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Despite being just 3 1/2 weeks from the much anticipated end of government purchasing of mortgage-backed securities, rates remain steady.  

Conforming 30 year fixed mortgages were available at 4.75 percent all of last week to well-qualified consumers paying a standard .07 to 1 point origination.   

30 year fixed FHA loans were also available at 4.75 percent with a standard .07 to 1 point origination. Despite the interest rate and origination being the same, FHA loans are significantly more expensive due to MI and other fees charged by the Federal Housing Administration at closing. 

Jumbo 30 year fixed rates, for true jumbo mortgages exceeding conforming jumbo loan limits, remain at 5.625.  

Are steady low mortgage rates a calm before the storm? Forecasts for the rise in long term fixed mortgage rates, to take place when government MBS purchases stop at the end of this month, range from slight to drastic. One thing is clear, nobody; including Fed Chief Ben Bernanke knows exactly what's going to happen to mortgage rates, which move opposite MBS prices when the purchasing stops. That's why the Fed has left the door open to re-starting government mortgage-backed securities purchasing if needed.

The first step to take as a potential home buyer is to get pre-qualified for a loan. This helps both you and your lender learn just how much home you can afford. And you should begin this process before you even start looking for a home.

Here are the Basics:

• You'll need a steady employment history, at least two years with the same employer.

• Consistent or increasing income over the past two years.

• Credit report should be in good standing with less than two thirty day late payments in the past two years.

• Any bankruptcy on record must be at least two years old with good credit for the two consecutive years.

• Any foreclosure must be at least three years old with good credit for the past three years.

• Mortgage payment qualified for must be approximately 30 percent of your total monthly gross income.

Pre-qualification for a home loan typically costs you nothing, but gives you both a goal of what homes are in your affordability range, as well as how much money you should look to have saved for a downpayment, you can hardly wait to take this step.  If a lender asks you for a credit card number or some sort of payment up front, RUN!

If you're trying to figure out where real estate is headed in the coming months, should you listen to the Federal Reserve -- or do you focus on the latest pending home sales numbers?

Probably both, but here's a key fact: The Fed's latest "Beige Book" report -- based on economic data from each of its 12 regional member banks -- found positive signs in nine of the 12 regions it covered.

Despite blizzards and bad weather in January and early February in large portions of the country, the Fed's regional banks found consumer spending and manufacturing output increasing.

Both are key indicators of improving economic conditions ahead, especially consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity and directly affects employment growth.

In fact, according to a separate report issued by the Commerce Department last week, consumer spending increased by one half of one percent in January - outpacing income growth for the fourth straight month.

 All of this is being helped along by continuing favorable financing conditions in the mortgage markets. Applications for new mortgages to purchase houses in the coming several months were up by 12 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Thirty year fixed rate loans dipped to 4.9 percent, while 15 year fixed rate were flat at 4.3 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.33 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.40 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.72 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.11 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.16 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.08 percent.

The 30-year fixed mortgages fell below 5 percent to match levels seen two weeks ago and are helping to maintain affordable home-purchase conditions.  In fact, monthly principal and interest mortgage payments for a typical family buying a median-priced home of $163,800 were just $709 in January, the lowest amount since February 1998, according to the National Association of Realtors® . For first-time homebuyers, the fourth quarter of 2009 was the third most affordable quarter since 1981 behind the first and second quarter of 2009.

The federal tax credit for homebuyers, which expires on April 30th, may make housing even more affordable for some families already in the middle of the home buying process. In fact, the Federal Reserve's March 3rd regional economic review noted that several districts attributed stronger home sales to the homebuyer tax credit.

Fannie Mae wants to sell its housing inventory that it acquired through foreclosures. The properties are listed for sale on HomePath.com. To do so, it's offering buyers incentives for those properties.

So what's the special offer? Buyers can receive up to 3.5 percent of the sales price for closing costs or the purchase of a new Whirlpool appliance or even a combination of the two.

And then there are those that are already in place. The government's current buyer incentive programs include the extension of the First-Time Homebuyer Credit through April 20, 2010 (there's a 60-day cushion to complete closing beyond that date). This program broadens the reach to include existing homeowners. Here is a quick look at eligibility and the incentives:

• $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers

• $6,500 tax credit for existing homebuyers who have lived in their current residence for at least five years but want to relocate to a new primary residence

• Increased income limits for individuals and couples Tips for buying a home owned by Fannie Mae.

What you see is what you get. When you are buying a property owned by Fannie Mae, there are a few things that you should know. According to its website, Fannie Mae may make some repairs to a property but probably not much. "Fannie Mae sells each property "as is," which means that the buyer accepts the property "as is." Fannie Mae is not responsible for fixing any problems after settlement."

You may not have the budget to hire a professional stager, but every home seller can follow a few helpful staging tips to make sure their house looks like a buyer's dream home.

As a seller, you want your home to make a positive first impression. In order to do this, you repair, clean, and strategize marketing for your open houses, but home staging takes it one step further.  It allows the buyer both the mental space to imagine their own belongings in the rooms and the ability to get excited about the life they could have in your home.

Here are some tips to get you started:

Declutter: Less is more. It's a motto that is true for so many things, and staging is no exception. Grab a box, label it "living room" and go through and remove the unnecessary decor. Remove family pictures and trinkets. A buyer needs room to see their lives in your home, not themselves in your life.

Remove Furniture: Bulky pieces, or too many furniture items, can clutter the buyer's vision of the room. There should be enough furniture to clearly spell out what the space is intended for (e.g. dining room), but not so much that the room seems smaller than it is. Also, do not "multipurpose" a room during staging, meaning that your "craft/living room" should now just function as a staged living room.

Fireplaces: If your fireplace is stained black, a cheap and easy fix can be paint. A simple white or cream can compliment many modern styles. If your fireplace has a tile surround, consider updating it as a do-it-yourself project.

Avoid Themed Rooms: Resist the temptation to redecorate your den in the theme of your favorite sports team, or make your daughter's room a princess palace. You want your home to appeal to a wide range of buyers. A single buyer will have a hard time imaging their exercise equipment next to all that pink.

Keep it Neutral: This doesn't mean monotone taupe, beige, and more eggshell. It means have the walls painted a neutral and then accent with color throughout the rooms with pillows, throw, artwork, and minimal accessories.

Clean Again: This should go without saying, but deep cleaning is an essential part of staging. Febreze is your friend. If you have animals in your house, you may have become acclimated to the odors. Consider having your carpets cleaned. Burn welcoming -- and odor covering -- candles, such as vanilla and gingerbread. Hang new shower curtains. And hang clean towels. Cover dirty couches with new, inexpensive slipcovers.

And finally, consider some of these inexpensive updates that can add value and staging appeal to your home. Outdated light fixtures can be changed rather inexpensively. Paint or stain patios and concrete that look dingy. Vinyl tile can be laid using easy snap lines. Carpet squares can be pieced together to freshen up tired flooring. You may also think about buying new appliances. These are great selling points, especially the stainless steel version, and you should be able to get money back on your investment.

Use these tips for your home staging and you're sure to impress your prospective buyers.

When it comes to the current housing recovery, never assume the path leads straight up.

That's just not the way it's playing out. As the economic and real estate numbers this week suggest, it's more like two steps forward, one step back, one step sideways.

The new quarterly home price numbers released last week by Standard & Poor's Case Shiller index show we're headed toward gradual improvement on a national basis -- and a lot better than that in key metropolitan markets.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, Case-Shiller's 20-city index was up three tenths of a percent -- the seventh consecutive monthly improvement in pricing. Fifteen of the 20 cities in the survey posted positive price appreciation last quarter.

Check out some of the increases Case Shiller measured in the largest urban markets -- a five percent gain year over year for prices in San Francisco, three percent for the year in Dallas and San Diego, plus higher than average jumps here in metropolitan Washington DC, Boston and Denver.

Even hard-hit Las Vegas and Phoenix saw small increases in the new report, despite the ongoing high percentage of total sales transactions involving defaulted and foreclosed properties.

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae also came out with its latest forecast -- and sees gradually improving conditions in the months ahead saying that despite temporary setbacks in sales in any given month, the underlying reality in the marketplace is that the employment situation, slowly but surely, is getting better, and is likely to continue to do so.

Okay, that's the bright side of the picture this week. Now for some sobering, one-step-backwards news: Builders saw sales of newly-constructed homes in January plunge by 11 percent - hitting their lowest level in decades, according to the Commerce Department.

No question that some of that was caused by the bad weather that pounded much of the country recently. But part of the steep decline also signals caution on the part of potential buyers, who still aren't sure whether we've seen the bottom in prices.

Mortgage rates certainly aren't keeping buyers away, though. Thirty year fixed rates averaged just over 5 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, while 15 years rates averaged 4.4 percent.

With all the time you've been forced indoors during the cold winter months you've probably found some aspects of your interior design that you'd like to change. Well, there's still another month of cold weather ahead of most of us, and being stuck indoors may provide the perfect excuse for making some much-needed changes to your interior design.

Color is probably the most important interior design element homeowners should consider. It's also the place where they most often drop the ball.  A lot of people are afraid of color and get stuck with creams and whites, and that can get monotonous. Instead of going all out and repainting your entire interior pick a specific color and create an accent wall.  An accent wall painted with a strong color can make a room warmer or cozier, or just more exciting.

As far as colors choices go, your color should depend on what the rest of the room you're working on looks like. One surefire way to pick a pleasing color is to choose one from a painting you have hanging elsewhere in the room and use that to paint the accent wall. It doesn't have to be a dramatic choice.  Just taking one wall and making it a few shades darker will have a strong effect.

A great way to add warmth to a room is to dilute the wall color down to around 15 to 20 percent of its strength and use that to paint the ceiling. It will include your ceiling in your design and make the room feel a little bit more connected.

After you have your color squared away, play with the layout of your furniture.

If you're bored with your home, move your furniture around.  Your layout doesn't have to be just square. If you have a square table, turn it 45 degrees and it can give the room a whole new feel. Or turn a square seating area diagonally. The bottom line is that your furniture layout doesn't have to be at right angles.

A square layout is common because people naturally gravitate towards symmetry. But balance, not symmetry, is the ideal homeowners should be striving toward with their layout. The key to balance is to make sure all of your large pieces (or for that matter, visually striking pieces) are not grouped together.

Balance is when you walk into a room and your eyes aren't just drawn to one thing; you want to inspire movement throughout the room and not to feel static.  Rooms that are square can have a sort of static feeling.

Make these color and layout changes and you'll be well on your way to a more satisfying interior design!

Fixating on price in real estate may cost you the deal:

• Sellers who decide that a specific dollar figure will buy their home and won’t budge from that bottom line may sell themselves short.

• Buyers who drop out of a transaction for a property they love because the seller’s counter-offer shocks them may be quitting before they have really started negotiating.

When a buyer makes an offer to purchase a home, the purchase price is a prime consideration, but it represents only part of the total value offered to the seller. Problems may arise for both sides of the transaction when this fact is forgotten.

Value Elements in an Offer

The value expressed in a buyer’s offer to purchase, or in a seller’s offer to sell, involves 5 key elements -- a financial package:

1. Purchase Price, the stated amount of dollars offered by the buyer, represents a significant contributor to value, but there are other important factors which can reduce the amount the seller receives or which can compromise the transaction. It’s not the purchase price, but the net proceeds of the sale that sellers -- and savvy buyers -- should concentrate on.

2. Closing Date, or the day ownership changes hands and the seller receives the money, can represent cost or value to both parties. Savvy buyers usually attempt to meet the seller’s preferred moving date, especially when the seller has committed to purchasing another property or needs the proceeds of the sale on a specific date. For instance, a closing before that date may be expensive because the seller would have to move out and store everything until they could move into their new home. That double move and the inconvenience represent out-of-pocket costs and time lost that make the actual purchase price lower than stated. A closing date later than the seller’s preferred date may leave the seller owning two homes—and paying off two mortgages—at once. The seller may incur extra costs in arranging bridge financing to meet legal obligations to close on their new home before they receive proceeds from the sale of their current home. Choice of closing date may represent costs or value to the buyer as well. Balancing this reality for both parties is key in negotiation.

3. Inclusions and Exclusions to the sale also represent costs and value for both parties. Appliances, heating systems and draperies are common seller inclusions designed to boost value for buyers. If warranties for everything from a new roof or solar panels to new appliances cannot be transferred to a buyer, these items become “second-hand” and will probably represent less value to buyers. Buyers are also free to include excluded seller items, like an antique light fixture, in the offer to purchase. Deals have been lost to disagreements over light fixtures, fireplace accessories and vintage furnishings, so prudent sellers remove contentious items before listing. A buyer may offer less than list price and ask for nothing; a seller could sign back for more money and include items to sweeten the pot. Value is very subjective for these non-real-estate items and that’s where negotiations can get heated.

4. Terms and Conditions are clauses in the offer which cover “what if” risks for one party and the obligations of both parties. These clauses detail what the buyer asks the seller to do for the purchase price. Arrange a survey or include a treasured light fixture? Sellers can create conditions in an offer to sell, but usually conditions are of greater concern to the buyer, particularly if approval of a third partly like a lender or city planning department is involved in determining the property’s suitability. Conditions to arrange financing or a home inspection are among the “ifs” that define the offer to purchase. The degree of uncertainty attached to the conditions and the buyer’s related ability to close effect the value of an offer. For instance, a buyer who is pre-approved for a mortgage of sufficient size offers less risk to a seller. However, if the purchase price is significantly-above market value, the lender may not approve the mortgage, so a condition for financing is essential to protect all parties. A full-price offer with conditions that will be difficult to meet may hold less value than an under-list-price offer with no conditions. Alternatively, if the conditions are merely formalities, the conditional offer could represent greater value. Would you recognize the difference if you were the seller? That’s where the expertise of the real estate professionals involved becomes valuable...

5. Intent and Sincerity are vital aspects of an offer although difficult to quantify. How determined is the buyer to buy, and why? How determined is the seller to sell? If either party changes their mind after the contract exists and before the closing date, the injured party has remedies in court. These legal steps may not make up for lost time and, perhaps, a missed market. An investor or flipper may decide to cut losses and bail out of the deal if the market drops significantly before closing. A seller may have second thoughts if their plans to move fall through. For both parties, value should lie in the certainty that the other party will close in spite of market shifts.

Yes, price matters, but there’s a lot more involved in creating an offer that demands to be accepted. That’s why an experienced real estate agent is a valuable contributor to success. Professionals can calculate, or at least estimate, the seller’s net proceeds after costs related to the offer and deduction of commission. This information helps the seller accurately evaluate an offer to purchase. Understanding cost and benefit for all elements of an offer helps a buyer intent on ownership to create the best financial package possible.