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After 19 weeks of improvement, mortgage rates are stupid low right now. Don't miss a chance to do something about it. Especially because rates look troughed.

According to the Standard & Poors Case-Shiller Index, home values rose 5 percent in June versus the month prior, and 4 percent from a year earlier. But while the Case-Shiller Index is accurate, it's imperfect. Let's look deeper.

With home prices in gentle recovery and mortgage rates continuing to fall, home affordability is cresting. See where all 225 metro areas rank.

Mortgage rates keep dropping, but they're dropping ever so slowly. Homeowners with loans in-process can stop worrying about having locked "too soon" -- rates are essentially the same today as they've been for 2 months. And for everyone else, it means there's still more time to join the Refi Boom.

The real estate market is a tale of two price tiers. Sure, the Existing Home Sales data was awful, but not if you live in a "luxury" home.

The good thing about closing costs is that they're negotiable, in some respects. You can't avoid paying underwriting fees or taxes to the government, for example, but you *can* arrange to have loan costs paid on your behalf. It's called a "zero-cost mortgage". But, there is a trade-off.

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Mortgage rates are really, really low. And they'll probably fall further. But don't get greedy. Take your bird-in-hand. Get started on that refi.

When mortgage rates are this low, the hard part of a refinance isn't locking the low rate. Low rates are easy to lock. The hard part is closing on the low rate before its rate lock expires. In this case of Life Imitating Art, learn from Lucille Ball about getting ahead of underwriting and closing on-time, without rate lock extension fees.

There's an old saying that goes "All Real Estate Is Local". See it in pictures.