Here’s a recent release from HUD featuring 10 tips to avoid foreclosure. This is another facet to HUD’s push to educate consumers and decrease foreclsoures. Here’s #7:

7. Prioritize your spending.

After healthcare, keeping your house should be your first priority. Review your finances and see where you can cut spending in order to make your mortgage payment. Look for optional expenses-cable TV, memberships, entertainment-that you can eliminate. Delay payments on credit cards and other “unsecured” debt until you have paid your mortgage.

Although some of the tips may seem like common sense, it’s always good to have a reminder.

Jeff over at the FHA Expert has a great post today about misconceptions in some of the differences between FHA and Conventional Loans. Check it out!

Here’s a good explanation from our dear friend Peter Miller (seriously, I’m stopping.) about how seller-provided DPA can screw customers.

Here are results of a study showing that fixed mortgage rates are up, and ARMs are down. Not that all ARMs are bad (the FHA has some fair, reasonable options), but its reassuring to know that people are steering away from “exotic” (seriously, I love the use of that word when describing mortgages. It makes me think of Tahiti. or Fiji.) subprime ARMS. Here are some of the facts:

For first mortgages, fixed-rate loans- including interest only (IO) loans- accounted for 46.2 percent of loans (60.5 percent based on the number of loans) in the second half of 2006 compared to 43.3 percent (54 percent based on number of loans) in the first half of 2006.

Here’s a story in the Detroit Free Press by our dear friend Kenneth Harney (I really should stop pretending like I know these people, I can foresee myself getting into some sort of awkward situation someday.) About why traditional mortgage solutions such as Freddie Mac and the FHA can work, even in today’s uncertain market.

The rising ARM rates have spurred another story in the New York Times about the alarming number of foreclosures cropping up across the country. This article focuses on Atlanta as the first in what may be a long line of states withy sky rocketing foreclosure rates. There is also a handy graph illustrating the rising home prices in the metro Atlanta area.

Here is more proof that borrowers facing foreclosures are in desperate need of a safe and reliable way to refinance their homes. This article in the Business Section of the New York Times highlights a new danger facing consumers headed for foreclosure:

The schemes take various forms and often involve promises to distressed homeowners of cash upfront, free monthly rent and a chance to retain their houses in the long run. But in the process, someone else takes over the deed, borrows as much as possible against the value of the house and pockets the cash. And, almost always, the homeowners still end up losing their homes.

There are no nationwide numbers on this common fraud, known as equity stripping, but it has turned up in almost every state. Seven states have passed laws to try to stop it. Still, with foreclosure rates rising rapidly, it will be a growing problem, consumer advocates say.

Those looking to refinance need to get all the facts before making any sort of decisions and always remember that things that sound too good to be true probably are.

HUD and the FHA have many resources to help out home buyers, from loan counselors to detailed mortgage glossaries. Here is an online tool offered by HUD allowing you to find lenders who are approved by HUD and the FHA. You can type in as many or as few criteria as you would like to narrow your lender selection. Checking this out is one of the important steps to obtaining an FHA loan. You can get a step-by-step guide to obtaining an FHA loan (complete with checklist) in this free downloadable FHA Guide.

Check out this post that clarifies the current down payment assistance issues. The gist of this post is that down payment assistance is not being banned, but seller-paid downpayment assistance is. This is because sellers will hike up the price the amount of the “gift” and, essentially, screw the buyer.

Check out the opinions of industry experts over at Inman Real Estate news to get a series of different viewpoints on the mortgage industry’s current situation.