agency to remove more restrictions to refinancing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.

The FHFA eased a few rules last November under a renewed Home Affordable Refinancing Program. It lifted the loan-to-value cap, specific appraisal requirements, up front loan-level price adjustment fees, and removed some representation-and-warranty risk if the borrower refinances with the same lender.

Last Friday the lawmakers sent a letter requesting more. They suggested the removal of upfront fees when Fannie and Freddie already have the credit risk. They asked for FHFA to make refinancing easier with buyers who have 20% or more in equity on their house. They also wanted to reduce more rep and warranty risk in order to remove disincentives for servicers to refinance.

They explain in their letter that as citizens you all can no onger wait, and as 'elected officials' neither can they.

Around 2,700 mortgages with a loan-to-value ration between 105% and 125% received HARP refinancing in December, and nearly half of the 5,100 such loans refinanced in November.

More than 20,600 with LTV's between 80% and 125% received HARP refinancing which was also down 31% from the previous month. Meanwhile, mortgage rates sank below 4% last week according to Freddie Mac.

'Impressive' would be a good word to describe the number of distressed and foreclosed homes in years the most recent years. In most towns these foreclosed properties have been drawing investors in to sign a contract. All that is fore sure is that these homes need to sell.

Some investors and buyers may feel a slight sting known as guilt that they're taking advantage of sellers, but keep in mind that these homes are already in the bank's posession. These homes aren't individually owned, and buying up these homes can help reinvigorate the market.

Nearly a third of today's sales consist of foreclosed homes. Most of these homes should be been put on the market a few years ago, but are just now popping up. Don't feel any guilt, because today any sale is a good sale.

According to RealtyTrac.com there are great deals out there. In some towns buyers are able to buy homes at a 50% discount of more over non-distressed properties. They're reporting 'these steep foreclosure discounts are available in a wide range of markets, with a wide range of average priced homes. At the high ends of homes in San Francisco and Bridgeport, Connecticut, where the average price of a foreclosure was more than $300,000-- still 50% below the average price of homes not in foreclosure in the markets.'

Some of these eleven markets had amazingly low prices below $100,000, which made affordability rates sky-high. These cities were Saginaw, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The city that lead the way with an average of 68% discount was Trenton, New Jersey, where the foreclosed property was selling for an average of $108, 302.

The remaining towns in the 50% discount list were Springfiled, Massachusetts;  New Haven, Connecticut; and Atlanta Georgia.

Other cities are still seeing major improvements of their sales being attributed to foreclosures or bank-owned properties. Most of these citites are in the...

To figure out where real estate is going in the next few months, start looking towards the Federal Reserve. Maybe you should focus on the latest pending home sales numbers? Look at both, but the key is this: The Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book Report. This report has economic data from each 12 regional banks, and nine of those 12 had positive data.

Despite the bad weather at the beginning of the year, the Federal Reserve found consumer spending and manufacturing output increasing. Both of these factors are good indicators of economic growth, especially consumer spending which accounts for 70% of U.S. economic activity.

A seperate report by the Commerce Department stated that consumer spending increased by half of a percent in January, which outpaced the growth for the past four months.

What does all this mean? It means consumers are getting their confidence back and spending more money to fuel the economy.

For the housing market, the National Association of Realtors claimed that the severe weather that tore parts of the country apart has damaged home shopping, knocking down pending home sales by 7.6 percent.

Pending home sales, which are signed contracts that havent yet been closed, are still 12 percent higher than they were this time last year. It's believed that there will be a bounce back in the next few months because buyers will be rushing to sign contracts to qualify for the expiring home purchase tax credits.

Home prices across the country are showing hints of improvements. According to the latest Clear Capital Price Index, prices have risen 5% on average for the most recent quarter on a year-over-year basis.

What is helping this is continuing favorable financing conditions in the mortgage markets. Mortgage applications have been up 12 percent in the past few months.

Goodluck

Having a job is a luxary in today's economy. Their rebound is a huge factor in recovering the housing market. President Obama's proposed jobs legislation includes $15 billion dollars that would go toward fixing up and selling foreclosed homes. These homes would be sold at no profit, or at the price it cost to refurbish them.

The unemployment rate remains at 9.1% and even though jobs have been growing, they're not growing fast enough to establish a true recovery. Fewer jobs means less construction, less projects completed, and less money trading hands. The U.S. Commerce Department states that some months are worse than others concerning foreclosed homes. While most declines in housing were seen on the multi-family houses, some months have seen as much as 5%. Builders are hesitant to build houses due to lack of buyers,  possible foreclosures. This being the case builders confidence has declinded, but has risen slightly over the past few months, but still at a depressed level.

Many consumers are still unable or unwilling to move forward with the process of buying a house. Some places around the country are growing, but we need to get the whole country on board to grow, which means we need everyone to have jobs.

The only place where builders are still comfortable is the midwest. Builders have continued to confront the same challenges in accessing construction credit, obtaining accurate appraisal values for new homes, and competing against foreclosed properties that they have seen for awhile. What didn't help builder and consumer confidence was the market disruption caused by S&P downgrade and congressional gridlock on the budget deficit.

In order to get this great country back on it's feet, we need our Americans to get off their butts and get job. This is just a small step towards recovery, but it gets businesses moving again and puts money in peoples hands which usually goes right back into the economy. Help your country, help yourself,...

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