Homeownership remains a goal for most Americans. According to NerdWallet’s 2018 Home Buyer Report, 91% of respondents want to own at least one home during their lifetime. However, that same report shows eight concerns renters have regarding that goal. If you haven’t bought a home yet, see if they match your concerns. 1. Purchase Cost
Home Purchase Loan
How badly do you want to own a home? What would you be willing to give up to achieve the American dream? Discover what sacrifices recent homebuyers made to purchase their homes, and whether they see the acquisition as a worthwhile investment.
Your credit history is an important factor in getting your mortgage approved.
You may not need to make a down payment of 20% but putting together the down payment is still one of the most challenging steps in buying a home. Check out our infographic above to see what obstacles other recent homebuyers faced in trying to save for their down payments.
The smaller the down
Affordable Housing? What Affordable Housing? Affordable housing is increasingly hard to find in today’s market. According to data from Trulia, America’s inventory of starter homes has decreased by almost half compared to six years ago while prices rose by almost 58%.
As consumers recovered from the housing crisis and Great Recession, more people became financially
A student loan can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. It can lead to an advanced degree that leads to a better job with higher pay and superior benefits. It can also be a millstone of debt keeping you from fulfilling other life goals – such as owning a home.
A recent
Buying a home will probably be the most expensive item you ever purchase… until you buy the next one! MoneyTips is happy to help you get free mortgage and refinance quotes from top lenders.
Finding the right home at the right price is always a challenge. Discover how other American homebuyers searched for – and
It Will Cost You More to Buy A Home The housing market topped a new threshold over the past week. Buoyed by a strong economy and a series of interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve, thirty-year fixed mortgage interest rates reached 4.61% – the highest number since May of 2011.
Rates crossed the 4%
Welcome to the 2018 home-buying market. Rising demand and an extremely tight supply of homes, especially in the critical starter-home market, make it difficult to realize your goal of home ownership.
In this buyer’s market, you’ll need two important things to land your dream home – more money and a higher credit score.
Data from
We know the stereotype of the unmotivated millennial, living at home with their parents without any long-term plan or concern about their situation. Is that a fair representation? Do millennials disproportionately live with their parents? If so, is this from necessity, lack of motivation, or part of a grander strategy?
It’s logical that younger generations
Home ownership is a fulfilling but difficult goal. The challenges of being single can make it even more difficult to find an affordable home to buy – especially for single women.
According to data provided by Zillow, the typical single American requires almost eleven years to save up a suitable down payment for a home
Subprime Loans are Back Since the housing crisis began over a decade ago, subprime mortgage loans basically disappeared – thanks to regulatory actions from government and self-preservation for both lenders and borrowers. The effects of borrowing more than you could safely afford to repay became obvious to all parties.
Subprime mortgage loans have been making
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That’s sound advice for almost all aspects of life, including the search for mortgage relief services.
Distressed homeowners don’t have to resort to third-party mortgage services. Free counseling is available at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD programs such as the
Help the Renters, Too For years, cities have struggled to help lower-income Americans find affordable housing. Many housing assistance programs approach this problem through making home mortgages more affordable. However, a new test program in Montana addresses an underserved area of the housing market – affordable rental homes – by making loans to help people
In the wake of the housing crisis, it became significantly harder to get a jumbo mortgage due to the risk factors involved. Jumbo mortgages have been making a comeback since then, but they now face a different style of threat – disincentives for high-end homeownership created by the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Are you preparing to enter the housing market in 2018? Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, 2018 is likely to be a year of both challenges and opportunities. Our crystal ball is just as cloudy as everyone else’s these days, but based on recent trends and events, we can make a few predictions for
Going over the fine print of a mortgage offer is about as enjoyable as a poke in the eye – or maybe both eyes. Even so, it’s important to ensure that any contractual offer that you make on a home has just the right terms you need before proceeding through the home-buying process. Consider these
There’s no shortage of data on America’s housing market. Analysts constantly review new and existing home sales, building permits, available housing units, and other metrics to gauge the health of the market and to assess its likely direction. ATTOM Data Solutions, a national property data warehouse with information on 150 million U.S. properties, adds another
For the unprepared, the mortgage process can be a whirlwind of unfamiliar terms and procedures followed by stacks of confusing paperwork. Were you truly ready for the process when you bought your first home – or, if you are a prospective first-time homebuyer, are you ready now?
A recent survey by FREEandCLEAR suggests that while
What is the best day of the month to close on your mortgage? Not everyone will have the same answer to that question, as it depends on your specific mortgage situation.
Many homebuyers consider the end of the month to be the best time to close. Data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR)
By Kelly Hartog
Is there anyone this side of a Supreme Court Justice who hasn’t signed off on a document without reading or understanding every single word and Latin phrase? When it comes to buying a house, it pays to know the phrase “lis pendens”.
A lis pendens is the Latin term for a Notice
Are the holidays not hectic enough for you? Put aside your gift list for a moment; how about adding a home sale to your to-do list?
Most people avoid selling their homes during the holidays, but you may not have any choice in the matter. If you need to sell your home around the end
Moving during the holidays can be a headache with all the seasonal activities and obligations – not to mention unpleasant weather in many locations. However, there are plenty of positives to buying a home during the holidays that may make the headaches of moving worth the effort, including the seven listed below.
1. Less Competition
Stocks Outpace Housing Few can argue that the stock market has experienced great growth under President Trump. The “Trump Bump” consists of an approximate 20% increase in both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 during the President’s first year in office.
Does the same Trump Bump translate to the housing market? A recent study by
If you are attempting to buy a home on a low or intermediate income, you need every bit of help that you can get. Mortgage credit certificates are one of the lesser-known ways that the federal government can help.
A mortgage credit certificate (MCC) is essentially a form of tax savings. The mortgage interest that
Home sellers and their agents may be limiting their potential base of buyers by ignoring a growing pool of them.
Inside Mortgage Finance recently noted that loans acquired through the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department are rapidly increasing, reaching a holding level of one-quarter of primary insured home loans. This tops the number of loans backed
Veteran’s Administration (VA) loans are invaluable for homebuyers. Their advantages include little or no money down, qualifying with a lower credit score, competitive interest rates, potentially lower closing and auxiliary costs, and no private mortgage insurance requirements.
VA loans are administered through approved lending institutions, and backed through an entitlement of up to $36,000. This
Congratulations! You’ve been pre-approved for a mortgage loan on your dream home. You made it past many hurdles, but be careful – you haven’t completed the race just yet.
The wrong actions after your pre-approval process can cause the lender to re-think the amount of risk that you present and lead them to back out
Electronic closing of a mortgage loan has been around for years – in a manner of speaking. Generally, some element of the transaction still requires traditional methods such as the physical presence of a notary public or signing of original documents in ink. Most, if not all, of the parties involved are still in the
When you are shopping for a home mortgage, you will probably be given the opportunity to “lock in” an interest rate when you are initially approved for your loan. This enables you to fix the interest rate you’re quoted upon loan approval for a limited period of time.
Mortgage interest rates can be volatile, changing
Americans love their dogs. According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), approximately 78 million dogs are owned as pets in America – or perhaps it’s better to say that 78 million dogs own at least one American. Around 44% of all American households have at least one dog, and, according to the APPA, 35%