John Topa, FHA Mortgage Specialist

The S&P 500 added 4.3 percent last week -- more than during all of 2007 -- in what was a good week for the economy and a bad week for mortgage rate shoppers.

After Friday's close, mortgage rates were higher by as much as 0.375% versus the Friday prior. This reversed a trend of falling rates for Americans.

In recent weeks, mortgage rates had been falling as investors fled risky stocks and parked their money in the bond markets.

A trading pattern such as this one is sometimes called "Flight to Quality" and it creates a high demand for all types of bonds. When bond demand is high, bond prices increase and that drives bonds' relative rates of return down.

Over this past week, however, the Flight to Quality unwound.

Investors saw opportunities for stock market gains and funded stock purchases by selling bonds that they had amassed over the weeks prior. This created an imbalance of bond supply versus bond demand and that caused bond prices to fall.

Naturally, the corresponding rates of return on the bonds rose.

And so, because mortgage rates are really just "rates of return" on mortgage-backed bonds, we can understand why mortgage rates suffered last week as the stock markets were gaining.

It wasn't anything fundamentally bad in the bond market as much as it was the attraction of stock market gains.

This week, there won't be much economic data to cross the wires but 160 companies in the S&P 500 will report their earnings. This could have a broad impact on mortgage rates, similar to last week.

If corporate earnings are stronger-than-expected, expect mortgage rates to continue higher as additional monies flow into stocks at the expense of bond markets.

John Topa, First Sunrise Mortgage, Northeast PA Mortgage Advisor. www.FirstSunriseMortgage.com

If you understand how the system works, after all, you can make it work to your advantage. One terrific place to start your research is at myFICO.com.

Published by credit scoring powerhouse Equifax, myFICO.com give you information right from the source. There are tens of pages of tips and tricks from which everybody can learn.

Here are some basic pointers to get you started:

Use It Or Lose It: If you don't use credit, the credit agencies can't assign you a credit score. Spend $10 monthly on your credit cards and then pay it in full to "get on the grid" and get yourself a score.

30 Is The Magic Number: Holding your credit card balances below 30 percent of their respective limits shows an ability to manage credit responsibly. Before consolidating multiple credit cards onto one credit line, consider that card's credit limit. Overload it and the consolidation could hurt your credit score.

The Trend Is Your Friend: A track record of paying accounts on-time means that you're likely to continue paying on-time. Credit bureaus like on-time payments. If you've been late, catch up immediately. At 35 percent, this is the largest component of your credit score.

History Is The Best Teacher: Don't close unused credit cards. Having a credit "history" accounts for 10 percent of your score.

There are more helpful hints available at the Web site so with additional credit score adjustments to mortgage rates expected later this year, the best way to protect yourself is to be proactive.

Identify potential issues in your credit profile and work to improve them.

Credit scoring is not always intuitive so if you're not getting the personal information you need from general Web sites, ask your loan officer for an in-depth analysis. The mortgage rate you save may be your own.

John Topa, First Sunrise Mortgage, Northeast PA Mortgage Advisor. www.FirstSunriseMortgage.com

Average gas prices reached an all-time U.S. high Tuesday, touching $3.40 per gallon. San Francisco and Tulsa are the nation's bookends at $3.94 per gallon and $3.11 per gallon, respectively.

But before you wonder if relief is coming to your family budget, remember that "rising gas prices" is a conversation we have every April.

Using data from gasbuddy.com and looking back to 2004, we can see that gas prices tend to rise during the Spring season.

If the pattern holds, we'll should see another 10 percent increase at the pump before gas prices settle back down over the summer and fall months.

John Topa, First Sunrise Mortgage, Northeast PA Mortgage Advisor. www.FirstSunriseMortgage.com

Getting approved for a conforming home loan is now tougher than before.

Again.

As home loan defaults mount, government-sponsored financier Fannie Mae has imposed new guidelines on what it will lend and to whom, highlighting the need for a strong credit profile and a downpayment.

In other words, Fannie Mae is outright declining mortgage applicants whose credit is weak and whose payment history shows signs of trouble. But, it's not just the "fringe" borrowers that are finding it harder to get a mortgage.

Buyers with strong credit profiles are being hit by new changes, too.

One such change says that owners of second homes must now have a 10 percent equity position in their homes; 15 percent if the property is in a "declining market".

This is up from 5 and 10 percent, respectively, and represents a growing trend to make homeowners have a "stake" in their own homes. Downpayment requirements are higher for all mortgage products, in general.

Fannie Mae's changes are the third set of restrictions imposed since December 2007 and more tightening is expected over the next few months. That makes now a compelling time to buy a home -- borrowing money will be more restrictive (and more costly) later.

If you are actively shopping for homes and have not been pre-qualified in the last few weeks, reach out to your loan officer and get checked against the latest set of mortgage guidelines.

It's better to know today than after you make an offer.

John Topa, First Sunrise Mortgage, Northeast PA Mortgage Advisor. www.FirstSunriseMortgage.com

Every two years, the Jump$tart Coalition issues a "personal finance" exam to high school seniors.

The test highlights the importance of personal financial literacy among America's youth and comes at an especially important juncture.

Many experts -- including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke -- believe that basic financial knowledge is essential for (and lacking in) teenagers. Jump$tart's exam did little to disprove this.

This year, 12th graders answered 48.3% correct on average and posted the lowest scores since Jump$tart first issued the test in 1996.

A sample question from the 31-question test:

Which of the following types of investment would best protect the purchasing power of a family's savings in the event of a sudden increase in inflation?

1. A twenty-five year corporate bond
2. A house financed with a fixed-rate mortgage
3. A 10-year bond issued by a corporation
4. A certificate of deposit at a bank

Find out the answer to the sample questions and 30 other questions by taking the complete Jump$tart Personal Financial Literacy test for yourself online.

The average adult scores 68%.

John Topa, First Sunrise Mortgage, Northeast PA Mortgage Advisor. www.FirstSunriseMortgage.com