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	<title>Peak Appraisals</title>
	<link>http://peakappraisals.com</link>
	<description>Minnesota Appraisers, Minneapolis &#38; St. Paul Appraisers Serving Minnesota. ~~~ Fast Turn-Times! (612) 240-5116  &#124;  (763) 374-3770 fax</description>
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		<title>Minneapolis/St. Paul Weekly Market Activity Report &#8211; August 7, 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For the week ending August 7, we didn&#8217;t stray from the post-tax credit trends in the Twin Cities housing market. Pending sales remained entrenched in a holding pattern around 600 per week, continually underperforming last year&#8217;s activity. The 659 purchase agreements signed were 36.5 percent below 2009 figures. Weak sales means rising inventory. There are [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=512</link>
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		<title>Foreclosures rise in July</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Les Christie, staff writerAugust 12, 2010: 4:39 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) &#8212; The latest foreclosure numbers carried a mixed message: They&#8217;re up 3.6% from the month before but down 9.7% from 12 months earlier. In July there were more than 325,000 foreclosure filings &#8212; including notices of default, auctions notices and bank repossessions. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=510</link>
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		<title>30-year mortgage at lowest rate since 1971</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Hibah Yousuf, staff reporterAugust 12, 2010: 2:18 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) &#8212; Mortgage rates continued to decline this week, plunging to the lowest level in decades, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and Bankrate. Freddie Mac&#8217;s weekly report said the 30-year fixed rate slipped to 4.44% for the week ended Thursday, the lowest [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=506</link>
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		<title>It&#8217;s a Great Time for Housing Deals</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Paying off an underwater mortgage and buying a better home could be the best tactic in this troubled market. &#8220;If you are trading up, what better time than when interest rates are at record lows and the cost of the trade-up is much less than it used to be?&#8221; says Christopher J. Mayer, a Columbia [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=504</link>
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		<title>Seller financing for today&#8217;s market</title>
		<description><![CDATA[During the recession in 2001, a strong home-sale market was instrumental in pulling the economy back on track. The opposite may be the case now. The economy, particularly employment, needs to improve before the housing market stabilizes. Low interest rates are helping the home-sale market today, but the housing market is far from stalwart. Unemployment [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=502</link>
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		<title>Worst June on record for new-home sales</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sales of new, single-family houses were the lowest on record for the month of June, according to figures in a report by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sales hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 330,000, the lowest rate for that month since the Census Bureau began keeping such records [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=500</link>
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		<title>Obama Signs Bill Eliminating HVCC</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Friday, July 23rd, 2010, 1:25 pm When President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act this week to reform the financial markets, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) was officially set for elimination in 90 days. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) implemented HVCC in May 2009 in an attempt to improve the independence of appraisers by [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=497</link>
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		<title>New guidelines for choosing appraisers, comps</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Fannie Mae says appraisers must have local knowledge BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010. Inman News Fannie Mae has put lenders on official notice that they can only use appraisers who are knowledgeable about the area in which they are being asked to value property, and who have the ability to access records on recent [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=494</link>
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		<title>Housing Starts Decline 10% in May</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Housing starts fell 10 percent in May to an annual rate of 593,000, according to the Commerce Department figures released on Wednesday. Single-family starts fell 17 percent, the largest decline since January 1991 to a 468,000 pace. Building permits, seen as a sign of future construction, were down 9.9 percent, hitting a one-year low. Only [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=492</link>
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		<title>Mortgage Applications Rise</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For the first time in more than a month, the number of mortgage applications to purchase homes rose last week. On an adjusted basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association purchase index increased 7.3 percent compared to the previous week. On an unadjusted basis it was up 17.4 percent. Compared to the same week last year, applications [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://peakappraisals.com/?p=490</link>
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