According to the Mortgage Bankers Associations Weekly Applications Survey, average mortgage rates were down across all loan categories last week, including rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with both conforming and jumbo balances, loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, and 15-year fixed-rate loans. The decline coincided with a surge in demand for mortgage applications. In fact, refinance activity was up 12 percent over the previous week and the purchase index rose 6 percent. Joel Kan, MBA's … [Read more...]

If you're a prospective home seller, you're probably thinking about upgrades, renovations, and remodeling projects. Making your home appealing to buyers is important when it's time to sell. But how do you choose which projects are smartest for your money? Well, according to a recent analysis, there are some easy answers. For example, though kitchens are one of the more important rooms in the house, they aren't necessarily the best place to start upgrading. Why? Well, because they're so central to the way we live, … [Read more...]

Like anything else, residential architecture is affected by the popular trends of the day. But unlike most other things, homes last a very long time. So houses built to fit the lifestyle of people living in the 1940s and '50s are still being bought and sold in 2019. Now, in most cases, an older home's quirks are considered charming or even sought after by buyers. But what about homes whose time period is unpopular? Well, according to one recent article, this can be a problem. For example, in the early 2000s, … [Read more...]

New numbers from the National Association of Realtors prove home buyers are excited to get the spring season started. With a nearly 12 percent increase in the number of previously owned homes sold compared to the month before, February was the largest month-over-month improvement since 2015. Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, says there's a combination of factors helping push home sales upward. “A powerful combination of lower mortgage rates, more inventory, rising income, and higher consumer confidence is … [Read more...]

Last year, the big housing market story was the lack of homes for sale. With inventory down in most markets, home buyers had a lot of competition for the houses that were available. But, since then, the number of homes for sale has been climbing. And, according to a recent survey of potential home buyers, competition is no longer as big of a concern for hopeful home shoppers. In fact, there was a 10 percent drop in the number of respondents who expected to face competition when looking for a house to buy. That's … [Read more...]

Debt is an issue for many Americans. From student loans to credit card balances, there are a lot of things we're trying to pay off. But while the financial struggles of millennials are well known, there isn't as much attention paid to the debts of older Americans. After all, they aren't trying to save for a down payment and buy their first home while also paying off student loans and keeping up with rising rent, right? Well, though some of that may be true, having too much debt or poor credit will affect your plans … [Read more...]

If you're doing it right, the first step in your home-buying process will be talking with your lender. Your mortgage lender is the one who will be able to tell you whether or not you'll be able to buy and how much you'll be able to spend. In short, you won't get very far without first going over your numbers and figuring out what you'd be approved to borrow should you find a house you want to purchase. Some of that calculation will be determined by your financial situation, debts, income, etc. Another part will be … [Read more...]

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Applications Survey, average mortgage rates were mostly down last week. In fact, rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages all fell. The declines helped push demand for loans to buy homes up 4 percent from the week before. Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, said the gains are an encouraging sign. “Purchase … [Read more...]

For many Americans, coming up with a down payment to buy a house is the only barrier keeping them from pursuing homeownership. In fact, according to one recent survey, 40 percent of respondents said affording a down payment was the biggest thing that kept them from buying. That more than doubles the next most cited reason, which was believing rent was more affordable. But though saving enough money for a down payment was an obstacle for a large percentage of potential home buyers, it wasn't necessarily an … [Read more...]

Among all the indicators that can be used to gauge the health of the housing market, few are as good as new home construction. After all, home builders wouldn't be building homes if they didn't think there were interested buyers. So, when new home construction is rising, there's probably a good reason. And, if that's the case, then the January numbers recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are encouraging. That's because they show a 25.1 percent … [Read more...]