Scary. Home Mortgage rates could be edging closer to 5% by the end of 2014. 
By: Alan Aptheker Low mortgage rates have been a great incentive to buy a home. An even greater incentive is the threat of high mortgage rates. In October, the Fed will make a stealthy move that could hit you right in the mortgage payment.
Fed policy is really boring, but suffice it to say at least they've kept mortgage rates low by buying Mortgage Backed Securities. When the Fed buys these assets, the Fed gets fatter. It loans more money to banks. Banks get fatter. They loan more money to people like you and me. We buy things like houses.  
In short, the Fed feels the economy is getting strong enough to stand up on its own. But the Fed has three distinct…

Market Pulse:In April, Home Prices Up 12.9% over Last Year   Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported Nationwide home prices were up 12.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. It’s a market on the mend, with a 12.9 percent increase year-over-year.   Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)   Other real estate news — the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a good indicator based on signed contracts, increased 3.4 percent in March to 97.4 from an upwardly revised February level of 94.2.  The PHSI monthly increase reported by the National Association of Realtors was the first since June of 2013.
  The PHSI measures housing contract activity based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops.…

Florida enjoying 28 straight months of market growth. By: Alan Aptheker  What’s good for Florida is almost certainly good for the Jacksonville Real Estate market. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported this week that Florida's housing market sustained higher median prices, more new listings and a comfortably stable inventory in the month of March. Single family home sales for last month:  20,081. That’s a gain of 2.8 percent over the March 2013 figure.   Most significant perhaps, is that March signaled the 28th consecutive month that Florida median sale prices rose, both for single family and townhome/condos.     Statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in March: $173,000, a gain of 7.1 percent…