Homethinking Opens Up Access to Comprehensive Mortgage Transaction Data

Homethinking.com (http://www.homethinking.com), a site that helps home owners make better real estate decisions, today unveiled mortgage.homethinking.com (http://mortgage.homethinking.com). Mortgage.homethinking.com allows consumers to see top local lenders by market share and to assess the risk of the subprime mortgage crisis in their county.

The service enables home owners to easily navigate and discern trends across more than 33 million mortgage applications. The data is derived from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act which requires lenders to maintain and annually disclose data about home purchases, home purchase pre-approvals, home improvement, and refinance applications to the Federal Reserve Board.

How can this service help home owners and home buyers

"The credit crisis has roiled real estate markets across America. By opening up access to comprehensive mortgage transaction data via mortgage.homethinking.com home owners are able to easily assess the impact of the subprime crisis on their local area," said Niki Scevak, Founder of Homethinking LLC.

Mortgage.homethinking.com gives home owners who are looking to obtain a mortgage or to refinance an existing mortgage easy access to data on the exact market share of lenders in their area. They can also find information on the conditions under which mortgages were obtained, like the average amount borrowed.

The service lets consumers judge the risk of the subprime mortgage crisis impacting their county by looking at the percentage of subprime loans taken out in 2006. This 2006 data is extremely relevant to consumers' decisions today because the typically low two-year introductory rates of the 2006 subprime loans are generally being reset in 2008 to much higher rates.

Where home prices have not appreciated, home owners with a subprime loan have often had a difficult time refinancing and so have a higher chance of foreclosing on their home. Prospective buyers and sellers can see if there will be more downward pressure in 2008 by this type of recent buyer foreclosing on their home

Consumers can also see areas less likely to be affected by the crisis. For example, Manhattan in New York City has maintained strict lending standards and few subprime loans have been underwritten (http://mortgage.homethinking.com/New-York/New-York/), even in the height of the subprime boom in 2006.

Starting the conversation

Mortgage trends and conditions have become a hot topic among consumers. Bloggers and other media companies are able to embed any of the charts from mortgage.homethinking.com and use the data in support of opinion or discussion.

"The charts can help those Realtors and Mortgage brokers who blog to offer counsel to worried home owners in this difficult market and at the same time help them to build stronger and more credible relationships," said Niki Scevak.

About Homethinking LLC

Homethinking LLC was founded in 2005 to help consumers make better decisions around real estate. Home owners are able to select a Realtor or Lender based upon actual transaction data. The company is based in New York City.

For more information go to http://www.homethinking.com/about.jsp.

Homethinking Opens Up Access to Comprehensive Mortgage Transaction Data

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Homethinking Opens Up Access to Comprehensive Mortgage Transaction Data

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