Buyers Putting Down Less on a Home A 20 percent down payment is no longer the norm. In the past year, 1.5 million borrowers purchased their homes with down payments of less than 10 percent, according to Black Knight Financial Services. That marks a seven-year high. A growing number of home shoppers are financing more …
Tag: News
Aug 15
Facebook Marketing Is Key…
Facebook Marketing Is Key… Social media is increasingly a vital part of a real estate professional’s marketing strategy. Seventy-four percent of REALTORS® recently surveyed cited awareness as the main outcome of their social media efforts. Sixty-four percent of 265 REALTORS® recently surveyed say they plan to commit more time to social media, and 60 …
Aug 14
Is Housing Affordability Actually Improving?
Is Housing Affordability Actually Improving? Growing incomes and low mortgage rates are helping to prop up housing affordability and offset rising home prices, according to the newly released National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. A quarter-point drop in interest rates in the second quarter helped to make homes more affordable …
Aug 04
Ugly Home Features Buyers Can’t Overlook
Ugly Home Features Buyers Can’t Overlook Home shoppers can get hung up on cosmetic issues of a home, even though often times the problems are relatively inexpensive to fix. “Cosmetic issues are a big problem for a lot of home buyers,” Linda Sanderfoot, a real estate professional with Coldwell Banker in Neenah, Wis., …
Aug 03
Quick Fixes Sellers Should Avoid
Quick Fixes Sellers Should Avoid It’s often a mad dash when sellers are working to get their home on the market or even to just clean up ahead of a showing. But some common cleanup tools can actually do more damage than many people realize. HouseLogic identified a few common products that can create …
Aug 02
5 Questions to Ask a Home Inspector
5 Questions to Ask a Home Inspector Home buyers would be wise to interview a home inspector before they hire one. But what should they ask? Here are a few questions to consider. 1. What do you check? A home inspector will look at everything from the roof to the foundation and in between, …
Aug 01
Top school districts in Pennsylvania
Top school districts in Pennsylvania When a family starts searching for a home, especially a family with younger children, it’s very important to find one in a community with a top school district. Why is this important, well we as parents all want our children to be better off than us, just like …
Jul 31
Home ownership Rate Rebounds from 50-Year Low
Home ownership Rate Rebounds from 50-Year Low The U.S. home ownership rate may have finally bottomed out, as the share of Americans who own homes is steadily climbing. The ownership rate posted an increase in the second quarter, reversing a sharp downward trend that begun in the Great Recession. The home ownership rate was 63.7 …
Jul 21
Poverty Rates Rising in Suburbs
Poverty Rates Rising in Suburbs Poverty is increasingly striking the nation’s suburbs and exurbs (farther out suburbs on the edges of metros). High-poverty neighborhoods have risen 76 percent in the suburbs and 123 percent in the exurbs from 2000 to 2015, according to an analysis from Apartment List, which culled data from a recent report out of …
Jul 20
Builders Warming Up to Smaller Homes
Builders Warming Up to Smaller Homes Competition is heating up among millennials and baby boomers for smaller, more affordable homes. But builders have been slow to meet demand. That may be showing signs of changing. Home sizes are beginning to shrink, which may also, in turn, help prices edge down some too. “We are starting …
Jul 19
Mortgage Tips for Newbie Buyers
Mortgage Tips for Newbie Buyers The more your home buyers know about mortgages, the better prepared they’ll be. The Motley Fool recently featured a range of mortgage tips to help educate first-time buyers, including: Know their credit score. The credit score can be a big key to knowing how much buyers can afford and how much interest …
Jul 18
Expensive Items New Homeowners Buy
Expensive Items New Homeowners Buy Furniture, appliances, and remodeling projects are among the biggest expenses for new homeowners, who spend an average of $10,600 in the first year of home ownership, according to a recent analysis by the National Association of Home Builders. New owners spend an average of $3,778 on furnishings alone, …
