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Give Yourself the Gift of Refinancing to a Better Rate The Washington Post Kenneth Harney Dec 22, 2006 You may be thinking about the holidays, but thousands of your fellow homeowners have been thinking about refinancing, rate reductions, cash-outs and money-saving debt consolidations. For the past two weeks, they have been bombarding lenders with applications for mortgage refinancing -- driven by the most attractive rates in more than a year. ... Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, the online network of 200-plus mortgage companies, predicts that this month's refi boomlet could stretch into 2007 -- provided, of course, that rates remain close to 6 percent. "This has legs," he said in an interview. "This is no head fake; it's for real" because mortgage money at 6 percent offers such exceptional problem-solving opportunities.
Lender sees mini-refi-boom Orange County Register Jon Lansner Dec 15, 2006
LendingTree.com President Anthony Hsieh was featured during a Q&A on OCRegister.com...
With mortgage rates low but home sales sluggish, what's a lender to do? Apparently, handle a fresh wave of refinance business. To see what's up, we checked in with an old O.C. banker and online lending pioneer, Anthony Hsieh, now president of LendingTree ...
Realty Check on Street Signs CNBC Dec 04, 2006 LendingTree.com President Anthony Hsieh was featured on CNBC's Street Signs during a Realty Check segment in which he discussed tips for selling a home around the holidays.
Is Now the Time to Refinance? The Motley Fool Dayana Yochim Dec 01, 2006 Boil, boil, toil, and housing bubble trouble. ... Nervous? Probably, if you’re one of the millions of borrowers with a non-traditional mortgage – an adjustable-rate mortgagee (ARM), pay-option ARM, interest-only ARM, or some other so-called exotic or risky loan. ... "Refinancing is a pure economic transaction," says Jim Svinth, chief economist at LendingTree.com. "You’re not trying to hit a hard date – the boxes aren’t packed and the moving van isnt in the driveway – where you start to lose leverage the longer you let the process go."
Home buying: novice or pro? The Charlotte Observer Amy Baldwin Nov 09, 2006 Got a call recently from Bridget Smith at LendingTree, the online mortgage broker service based in Charlotte. Smith, editor and LendingTree’s Smart Borrower Center, wanted to share a theory on why more homebuyers don’t shop around for their mortgage. Based on calls she gets from consumers, "I think there are some misconceptions on how shopping around affects your credit," Smith said. Indeed, having too many inquiries into your credit record in a short period of time can hurt your credit. I guess you could say it makes you look desperate for financing. But Smith says that’s not true when you are trying to get a mortgage. Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), which tallies credit scores and provides them to the major consumer credit bureaus that lenders tap before deciding loans, counts all mortgage queries made within 14 days as a single query, Smith explained. FICO has even been moving to extend that period to 45 days, she said.
Bank of Brothers Men's Health Jean Chatzky Nov 01, 2006 Between the turkey and pumpkin pie, your brother casually asks to borrow a grand. What do you say? "Let me think about it," says Bridget Smith, editor in chief of the Smart Borrower Center for LendingTree. This buys you the time to calculate how much you can afford to give, she says. Sit down with your brother and put in writing what the money is for, exactly when it will be paid back, and at what interest rate, if any. Just as important: Have a contingency plan for a missed payment, Smith says, so that you both know the terms before his failure to remit causes a rift – and don’t think it can’t. Already trying to collect from a sibling? First consider the amount: Is it really enough to risk the relationship? If so, raise the topic in private, so he wont feel the need to save face in front of anyone.
Banks Take a New Tack on Mortgage Lending Wall Street Journal Ruth Simon Nov 01, 2006 With Loan Volume Slowing, Rebates and Rate Discounts Are Used to Woo Customers. ... Some lenders are wooing customers with pricing guarantees. LendingTree.com, a unit of IAC/InterActiveCorp, is offering a $500 price guarantee to certain borrowers who use its loan network to shop for a home mortgage. The offer, which runs through year end, applies only to borrowers taking out standard fixed-rate mortgages for $417,000 or less. To qualify, borrowers must document they received a better offer from another source on the same day an application was submitted to LendingTree, an online service that matches borrowers with lenders. LendingTree will pay the $500 if it cant get one of its partners to meet or beat the offer. So far, only one customer has put in a request for the $500 payment, but the request was declined because the loan was for less than $100,000, the company said.
Builders to buyers: Take this house, please! Money Jean Chatzky Nov 01, 2006 How would you like a $10,000 gift certificate for Pottery Barn? A $30,000 in-ground swimming pool – installed? The chance to toss back a few drinks with rocker John Legend? These and many other fabulous prizes can be yours if... you buy a house!...Buyers are also getting incentives for taking out mortgages, says Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com. For example, 20% of home buyilders are using "buy-down" programs, in which they buy down your mortgage by two percentage points in year one and one point in year two... . "Buyers have to be very careful not to be swept off their feet to take the wrong product," says Hsieh. "You don’t want to get blinded into the wrong mortgage."
Mortgage rates are likely to stay low Orange County Register Mathew Padilla Sep 21, 2006 Mortgage rates are staying put, some experts say... .Jim Svinth, chief economist with LendingTree in Irvine, said the Fed should remain neutral unless inflation unexpectedly spikes. He said the Fed may even reverse course, cutting rates if the economy slows too much. He said that wouldn’t happen until mid-2007, at the earliest. Svinth said Fed officials "need to sit and wait to see if the action they have taken is having some lag effect."
MBA’s Mortgage Applications Index Increased 2% Last Week Bloomberg Newswire Shobhana Chandra Sep 20, 2006 Mortgage applications in the U.S. increased last week to the highest level since April as borrowing costs close to a five-month low spurred refinancing... .People who think they may stay in the same house for a while are refinancing to fixed-rate loans, Jim Svinth, chief economist at LendingTree.com, an Internet-based loan marketplace, said in an interview in Washington. "This whole sky-is-falling mentality is overblown," he said. "It’s an orderly softening."
Debt 101 for College Kids MarketWatch.com Amy Hoak Sep 17, 2006 Every school year, college students are inundated with credit-card offers almost as soon as they set foot on campus. The pitches are hard to ignore for teens living on their own for the first time. "In college, (credit) is an equalizer," said Bridget Smith, editor of the LendingTree.com Smart Borrower Center. It doesn’t matter if a student’s family isnt as wealthy as her roommates’ family – a credit card can dress them in the same trendy clothes, she said.
Home for Sale, by Anxious Owner The New York Times Vikas Bajaj and David Leonhardt Aug 25, 2006 Home sales are falling rapidly, and the number of houses on the market is surging. Yet each new economic report offering evidence of a housing slowdown also shows that the national media home price has continued to rise over the last year. ... Lenders are also wary of incentives... .The concerns of lenders will eventually limit the size of incentives in home sales, said Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, the Web loan site. Many buyers may also balk because their property taxes will be based on the sales price listed on the contract.
Don’t get too comfy with your debt MSNMoney.com MP Dunleavey Aug 15, 2006 The world of personal finance is rife with get-out-of-debt advice. I should know. I’ve read it, written it, followed it. Even though people pay lip service to the gospel that debt is bad, millions of Americans are still borrowing beyond their means, spending like the bills will never come – and saving less and less of their personal disposable income... . It’s a lack of focus on the future that most worries Robert D. Manning, an economist and professor of finance at Rochester Institute of Technology, Manning is best known for his book, "Credit Card Nation," which launched him as one of America’s biggest anti-debt crusaders. This fall, Manning will release a documentary called "In Debt We Trust," which is partly inspired by research he did for a study published last October. Titled Living with Debt and commissioned by LendingTree, the study documents Americans’ growing tolerance of debt throughout various stages of the lifecycle.
Lending experts are fifty-fifty on 50-year mortgages San Diego Union Tribune Aug 13, 2006 As once-blazing real estate markets like San Diego County continue to lose heat, lenders are searching for mortgage products that will keep borrowers coming to the marketplace. Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, says the recent introduction of 50-year mortgages illustrates the lengths some lenders will go to in order to keep borrowers interested. "It is a marketing tool," he said. "The harsh reality is that there is very little substantial benefit."
Morning Marketplace’s Interest Rate Watch National Public Radio Aug 08, 2006 The Federal Reserve’s rate-setting board meets today and many analysts expect the committee will break its streak of 17-straight rate hikes. LendingTree economist Jim Svinth isnt sure we’ve seen the last of rate increases. The latest figures show inflation is still a problem. "There’s a real risk of throwing the economy into a full-fledged recession. But I think the Fed is more willing to err on the side of doing that versus letting inflation get to such a point that they cant get it under control."
Facing foreclosure? 9 options MSNMoney.com Liz Pulliam Weston Aug 03, 2006 Real estate markets are slowing. Interest rates are ticking up. And the phones are ringing at ByDesign, a Los Angeles-based credit counselor, as homeowners start to pain about not being able to make their mortgage payments. ... Eventually, if payments aren’t made, the lender will file a "notice of default" with a local courthouse and send you a letter saying that the foreclosure process will start unless you make good the missing payments... . "They may do it as early as 90 days, or as late as a year," explained Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com. "It really depends on the lender’s temperament." ... "The notice of default "is a big threshold," Hsieh said. "One you get into that state, it’s a whole different world. Your options are fewer."
Painful ARM twisting MarketWatch.com Chuck Jaffe Aug 02, 2006 It is becoming increasingly obvious that financial advisers, real estate experts and parents will someday point to what is happening in the mortgage market today and use it as a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when a buyer stretches to get too much during a market that seems invincible. ... "There is no apples-to-apples comparison from the kind of mortgage someone could get a year ago and what they can get today," said Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com. "As rates rise on adjustables, there are steps people can take to reduce the sticker shock, but they’re probably not going to be too happy with what they have to swallow now... They had a 42-year low in mortgage rates, but they were more concerned with how much they would have to pay each month than how much they could afford and buy a home reasonable."
Pools, vacations are new lures for U.S. homebuyers Reuters Julie Haviv Jul 28, 2006 On the fence about whether this is the house for you? Maybe a free swimming pool will convince you. Or perhaps a free vacation. Such is the state of U.S. housing, as home builders pull out all the stops to keep business booming – a sure sign the once red-hot market has turned in favor of the buyer. ... "One of the gimmicks right now for closing a mortgage loan is a free vacation to Hawaii," said Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, on online facilitator that matches consumers to lenders competing for their business. But buyer beware: The vacation voucher usually carries a number of stipulations, and consumers often pay for freebies with higher interest rates and closing costs, he said. ... "Anytime there is increased competition in a shrinking market there are free toasters everywhere," said Hsieh.
Benefits of buying a home in a cooling market MarketWatch.com Amy Hoak Jul 25, 2006 Residential real estate, a shining star of the national economy that seemed unflappable over the past couple of years, has hit a speed bump. Nationally, home price appreciation is slowing down from the rapid pace experienced by many markets over the past few years. Mortgage interest rates are on their way up. Is this any time to be thinking about investing in a home? Of course it is – if you’re buying it for a place to live, not as a speculative investment, and can afford to take the leap. ... A normalized real estate landscape boots out those speculators, said Anthony Hsieh, president of online lender LendingTree.com. "It’s just too risky to speculate now," he said.
Zero Down? Don’t bet the house on it Charlotte Observer Amy Baldwin Jul 23, 2006 Feeling like it’s time you bought your first house? One little problem: You don’t have a down payment. That’s OK, right? You can always finance the whole thing. Get in with no money down... . Putting down at least 10 percent will also get you the best possible rate you can get with your credit score, said Anthony Hsieh, president of Charlotte-based LendingTree, LLC. With good credit and 10 percent down you can get a 30-year fixed rate of about 6.5 percent, he said. "You are in the driver’s seat with 10 percent down," Hsieh said.
5 Ways to tame your line of credit Bankrate.com Holden Lewis Jul 13, 2006 Lots of consumers have watched the rates double on their home equity lines of credit in two years. ... If you have a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, you have at least five options. ... The final way to lower the rate on a credit line is to do a cash-out refinance of the primary mortgage. But (consumers) should at least run the numbers, especially if the balance on the credit line is large, says Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.
To fix or not to fix? Variable interest rates sting with Fed hikes -- are fixed rates the answer? MarketWatch.com Amy Hoak Jul 02, 2006 If you're a borrower with a variable-rate line of credit, the Federal Reserve's two-year campaign of raising interest rates has no doubt caught your attention. After each of 17 hikes, the latest coming Thursday, banks have boosted their prime rate, the benchmark to which most variable loans are tied. ... Two years ago, the prime rate was 4%, said Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com. Today, it is higher than 8%.Consider this: For a $100,000 loan, a 4% interest rate meant an interest payment of $4,000 annually and $333 a month, Hsieh said. At today's rates, that interest payment more than doubles. "If you planned for that two years ago, you're OK," Hsieh said. If you haven't, you're probably experiencing sticker shock.
Prep work can head off closing-fee surprises USA Today Noelle Knox Jun 23, 2006 ... You've finally managed to scrape together a down payment for your first home. Only now you find you have to come up with thousands of dollars more to pay a long list of confusing fees called "closing costs."... Knowing which fees you can negotiate and which are fixed could save you hundreds, if not thousands, in closing costs. ... "The costs they need to drill down on are the lender's costs," says Anthony Hsieh of LendingTree, which helps consumers shop for loans online. "They are a little deceptive from time to time because many of them will label it differently. Look at the lender's costs and ask the lender directly about points, closing fees, what are the costs you are charging me? Because that is the portion that most often is negotiable."
Immigrants buying a place face pitfalls, but can get help The Dallas Morning News Pamela Yip Jun 04, 2006 ... Government programs are in place to encourage homebuying by minorities, and the housing industry is counting on their demand... . Even so, recent immigrants face extra challenges when it comes to applying for a mortgage. "We forget the fact that in other countries, particularly in Mexico and some of the Asian countries, people are not used to utilizing credit as widely as we Americans do, so when they immigrate here, it takes them decades in order for them to get self-educated on the cultural differences in this country, particularly with regard to the usage of credit," said Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com.
Saving a Marriage: Spend, Save or Give? Forbes.com Scott Reeves Jun 01, 2006 Money in the bank gives you the warm fuzzies, but money in your spouse's pocket creates an insatiable urge to spend. The marriage needn't tumble off the personal finance precipice if you understand each other's response to money and learn how to accommodate it... . There are many financial Web sites that provide solid information on the basics of personal finance, including those run by Lending Tree, a division of IAC/InterActiveCorp (nasdaq: IACI - news - people).
50-year mortgages lower monthly payments but can cost more in long run Associated Press Eileen Alt Powell May 31, 2006 When it comes to home mortgages, some people are thinking really long term by taking 40-year or 45-year - or even 50-year - loans. ... Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, an online mortgage marketplace based in Charlotte, N.C., said, "They call it a 50-year, but the rate generally is fixed for only five or 10 years and they use a 50-year amortization table," he said. This configuration, he said, makes the longer term mortgages look more like 5-1 hybrid loans, which have fixed rates of interest for the first five years then start adjusting, or to some of the interest-only mortgages."
Stupid Investment of the Week: A 50-year mortgage is just too much of a stretch MarketWatch.com Chuck Jaffe May 12, 2006 Stupid Investment of the Week... And that's precisely what you will get if you fall for a 50-year mortgage, a relatively new product that is starting to make in-roads in the mortgage market, particularly in hot real estate markets like California... . Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, said in a recent statement "If a consumer looks at a 50-year mortgage as the only way to afford that home, to get into a hot real estate market or simply to afford the monthly payment in a refinance, they're really not looking at the potential problems," Hsieh says. "It's a very small portion of the consumers who could use this the right way."
Need to keep house payments low? Try a 50-year mortgage USA Today Noelle Knox May 10, 2006 Those struggling to afford a home may be wondering how long their mortgage payments can be stretched out. The new answer: a half-century. A handful of lenders have begun offering 50-year adjustable-rate loans to buyers who need to keep payments low in the face of record home prices and rising rates... ."Mortgage lenders are getting craftier to get the attention of consumers," says Anthony Hsieh, CEO of LendingTree. But, he says, "The consumer needs to slow down and understand the product."
Lending choices mean homework The Charlotte Observer Rick Rothacker Apr 29, 2006 In today's era of exotic home loans, the 30-year fixed interest mortgage is about as passé as an 8-track tape player... ."It's no longer a one-size-fits-all mortgage," said Anthony Hsieh, an executive with Charlotte-based LendingTree, an online mortgage marketplace. "The consumer needs to slow down and decide what is the right mortgage."
In Focus Bloomberg TV Apr 28, 2006 Jim Svinth, LendingTree's chief economist, was interviewed on Bloomberg's In-Focus programming Friday, April 28, 2006. Mr. Svinth was brought on to give his perspective on the current state of the economy.
Talk About Money Forbes.com Scott Reeves Apr 10, 2006 For many young couples, talking about money is more difficult than discussing sex. Little surprise, given that experts say financial problems--not bedroom gymnastics--are the major cause of divorce. ... There's a ton of information about starting a household available to newlyweds from LendingTree, a division of IAC/InterActive.
Mortgage Chat The Boston Globe Apr 05, 2006 The president of LendingTree.com, Anthony Hsieh, offers up advice to more than 500 chat room visitors about mortgages, interest rates, and interesting personal finance tips.
Fed action pushes interest rates up Associated Press Martin Crutsinger Mar 31, 2006 Rates on 30-year mortgages rose this week after the Federal Reserve pushed a key short-term rate up for the 15th time and indicated that more rate increases were possible. ... "It's definitely more of a buyers' market," Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in an interview before the report. "Properties that are priced right and are good properties are moving pretty briskly."
Lenders tighten mortgage criteria San Jose Mercury News Mark Schwanhausser Mar 16, 2006 Lenders are growing wary of the riskier yet more flexible mortgages favored in Silicon Valley, even as rising interest rates are making it tougher for buyers to afford the region's high-priced homes... . Also falling out of favor are so-called piggyback loans that add a second loan for buyers who need to borrow the down payment, said Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com, an online company that refers borrowers to lenders. Some lenders now require borrowers to pay off or refinance the balance of the second loan within two years.
Weekly Experts Poll Bankrate.com Mar 13, 2006 Jim Svinth, LendingTree.com chief economist comments on current interest rates during Bankrate.com’s Weekly Expert Poll. Jim feels interest rates will rise over the next 30-45 days. "The Treasury market is having a hard time dealing with a lot of the global issues (dollar value, China, Japan), geopolitical unrest, as well as the apparent economic strength domestically. This is causing the market to play very defensively. The employment number on Friday will be the next big indicator."
U.S. Jan Housing Starts Rise 15% to 2.276 Mln, Most Since 1973 Bloomberg Newswire Courtney Schlisserman Feb 16, 2006 The Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly index of mortgage applications to purchase or refinance homes fell last month and has continued to decline in February, dropping 7.3 percent last week. ... "It’s not smoking hot as it was four months ago but the bottom definitely has not fallen out," of the housing market yet, Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in an interview.
Higher Rates, Riskier Mortgages MarketWatch.com Andrea Coombes Feb 15, 2006 Rising interest rates aren't deterring people from taking out riskier adjustable-rate mortgages says Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com. Hsieh also tells Andrea Coombes why homeowners are still rushing to tap home equity.
Getting Wise to Mortgages – New Tools to Help Decode Jargon, Sniff Out Deals; Avoiding the Camel Market Wall Street Journal James R. Hagerty Feb 04, 2006 A few entrepreneurs are developing new tools to help home buyers tackle one of the most confusing projects they face: figuring out whether a mortgage is a fair deal. ... Many Web sites offer to help consumers get multiple offers. Among the best-known operators of such sites is LendingTree, a unit of IAC/InterActiveCorp.
Are we better off today? SmartMoney.com Aleksandra Todorova Jan 31, 2006 ... "Greenspan was able to significantly expand consumption based on debt in America," says Robert Manning, professor of finance at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Living With Debt, a 2005 report on consumer attitudes toward debt. "It's true that consumer credit has tremendously elevated people’s lifestyle, and they've enjoyed a lifestyle they couldn’t ordinarily have had. But at what cost? These are people who aren’t going to be able to retire the way they're living today."
A Good-Faith Effort To Clean Up Estimates The Washington Post Kenneth Harney Jan 28, 2006 It’s a distressingly familiar scenario for home buyers and refinancers, and it was one of the major mortgage-related consumer complaints to federal agencies in 2005: "good-faith estimates" of settlement costs that turn out to be hundreds, even thousands, of dollars off the mark... . David Anderson, general manager of LendingTree Settlement Services, said his company got into the business of offering bundled services as both a quality-control measure and a way to reduce costs for lenders and their borrowers.