The population of the U.S. is growing, rising by 2.2 million people in 2016, according to the latest Census data. But the population growth is not even across the country. For instance, the South and West saw their populations rise by 1.1 percent in 2016, while the Northeast and Midwest saw just a 0.1 percent uptick.Eight states saw populations grow by more than 1.6 percent in 2016. Many of the fastest-growing states tend to be affordable, midsiz
Ginnie Mae officials recently testified to lawmakers that “loan churning” within the VA program is putting veteran borrowers at risk with serial refinancings.Michael R. Bright, Ginnie Mae’s executive vice president, was one of four mortgage industry experts who testified to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs last week about the constant pressuring to get vets to refinance their loans. Bright testified that loan churning within the VA p
The gap between homeowners’ and appraisers’ perceptions on the value of properties is continuing to close. Homeowners, in general, still tend to slightly overestimate the price of their home, but not by nearly as much as they did a year ago.Home appraisals were, on average, 0.5 percent lower than what owners expected in December, according to the latest National Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index. The gap is closing; a year ago, homeow
Where can a home buyer’s money stretch the furthest? The Rust Belt and Midwest may offer some of the best bargains.The realtor.com® research team scoured across 500 of the largest metros to rank the ones with the lowest median home prices. The results were limited to one city per state for the purposes of geographic diversity.“There are a lot of people in that first-time home buyer group looking for starter homes, and they can’t afford it
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is nearing 4 percent, but still remains well below its average from this time a year ago.“After dipping slightly last week, Treasury yields surged this week amid sell-offs in the bond market,” says Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist. “The 10-year Treasury yield, for instance, reached its highest point since March of last year. Mortgage rates followed Treasury yields and ticked up modestly acr
A new program allows employers to help workers' down payment on a home, similar to how companies contribute to a 401(k).HomeFundMe, a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-approved down payment crowdfunding platform, allows borrowers to crowdfund their down payment from several sources, including their employer. CMG Financial, a mortgage banking firm, created the HomeFundMe program. Employers can contribute directly to employees’ HomeFundMe accounts to
Despite rising prices, buying a home makes more sense than paying increasingly high rents in more than half of the U.S. Buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 240 of 447—or 54 percent—of U.S. counties analyzed, according to a new report released by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.Renting a three-bedroom property requires an average of nearly 39 percent of weekly wages across the
In some situations, it might make sense to actually increase the list price to get buyers’ attention, according to a new article at realtor.com®. The article provides several scenarios where increasing the asking price may be justified on a home for sale, including:Market conditions have changed since the home was first listed. When comparable properties start selling for more than the list price, raising a home’s price may actually garner
With steep competition, some buyers are scrambling to come up with larger down payments to gain a competitive edge.“In many purchase situations, there are multiple offers, and the buyers who have the bigger down payment are more likely to win out,” Daren Blomquist, ATTOM Data Solutions’ senior vice president, told The Wall Street Journal.The median down payment for home purchases that were financed in the third quarter of 2017 soared to a
The winter off-peak period may be the best time for investors to snag a deal on a single-family rental property.Single-family rental investors paid 6.6 percent less per square foot on the same property during the winter of 2017/2018 than they did during the spring and summer buying season of 2017, according to a new analysis released by HomeUnion, an online real estate investment and management firm.“For the second year in a row, our study fo
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