I thought these recent bits of news were interesting and worth mentioning…

Fewer homeowners are underwater and 40% of underwater borrowers took cash out of their homes - statistics compiled by real estate and loan data aggregator CoreLogic suggest 22.7% of homeowners with mortgages, or 10.9 million, owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth; this is down from an estimated 11.1 million at the end of December. Additionally, more than 40% of these underwater homeowners have home equity loans. These homeowners who tapped their equity for cash are more than twice as likely to be underwater.

Interest rates fall for the 8th straight week - The average interest rate on 30 year fixed loans fell to 4.49%, marking the eighth straight week rates have fallen. Rates tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, and weaker than expected recent economic news has caused investors to move money into treasuries, which has driven down the yield.

Major changes likely coming to "qualified residential mortgage" proposal - I've recently talked about the progress being made on defining the "qualified residential mortgage" and specifically some of the requirements that had been proposed. Particularly, industry professionals felt the proposed 20% down payment requirement was unnecessary and would cause further damage to the fragile housing market. Well, it sounds like a swath of civil rights, real estate, mortgage, labor, and consumer advocacy groups may be getting through to the U.S. Federal Reserve who has just announced an extension on the comment period for the proposal. The mood is now changing to the feeling that there will be no down payment requirement to meet the "qualified residential mortgage" guidelines.

- Robert E. Wasser - Seattle and Bellevue real estate market trends, news, statistics, and blog