Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year fixed rate loan fell to 4.28%. The average on the 15-year fixed rate loan edged down to 3.32%. Loan applications remained stable.

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FHA Ease Rules For Borrowers Credit Issues

Important Change in Boston Smoke Detector Law

Effective August 1, 2012

The City of Boston will no longer be doing Smoke Detector inspections for the sale or transfer of any Residential dwelling unit, including single family homes, multi-unit buildings and condominiums, built after 1975. Any property built after 1975 or having 6 or more units is required to have hard wired Smoke Detectors under the Massachusetts Building Code. Any Residential property, including single family homes, condominiums or multi family of 5 units or less, built prior to 1975, will still be required to have a Smoke Detector Inspection prior to sale or transfer. All Residential units including, single family, condominuims and multi-units are still required to be inspected for the proper installation and operation of Carbon Monoxide Detectors. Please remember that this is a Boston Fire Department decision and has not been adopted by all Fire Departments. For additional information please click on the link below.

Boston Fire Department Smoke Detector Inspections

Foreclosure Titles May Be No Good

October 18, 2011

By now, you should be aware, that if you bought a property from a Lender who did a faulty foreclousure, your title may be "Cloudy" or Noisey". One would think, that an action in Land Court, could quiet or fix your title. Not so fast! The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled today in the much anticipated Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez case, that you have NO title to the property at all. Not "Cloudy" or "Noisey" title that the Land Court could repair, but in fact, it appears, NO TITLE AT ALL. You may still have the right to go back and redo the faulty foreclosure. This final edict is mix of bad and good news for owners of property whose titles have been rendered defective due to improper foreclosures stemming from the landmark U.S. Bank v. Ibanez ruling last January. The Court held that owners cannot bring a court action to clear their titles under the “try title” procedure in the Massachusetts Land Court. Left open, however, was whether owners could attempt to put their chains of title back together (like Humpty-Dumpty) and conduct new foreclosure sales to clear their titles. Unfortunately, the SJC did not provide the real estate community with any further guidance as to how best to resolve these complicated title defects.

Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez Case

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Massachusetts Real Estate Classes - New Homestead Law

 Automatic $125,000 Homestead Protection

Massachusetts Declaration of Homestead provides a simple and inexpensive way to proctect the equity in a principal home from up to $500,000 in certain creditor’s claims. Now the Legislature has passed the long awaited revisions to the Massachusetts Homestead Act (Senate Bill 2406), giving homeowners expanded protection. The bill was signed on Dec.17, 2010 and became law on March 18, 2011.

Here’s a summary of highlights of the amended bill:

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