Loans Org have launched their newest Web site that seeks to be an “information bank that strives to provide consumers with information on an otherwise ambiguous and confusing topic.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau points out that fine print in loan documentation can make it hard to tell the difference between two loans and that difference could mean a lot of money. Loans.org is seeking to help consumers sift through the details, allowing them to gain information on various types of borrowing and let them compare loan quotes across various carriers for free.

Cesar Diaz, founder and developer, said, “We’re not only trying to make loans accessible to everybody, we’re trying to create a more fiscally-informed society by providing both assistance in financial planning and general knowledge about lending and borrowing.”

Diaz created the service as a way to alleviate the fears of borrowing and create a force that is on the side of the consumer. The five major loan types – home mortgage, student, personal, payday and auto – are all covered extensively. This includes analyzing current events, producing informative articles and answers all the questions consumers may have about each type of loan.

The company hopes to make loans.org a trusted service that consumers will go to find the most affordable and beneficial method of borrowing. The site’s major plus is that it allows consumers to obtain loan quotes from various sources in minutes.

They are breaking into the loans industry as a borrower’s guide, and a shield against those who will try to take advantage of consumers.

The amount of resources already available to users of the site is extensive. It’s already looking like a great resource to borrowers of every type. The tools available on the site are also well implemented allowing users to calculate loan repayments and other factors involved in borrowing.

Google’s Jon Kaplan said in a Reuters report that the search ad will remain a fixture in the budgets of the mortgage lending market:

Advertising based on Web search allows marketers to tout their services to people when they look for information and track the response to such commercial messages. As a result, it remains a key outlet for mortgage lenders to cultivate new business leads, Kaplan said.

Google’s biggest mortgage industry advertisers spent on average $3.5 million apiece on search ads in the first quarter, compared with $1.9 million in the year earlier period.

Another Google executive said in the report the spending by lenders continues unabated:

“Every single day that somebody is looking for a mortgage … these campaigns from these financial customers are on 24-7, 365 days a year,” said Tim Armstrong, president of Google’s advertising division in North America. “So our ecosystem actually mimics what the GDP looks like.”

It’s hard to be a big spender with nothing to spend. Lenders that made loans to risky credit types have been hurt by a massive drop in their industry.

The effects could be felt in the homes of people who have made fortunes off the advertising by subprime lenders. A Financial Times report cited the downturn as affecting two of Nielsen//NetRating’s top ten largest online advertisers: lenders Countrywide and Low Rate Source.

There aren’t any worries being voiced by the search industry yet. Microsoft’s MSN general manager David Jakubowski acknowledged the issues to FT.com, but didn’t express grave concern:

“A lot of the subprime [advertising] has gone away,” said David Jakubowski, general manager of Microsoft’s MSN service.

This loss had yet to have a broader effect in the search business, he added.

“I haven’t felt a pricing hit because of it,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything crazy happen,” though he added that the company continued to keep a close eye on this area for more fallout.

Financial advertising has long represented a lucrative market for paid search and display ads online. A downturn in that spending has been affecting Yahoo since 2006.

Indeed, home ownership is not something to be entered into lightly. Buying a home in Second Life, however, can be as simple as a point-and-click transaction, and Coldwell Banker has decided that it wants to be the real estate company to meet the needs of the virtual world’s potential homeowners.

That’s right, as if the process of taking out your first mortgage wasn’t painstaking enough, you can now pony up even more cash to purchase your own little piece of digital real estate in Second Life.

“We are incredibly excited to be a part of Second Life, the most explosively popular community on the Internet,” says Charlie Young, senior vice president, marketing, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation.

“Like the Second Life members, today’s homeowners are technologically savvy so it’s paramount that we offer them the opportunity to engage with, and experience, our brand in a variety of different ways, whether in the real or virtual world. Second Life is an excellent virtual platform that will enable us to interact with consumers where they are meeting today, in online 3-D communities.”  

So just where are these virtual homes located? According to Coldwell Banker, they’ve set up a home development in the “Ranchero” section of the Second Life mainland, a property that consists of 500 homes covering 550,000 square meters.

With prices varying based on size and style, Second Lifers can choose from several different architectural layouts including southwestern, colonial and contemporary, and will receive free “virtual furniture” for their new home as a closing gift from Coldwell Banker.

I’m just wondering if virtual realtors still get 6% commission for selling these virtual homes.

A number of changes entered production on Yahoo’s Real Estate portal, according to the Yahoo Search Blog. An entry by Vivek Gupta
Senior Engineering Manager, and Carlos Teran, Product Manager, both on the Yahoo! Real Estate team, described those, starting with the latest Yahoo Shortcut:

They also referenced previous updates to Real Estate. One of those paired Yahoo and Zillow.com in creating a home valuation shortcut, accessed by entering “home values” on Yahoo Search to retrieve it. Another Shortcut returns options when searching for “[city] real estate.”

Gupta and Teran also noted Yahoo Real Estate’s use of a couple of the company’s APIs to deliver enhanced results on the Real Estate site. The redesign combines satellite imagery available through Yahoo’s Maps API and information from the Yahoo Local API:

Developers can also access those publicly available APIs as part of the Yahoo Developer Network.

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The Federal Reserve yesterday continued its measured pace of raising short-term interest rates. This is the 8th time in a row that they have been raised.

The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 5.81% from 5.85%. This is the lowest it has been since February.

According to a press release from Bankrate, Inc., the 30-year fixed rate mortgages in this week’s survey had an average of 0.34 discount and origination points.

The popular 15-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 5.38% from 5.42%.

The average rate for the jumbo 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell below 6%.

As Bankrate’s press release explains, mortgage rates are closely related to yields on long-term government bonds and move independently of the Federal Reserve’s actions. This week was yet another illustration of that little-known fact.

The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage has dropped to 5.81% from 6.3% since the Fed started raising interest rates in June.

The Fed remains concerned about inflation, but bond investors are more worried about the slowing down of the economy. Economic growth hit its slowest in two years in the first quarter of this year.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

The average 30-year fixed rate is at 5.79% in the week ending March 3, up from 5.69% the previous week.

A USA Today article says:

“It is the third consecutive weekly increase after 30-year rates had fallen for six straight weeks, hitting a low for this year of 5.57% the week of Feb. 10. Rates stand at the highest level since the 30-year mortgage averaged 5.81% during the last week of 2004.

Analysts said the latest rate increase occurred because bond market investors are becoming concerned that long-term rates are too low in view of signals from Federal Reserve policy-makers that they intend to keep pushing short-term rates higher to make sure inflation stays under control.”

“Concern that long-term interest rates are too low and comments from Fed officials this week helped push mortgage rates higher,” said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft.

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The average one-year adjustable-rate mortgage went up from 4.18% to 4.23% in a week.

“Not surprisingly, the one-year ARM rose on the expectation that the Fed would raise rates once again when they met [this] week,” said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. “We will probably see the ARM rise a little more over the next few weeks in anticipation of further rate increases by the Fed, while long-term fixed rates remain fairly flat.”

According to MarketWatch,

“Short-term rates have mostly risen alongside a series of six hikes to the Federal Reserve’s short-term borrowing target since last June.

While short-term Treasury yields have risen, the benchmark 10-year note yield is steady to only marginally higher, keeping a lid on mortgage rates.”

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If you were to purchase a $150,000 home with a $120,000 mortgage (80%), and you paid an interest rate of 9% for 30 years, you will have paid over $227,500 just in interest (in addition to the original $120,000). That’s nearly two times the cost of the home!

A credit card debt of $7000 (now the average) at 18% being paid at the rate of $20 principal plus interest each month will take over 29 YEARS to pay off, almost as long as a home mortgage. Interest charged on this credit card debt will top $18,400, more than 2.6 TIMES the original debt!

If you work for a living, you know that when you are not working, you are not getting paid. But interest never gets sick, never takes a vacation and never sleeps. It is working against you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, each and every day of the year.

So what can you do?

You may not be able to pay off your debts or mortgage now. You may not have enough equity in your home for a loan. You may not be able to afford the refinancing costs or home equity loan costs. You may not be able to lower your credit card interest rates.

But you can make additional or extra payments.

So how does making an extra payment help lower your interest charges? Is it going to make next month’s bill smaller? You can’t scrape together too much for an extra payment so how is just $10 going to help when you owe tens of thousands?

The secret is in making early and consistent extra payments. For example, on the home mortgage shown above, if you pay an additional $100 each month you will save over $82,000 in interest payments. Not only that, but you will also have your home paid off nine years and two months earlier. You knock nearly 10 years off your mortgage just by paying an extra $100 a month.

How does that work?

Well, that $100 extra you pay the first month would have cost you about $270 in interest to borrow for 30 years. Since you have paid it already, you can reduce your last mortgage payment by $270. The next month’s extra payment will reduce your last mortgage payment by $268. Each month as you pay that extra $100, your final mortgage payment will be reduced until you won’t need to make a final payment, then the second to last payment, then third to last and so forth. Soon you will have shaved years and thousands of dollars in interest charges off your mortgage.

That’s great, but maybe you can’t spare $100 each month. How about $50, $25, or even $10? An additional payment of $50 each month will save you five years and seven months and about $52,000 dollars. $25 each month will cut your time by three years and three months saving you about $30,000. Just $10 a month will reduce your time by one year and three months and save you over $13,500.

Every little bit helps. Some months you may only be able to add $10 to your payment; some months you may be able to add $200. And this applies to interest on credit card payments or any other kind of debt repayment. Paying down as much of the principal (or amount you owe) each month will help reduce the interest you are charged and the length of time it takes to pay off the debt.

So why don’t the credit card companies charge you more of the principal each month?

How would you like to be making 18% on an investment? Wouldn’t you want this investment to last as long as possible? Of course! So do the credit card companies. They are happy for you to pay off your balance, but even more excited for you to keep paying them that 18% interest.

There are some other interest tips and tricks.

- One trick your mortgage company may have played on you is to include a prepayment penalty in your mortgage. If you try to pay off your mortgage early they may actually charge you for doing so. Or they may only apply part of your payment to the principal and take the rest as a “service charge.”

- Make sure when you make an additional payment that you send a check separate from your monthly mortgage payment with instructions that the amount is to be applied toward the principal of your loan. Otherwise they may just apply it towards next month’s payment and still charge you the interest.

- Generally you will not have this problem with credit card companies. But watch out for late payments or going over your credit limit. They may then use these “rule infractions” as cause to raise your rate to over 25%!

- If you are looking to refinance your mortgage, look for a mortgage that lets you pay on a bi-weekly basis. Since many people receive a bi-weekly paycheck this also makes it easier to budget your money. If you are paying every two weeks you will make an additional monthly payment each year (26 bi-weekly payments vs. 12 monthly payments). Also, because you are paying the principal down every two weeks rather than every month your interest charges will be reduced.

You CAN take control of your interest charges. Make those extra monthly payments. The feeling of being debt-free will far outweigh the temporary pleasure of that burger, movie or new DVD-player.

Simple Joe, Inc.
David Berky is president of Simple Joe, Inc. a marketing company that sells simple software under the brand name of Simple Joe. One of Simple Joe’s best selling products is Simple Joe’s Money Tools – a collection of 14 personal finance and investment calculators. This article may be freely distributed so long as the copyright, author’s information and an active link (where possible) are included.

(ARA) – You’ve spent months combing real estate ads, countless weekends touring open houses, and days waiting for your offer to be accepted. You’re just steps away from your dream home with one hurdle left — your mortgage. With so many options, you could spend even more precious time trying to choose the right one for you. Most mortgages, however, can be narrowed down to two types: fixed-rate and adjustable-rate.

The Basics

Fixed-rate mortgages – These mortgages are the most common loans used by home buyers. The principal and interest payment on a fixed-rate mortgage is the same for the life of the loan. The most popular terms are 30- and 15-year fixed mortgages. However, there are also 10-, 20- and 40- year options. The shorter the term, generally the lower the interest rate.

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) – These loans have interest rates and monthly payments that change with the economy. As market interest rates rise or fall, your rate and payment will be adjusted accord-ingly. There are caps, typically 2 percent a year and a specified lifetime maximum, to limit the total rate increase, so you know ahead of time what the maximum amount you could pay would be.

ARMs are available with adjustment periods of six months, one year, three years or five years. For example, if you have a three-year ARM, your interest rate and monthly payment can change every three years. There are also hybrid ARMs that offer a longer initial fixed period and then begin adjusting every year after that. For example, a 5/1 ARM has a fixed interest rate for the first five years and then adjusts annually.

Is Fixed for You?

Fixed mortgages are a good choice if interest rates are low or if they’re expected to rise. You have the security of knowing your interest rate will never change. If the interest rate should go down, you always have the option of refinancing.

Fixed-rate loans are also wise choices for individuals who are on fixed budgets. If you are unsure of your future financial situation or if you don’t expect that your income will rise, you know exactly how much to budget for.

Should You Grab an ARM?

Adjustable-rate mortgages can come with initial interest rates one to two points lower than fixed-rate mortgages, which make them ideal for periods when interest rates are high. ARMs also work well for home buyers who plan to be in their homes for a short time. They get the benefit of a lower initial rate and may move before any significant rate increases.

For buyers who are stretching their budgets to get into a more expensive home, the lower rate of an ARM may make it easier to qualify for a larger loan. There are risks involved with ARMs, however, and home buyers should be sure they can afford the payments at their highest level.

Don’t forget to shop around. Mortgage rates can vary from one financial institution to the next.

Courtesy of ARA Content, http://www.ARAcontent.com, e-mail: info@ARAcontent.com.