By its most common definition, a quitclaim deed is a document by which one person passes legal and financial ownership of a home to another person.

It’s also a way for an owner of a home to remove himself from the title to the property.

Often misspelled as “quick claim deed” or “quit claim deed”, quitclaim deeds have a multitude of applications, including:

• Assigning a home to a trust or entity
• Adding a partner to title after marriage
• Removing a partner from title after divorce

In order to quitclaim a property, the grantor must have the legal right to assign the property to a grantee, or else the quitclaim deed is worthless.  For example, you can’t quitclaim your interest in City Hall to your neighbor because you don’t actually own City Hall.

This is where quitclaim deeds vary from warranty deeds (or grant deeds) — the types of transfers that occur when real estate is sold.  In instances of the former, the title to a home is guaranteed to be clear.

Before using a quitclaim deed on your own home, consult an estate planning attorney.  Transferring real property can trigger ruin a will, or trigger taxes — it’s important to consult a professional for help.

Volume figures to be light on Wall Street today as traders get a head start on Labor Day weekend.  It could make shopping for a mortgage a bona fide challenge.

Expect rate volatility this morning and afternoon and, therefore, by extension, expect wild swings in the Home Affordability Index.

As mortgage rates rise and fall, monthly mortgage payments do, too.

The relationship between “vacation days” and mortgage rate volatility stems from 2 facts — (1) Conforming mortgage rates are based on the price of mortgage-backed bonds, and (2) mortgage-backed bonds trade just like stocks.  You can’t make a deal without matching a buyer and a seller at a specific price.

With so many traders on vacation today, therefore, there are fewer opportunities to match buyers and sellers.  As a result, expect mortgage bond prices to rise and fall with more velocity than on a “normal” day — especially because the August jobs report was just released.

So far this morning, mortgage rates have been jumpy and are higher versus Thursday’s close.

That said, mortgage pricing is fluid, changing every minute of every day.  Today, expect those changes to be exaggerated.  If you have a chance to lock a favorable rate, consider taking it because, before long, the rate could be gone.

In what’s becoming a regular occurrence, housing data blew away economists expectations Tuesday.

As reported by the National Association of Realtors®, the Pending Home Sales Index posted its 6th consecutive monthly gain in July.

After a meteoric rise that started in January, the index is now at its highest levels in more than 2 years.

A “pending home sale” is a home that is under contract to sell, but not yet closed.  It’s not the same as an actual home sold, but data shows that nearly 80% of homes under contract close within 2 months and many more close in months 3 and 4.

Home buyers — take note.  When the Pending Home Sales Index is rising, it means that market activity has picked up.  This can lead to any one, or a combination, of the following:

1. Multiple-offer situations
2. Reduced negotiation leverage over sellers
3. Higher home sale prices with fewer concessions

So, consider yourself alerted.  If you’re buying a home in the next several months, expect the recent run in Pending Sales to lead to a run in closed sales, too.  That should lead home prices higher in most markets.

Indeed, we’re already seeing it.  Case-Shiller says prices are on the upswing.

The number of homes under contract to sell rose in June for the fifth straight month.It’s the Pending Home Sales Index’s longest winning streak since 2003 and another piece of evidence that the housing market may be rebounding.

• The supply of new homes is falling
• The supply of existing homes is falling
• The Case-Shiller Index showed home value increases in many of its markets

Separately, the data is interesting. All together, it paints the portrait of a recovery.

That said, we can’t forget that the Pending Home Sales Index is somewhat unique versus other real estate reports.  Whereas data on existing and new home sales measures closed transactions, the Pending Home Sales Index only measures intent to buy.

Just because a home goes under contract, in other words, doesn’t mean that it actually will sell.

Purchase transactions can fall apart for a multitude of reasons including, but not limited to, buyer-seller disputes, failed home inspections, and an inability to secure mortgage financing.  The Pending Home Sales Index doesn’t account for these types of issues.

In general, though, as the number of homes under contract increases, Existing Home Sales increase, too — usually on a 2-month lag.  Home sale data should remain strong through early-Fall, at least.

For active home buyers, be conscious of the fact that that more home sales plus falling home supplies leads to higher home values.  If you’re looking for a bargain, the longer you wait, the less likely you may be to find it.

Once again, the housing market is showing that its worst days may be over.According to the Census Bureau, the number of new homes sold in June leapt by 11 percent from the month prior.  It stands as the biggest one-month jump in 8 years.

A “new home sale” is when a home in any stage of construction — not yet started, under construction, or already completed — goes under contract, often with a builder.  It’s the opposite of an “existing home sale”.

In addition to surging sales, the monthly supply of new homes fell to its lowest level in 11 years.

Because home values are based on the relative supply and demand for a particular home in a particular area, anytime that demand for homes grows faster than supply, we would expect prices to rise.

Indeed, that’s what we’ve been seeing.

The combination of low interest rates, seller-paid incentives and a first-time home buyer tax credit is bringing buyers into the market faster than new supply can come online.  It’s one reason why home prices have stopped falling across many parts of the country.

It’s also why home buyers may find it tougher to get “a good deal” in real estate later this year and into 2010.  If demand stays high and supplies fall further, sellers should regain the upper-hand in contract negotiations.

Home values around the country appear to be leveling.The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s latest Home Price Index report shows values up by nearly 1 percent in May versus the month prior.

Since peaking in April 2007, values remain off by 11 percent nationwide.

The FHFA Home Price Index is an interesting metric.  Different from the Case-Shiller Index which collects data from just 20 U.S. markets, the Home Price Index reflects every U.S. home that backs a mortgage sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In this sense, the FHFA Home Price Index is more “national” than the Case-Shiller Index but the HPI has its flaws, too.

The House Price Index specifically excludes from its measurements the sales price on any home purchase with any of following traits:

1. Is new home construction
2. Is a multi-unit property
3. Is financed by an entity other than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac

Because of these exclusions, some analysts say the report is incomplete.  The same could be said of every method of home valuation, however.

Therefore, what’s most important to today’s home buyers and sellers is that each of the “popular” home valuation reports shows similar patterns.  Home prices appear to have stopped falling and may be even starting to recover.

It won’t be for a few years that we’ll be able to look back and point to the exact month that real estate bottomed. Nevertheless, considering how the data has presented as of late, it’s reasonable to think that we’ve already hit it.  Certainly, that’s what the Home Price Index suggests.

For a region-by-region breakdown of the Home Price Index, visit the FHFA website.

Housing Starts soared in June, thumping analyst expectations for the second straight month.

A “housing start” is a new home on which construction has started.  Last month’s jump in single-family starts is the largest one-month jump since 2004.

To Wall Street, June’s figures are the latest signal that the country’s housing markets may be on the mend.

For home sellers, however, the news may not be so rosy.  With more homes expected to come on the market, price competition among sellers could intensify and — all things equal — that would push sales prices lower.

So far in 2009, that hasn’t happened.

As home supply has grown, it’s been met by off-setting buyer demand.  Spurred by low mortgage rates and an $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, Americans appear to find today’s home buying conditions somewhat ideal.

As a result, purchase activity has been strong and first-time home buyers now account for close to 30 percent of existing home sales.

Rising Housing Starts can be a double-edged sword.  It shows strength that builders are more optimistic about the economy, but too much optimism can lead to a glut of unsold homes and that could reverse the recovery’s momentum.

The government’s First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit expires December 1, 2009.

If you expect to use the program in conjunction with a home purchase, therefore, you may want to consider yourself officially “on the clock”.

Assuming a 60-day window between contract and closing, there are now 77 days left to find a home and go under contract for it.

The First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit refunds up to $8,000 at Tax Time for qualified home buyers.  A few of the program’s qualification criteria include:

• Home buyer must not have owned a primary residence in the past 36 months
• The home may not be purchased from a family member
• The household adjusted gross income must be below $95,000 for single tax filers and $170,000 for joint tax filers

The tax credit itself is limited to $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price, whichever is less.

Remember, though: The refund is a true tax credit — not a deduction.  This means that a taxpayer owing $8,000 to the IRS and claiming the $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit would owe the IRS nothing on April 15, 2010.

The complete list of qualifying criteria is posted on the IRS website.

For the fourth consecutive month, the country’s foreclosure activity was dominated by a small number of states.

As reported by RealtyTrac.com, more than 50 percent of the country’s foreclosure-related actions in June concentrated in just 3 states:

1. California
2. Florida
3. Nevada

The states rounding out the Top 10 include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Illinois and Colorado.

Meanwhile, June’s reported foreclosure figures are consistent with the data from earlier this year, suggesting that the foreclosure remedy plans put forth by the government and by lenders can barely keep pace with the national default rate.

Foreclosure-related actions nationwide are up 5 percent from May.

The silver lining in data this negative is that foreclosures are creating tremendous buying opportunities for the right buyers.  Because foreclosed homes tend to sell at a discount versus non-foreclosed homes and because mortgage rates are low, home sales are showing strength in a multitude of markets because of ample supply at relatively cheap prices.

Distressed homes accounted for one-third of all existing home sales in May.

Search the complete June 2009 foreclosure report for yourself, including foreclosure heat maps and other trends on the RealtyTrac website.

Sometimes, saving money on your mortgage is as simple as picking a better closing date.It’s all about Rate Lock Commitments.

A Rate Lock Commitment is a bank’s promise to honor a specific mortgage rate for a specific period of time.  They are a lender’s prediction of what mortgage markets will look like at some point in the future.

The future is murky, of course, so it follows that the longer the rate lock, the higher the bank’s corresponding interest rate.

Banks have to compensate for “time risk”.

Rate locks typically come in 15-day increments with the 30-day lock serving as the basis for all other pricing:

• 15-day rate lock : 1/8 percent lower than the 30-day rate lock
• 30-day rate lock : The basis for all other pricing
• 45-day rate lock : 1/8 percent higher than the 30-day rate lock
• 60-day rate lock : 1/4 percent higher than the 30-day rate lock

These aren’t exact figures, of course.  Spreads between rates can (and do) vary from lender-to-lender.  On average, though, they’re fairly close.

This is why choosing a closing date is so important to your mortgage rate. A 45-day closing may reduce your rate 0.125% versus a 46-day one.

Assuming a $250,000 home loan near today’s rates, that’s an annual difference of $236.

So, when negotiating a contract on a home, keep in mind how rate locks work to make sure you get the best rate possible. The shorter the length of your rate lock commitment, the more money you might save long-term.