Jan 16
Mortgage Giants Urged to Ease Up on Credit The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to explore “alternate” credit-score models and the credit history of the loans they back. The move is part of several efforts by FHFA to ease tight mortgage standards and help more potential buyers qualify for …
Jan 15
A Second Chance at First Impressions As a real estate professional, you make your living working with people — and making that crucial good first impression is always the most important step. If you’ve had encounters that made you wish you could do them over, there’s good news: You probably can — and you’ll have …
Jan 14
A Guide to Finding Mortgage Savings Many borrowers are paying more than they need to for a mortgage because they didn’t shop around for lenders enough, according to a new study released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In response, CFPB is releasing an interactive online toolkit called “Owning a Home,” which aims to help …
Jan 13
Mortgaged Homes Have Equity Again About 273,000 homes returned to positive equity in the third quarter of 2014, bringing the total to 44.6 million of all properties with a mortgage, according to a newly released equity report from CoreLogic using data from the third quarter of 2014. That number represents around 90 percent of all …
Jan 12
Best Bets for Housing in 2015 Forbes recently spotlighted the top places to invest in the new year, whether for investors looking for rental properties or young professionals looking to make their first home purchase. “The key is to buy in cities with strong job growth that people are moving to, so that the stock …
Jan 09
FHA Lowers Its Mortgage Costs The Federal Housing Administration is reducing its annual mortgage insurance premiums by 0.5 percentage points in a move “to expand responsible lending to creditworthy borrowers,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. FHA also said it would take added steps over the next few months to “cut red …
Jan 08
Smaller Cities Saw Biggest Rent Hikes in 2014 Surging rental costs continue to grip national headlines, but some of last year’s biggest leaps in rental costs were in small to midsized cities. Nationwide, apartment rents increased 3.6 percent, on average, in 2014, pushing the average monthly lease rate to $1,124.38, according to Reis Inc., a …
Jan 07
Hike in Interest Rates Likely by Mid-Year Many economists believe mortgage rates will be on the move upward this year after sitting near historic lows the past few weeks. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose above 4 percent for only two weeks since Oct. 16, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market report. That has helped …
Jan 06
Market Types You’ll See This Year From the stalwarts to the tech magnets and comeback kids, the new year is likely to see several types of markets. Redfin recently highlighted six “housing market personas” that the real estate brokerage believes will be driving the continued recovery in 2015. Here’s an overview of the personas …
Jan 05
When Sellers Try to Take Too Much Some sellers want to take more with them than a favorite light fixture or curtain rod. They may want to move entire rooms to their new home. That’s what Cindy Jones, a real estate broker in Woodbridge, Va., recently encountered when she saw a listing that noted …
Dec 30
Veterans Missing Out on Home Ownership? Military vets who fail to look into government programs could be leaving money on the table when they purchase a home, according to a new article published by the Los Angeles Times. Loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs potentially offer big savings, and can be a way …
Dec 29
Housing Markets Show Signs of Stabilizing A greater number of housing markets are showing signs of normalizing, as 70 of the markets tracked by a Freddie Mac index now move to positive momentum. Freddie Mac’s latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) showed a reading of 74.5 nationwide, which still indicates a weak housing market overall …
