Uncategorized Mortgage rates are soaring. Is it still OK to refinance your home? Mortgage rates, over 7% or so, are at their highest levels in 20 years and loan applications are down. So, it should follow, that homeowners looking to refinance loans would also be headed to the sidelines in droves. But according to experts, it might still make sense for homeowners to refinance. Why? Rates, even at […]
Market Trends Will Homeownership Soon Be A Thing Of The Past? The Strategy Millennials Are Using To Enter Real Estate Market As the economy teeters on the brink of a recession, potential home buyers wrestling with high-interest rates, low affordability, and overpriced homes are asking themselves how to build the wealth they need to purchase their first primary residence. According to a consumer insights report issued by tech-enabled real estate company Mynd, millennials have found the answer. A […]
Buying Buyers Embrace Adjustable Mortgages as Rates Surpass 7% Rising interest rates have increased the average monthly loan payment by a whopping $1,000 year over year. With the rate for a 30-year mortgage rising to 7.08% this week—the highest average since April 2002, according to Freddie Mac—the average monthly loan payment is now $1,000 more than a year ago, Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and […]
Buying Yikes! Every Time Mortgage Rates Rise, Buyers Need To Make This Much More To Afford a Home For home shoppers who thought 2022 would be their year, a pervasive sinking feeling is taking hold. They’re realizing the monthly payment for a home they thought they could afford—perhaps just barely—is now hundreds or even thousands of dollars more than they would have paid earlier this year. Their dream home is getting further and […]
Buying Common Mistakes When Closing on a Home Ever notice that when you’re unprepared, it heats up stressful situations? Take the preclosing stage of the home buying process. You may keep thinking about the money at stake, while forms, disclosures, and reports fly at you. It’s enough to overwhelm anyone. Anyone who isn’t well prepared, that is. You can get a head start, […]
Appraisals Quick, the Appraiser Is at the Door! Take the listing? Check! Sell the home? Check! Inspection completed? Check! Appraisal okay? Things could have gone better! What happened? Everyone benefits when appraisers and listing agents work together. Often a low appraisal value could have been avoided if all parties knew their roles at the beginning of the assignment instead of at the end. […]
Buying As the Housing Market Corrects, Is It Better To Rent or Buy? Q:I’ve heard the housing market is ‘correcting’ and home prices are falling. However, mortgage rates and rents keep going up. So should I wait to buy until prices go down further and rent now instead? Whether to rent or buy a home has long been on the mind of potential homebuyers. Soaring mortgage and rental […]
Selling Tax Breaks for Older Couples Who Sell Their Homes Consider Irene, who recently became a widow when her husband, Henry, died. Like most married couples, they held the title to their home in joint ownership with the right of survivorship. In plainer language, this means that co-owner Henry’s death results in his loss of all ownership in their dwelling. Surviving co-owner Irene automatically acquires all […]
Don't Miss Our Next Post
Subscribe Now
Real Estate 5 terrible reasons to refinance your mortgage — that have nothing to do with today’s rising rates After years of record-setting low mortgage rates, the days of easy loans are long gone. But even with rates on the rise, there are plenty of excellent reasons to refinance your mortgage — like changing the length of your loan, switching from a variable to a fixed rate or tapping into your home’s equity. Americans are facing a […]
Buying How to Move Past Student Debt — and Into a Home You want to buy a house. But you’re worried you won’t qualify for a mortgage because of your student loan debt. You’re not alone. Half of non-homeowners (51%) say student loan debt is delaying them from buying a home, according to a survey from the National Association of REALTORS®. That number jumps to 60% for […]
Uncategorized 7 Most Popular Bathroom Upgrades Homeowners are spending more money to spruce up their bathrooms as the pandemic-fueled home renovation boom continues. The national median spend for bathroom renovations jumped nearly 13% year over year to $9,000, according to the 2022 U.S. Houzz Bathroom Trends Study, a survey of more than 2,500 homeowners who are planning or recently completed a bathroom […]
Market Trends Chasing The Ball Down The Road In Real Estate Sellers have been chasing the ball down the road. What I mean is prices have been going down lately, and sellers are trying to find the market through price reductions. I can’t speak for the entire country, but I’d like to talk about what’s happening locally. I’m not writing as a housing bull or bear […]
Buying Inflation and Interest Rates are Rising, What The Future Looks Like for Housing Market Buyers Expert Advice for First-Time Home Buyers and Homeowners We have asked expert financial and real estate bloggers for their advice to help first-time homebuyers and homeowners looking to sell. Here are their thoughts: 1. Focus on How Long You Plan to Own the Home Greg Wilson, a Chartered Financial Analyst with 22+ years of real […]
Market Trends US Home-Price Growth Slowed in June Home-price growth in the US decelerated in June as the sales slowdown gripped the market. A national measure of prices rose 18% year-over-year, smaller than the 19.9% climb in May, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed Tuesday. The housing market has quickly slowed from its pandemic-era frenzy, with the Case-Shiller figures reflecting the start of […]
Market Trends Economists Have a Strange New Buzzword for the Housing Market That Will Shock Buyers and Sellers The housing market has been called plenty of things this summer: red-hot, insane, brutal. But the latest word du jour to describe the state of real estate today is almost shocking in its tepidness: balanced. This term cropped up most recently in an analysis by Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu, who notes, “Our weekly data suggests that the U.S. housing market keeps progressing toward a more […]
Market Trends Amid Good News, There’s a Crucial Housing Market Detail We’re All Overlooking Recent real estate headlines are bursting with promising news for homebuyers, heralding a bright new housing market that’s more “balanced” and “buyer-friendly.” But what this exuberant outlook seems to be missing is a bit more balance itself. Yes, homebuyers have it a little bit better, in some places. But for others, it’s still a war zone—or, at […]
Home Improvement Fences and Other Shared Costs With Neighbors: Who Is Responsible? When it comes to figuring out who is responsible for fences and other shared costs between neighbors, sometimes the legal responsibility depends on your state of residence and its local regulations. Here’s how to determine if a homeowner or neighbor should assume partial or full responsibility for situations where there is a shared outdoor-related expense. Review Local […]
Buying Advice for buyers & sellers in today’s housing market by Ryan Lundquist ADVICE FOR BUYERS: Don’t lowball like it’s 2008: It’s not a name-your-price market, so you still have to make reasonable offers instead of way below market value. I find some buyers think it’s 2008, and that’s not the vibe right now. For instance, a property was priced well at $450,000 and a buyer offered $320,000 (final closed […]
Buying ‘One actionable thing’ that can save prospective homebuyers up to $104,000 over the life of their mortgage As today’s prospective home buyers confront high home prices and rising interest rates, there’s one thing they can do to save money — raise their credit scores. “This is one actionable thing buyers can do to save a little bit of money in this market,” said Amanda Pendleton, consumer finance expert at Zillow Home Loans. […]
Market Trends Housing Bubble Fears? This spring, about 45% of home sellers said they believed the housing market was headed for a crash in 2022, according to a study from Clever Real Estate. To boot, Google Trends data shows a significant spike in searches for the term “housing bubble.” Doomsday fears are mounting as record-high home prices make more consumers and […]