Nov 07
Home Owners Don’t Like Renters as Neighbors Americans don’t care to get to know the neighbor renting next door, according to a survey of more than 3,000 adults conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Trulia. Home owners dismiss neighbors who are renters more than any other group living in their neighborhood, the …
Nov 07
More Banks Offering Up Loans for 5% Down? For the last few years, buyers have been hard-pressed to land a mortgage if they didn’t have a 20 percent down payment, unless they turned to the Federal Housing Administration’s low down-payment loans. But a growing number of banks are now offering loans with just 5 percent …
Aug 23
5 Inspection Problems Buyers Shouldn’t Ignore Home buyers need to be extra vigilant about inspections in the early stages of a purchase because if problems are discovered too late in the process, it can “dash home owners’ dreams and budgets,” writes Yahoo! Finance in a recent article. One home buyer in Long Island, N.Y., …
Aug 23
Household Incomes Improving, But Still Way Down Though median household income has been rising for the last two years, it’s still 4.4 percent below where it was in June 2009 when the recession officially ended, according to a new study by two former Census Bureau officials. Annual median household income rose to $52,100 in …
Aug 22
Pa. Woman May Not Lose Home Over $6 A western Pennsylvania widow has won a chance to argue that she should not lose her $280,000 home over $6.30 in unpaid interest on taxes. AP reported that the state’s Commonwealth Court ruled it was a mistake for a Beaver County judge to rule against the woman, …
Aug 22
Sinkholes Become Bigger Threat to Home Owners The number of sinkholes is growing, putting more homes at risk. The problem is most evident in Florida, where some experts say it even has the potential to threaten the housing recovery. Sinkhole activity first began being recorded in 1960, and one-third of the sinkhole activity recorded since …
Aug 21
Study: Price Home Higher, Get a Better Offer The higher a home is priced at the outset, the more likely it is that it will get a higher offer from a buyer, according to a new study by researchers Grace Bucchianeri and Julia Minson. The study appeared in the May issue of the Journal of …
Aug 21
Foreclosure Crisis Just Now Hitting Some States Many U.S. housing markets are recovering from the worst of the foreclosure crisis, but others are getting slammed. Maryland, Oregon, and New Jersey had relatively stable housing markets even during the housing slump. But new foreclosure filings in those states climbed by double- and triple-digit percentages in July, …
Aug 20
Can Housing Save a Sluggish Economy? “Good news in the housing sector bodes well for future economic growth,” according to Freddie Mac’s August 2013 U.S. economic and Housing Market Outlook report. Four years into the recovery, and lackluster economic growth persists. Housing continues to be one bright spot, providing a positive boost to the GDP …
Aug 20
Natural Disaster Risk Tied to Mortgage Default Little is known about the level to which mortgage portfolios are exposed to natural hazard risk from tornados, wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, sink holes, and other events. CoreLogic economists recently studied the theory that natural hazard risks actually raise the odds of mortgage default. They developed an illustrative model …
Aug 19
All-Cash Sales Dominate Market More than half of all homes sold last year and in 2013, so far, have been purchased mortgage-free, according to economists at Goldman Sachs Group. Prior to the housing crash, about 20 percent of all homes sold were purchased without financing. All-cash sales have more than doubled over the last seven …
Aug 19
Overheated or Smart Buy? Farm Values Surge Some analysts are concerned that farmland prices are headed for a serious drop in value. Then again, as other analysts note, that’s a concern that has been shared for years that has yet to show any signs of coming to fruition. After the 2008 financial collapse, farmland was …
