Finance - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Are At-Risk Homeowners Better Off Selling?

Pandemic-related mortgage forbearance programs are expiring, but hundreds of thousands of homeowners continue to struggle with payments. When loan modifications still don’t help, owners may find themselves at risk of foreclosure. But selling the home, which is likely to have accumulated a lot of equity over the past year, may be a much better option.However, it’s an option that may be getting overlooked. After all, nearly a third of borrowers

Read More

10 Cities with the Lowest Cost of Living

If consumer surveys hold true that Americans are indeed more willing to move to find affordable places to live, certain locales within the U.S. may hold the most promise and be poised for growth.Move.org, a moving resource company, analyzed the 74 most populous cities and ranked them based on how high their monthly living costs are and calculated the city’s median income. The average median individual income across the 74 cities is $33,749

Read More

Home Goods that are Getting Pricier, Harder to Find

Supply chain woes have been hitting the housing market, affecting appliances, windows, paint, and other items needed to build, repair, or improve home. That has driven prices higher.New-home buyers have felt the pinch: The median sales price for a new home in October was $407,700, up 17.5% compared to the same time a year ago, according to realtor.com® data. Builders point to higher material costs, as well as labor and lot shortages.The blame fo

Read More

Has 2021 been a $2 Trillion Year?

The booming real estate market is on a pace to shatter records this year. The real estate data firm CoreLogic reports that the total value of residential real estate transactions in 2021’s second quarter topped $600 billion for the third time in the past year. That puts the market on track for a record-breaking year, CoreLogic says.“The value of transactions has skyrocketed despite sales volumes continuing a relatively normal growth trend,”

Read More

2022 Outlook for Home Sales, Prices in Largest US Cities

As the latest coronavirus variant remains a wild card for the housing market, real estate experts are still predicting a mostly lively year for home sales in markets across the country.However, home shoppers may find some relief for escalating home prices, which have been trending with double-digit increases over the past year. Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, said earlier this week in a housing report that

Read More

Mortgage Lending Drops Sharply in Third Quarter

Mortgage lending declined at an unusually fast pace across the country during the third quarter, according to a newly released report from ATTOM Data Solutions on mortgage originations. The percentage of mortgages secured by a residential property in the third quarter slipped by 8% compared to the second quarter, the largest quarterly dip in more than a year, researchers note. This also marked the first time in any year since at least 2000 that l

Read More

Higher Mortgage Loan Limits Set for 2022

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday that conforming loan limits for mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will jump in most of the country to $647,200, an increase of $98,950 from 2021’s limit of $548,250. The higher levels are in response to rising home prices over the past year.The FHFA’s House Price Index shows that home prices rose 18.05%, on average, between the third quarters of 2020 and 2021. The 2022 conformi

Read More

5 Housing Trends to Watch in 2022

Home sales and home prices likely will moderate from recent highs in the new year, but economists expect the hot housing market to continue nonetheless.A competitive seller’s market is likely to stick around in 2022, but economists believe buyers may see better opportunities. Still, housing affordability challenges will persist, they say.“Americans are poised for a whirlwind year of home buying in 2022,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’

Read More

Mobile Home Values and Demand Rising Fast

As mobile homes attract the attention of buyers facing tight inventory and rising prices, demand for them has been rising rapidly—and their prices have been following.Over a five-year period, the median value of mobile homes rose more quickly in 27 states than the median value of single-family homes, a new study from LendingTree shows.The nationwide median value of a mobile home is $53,300. While that is still nearly $190,000 less than the medi

Read More

10 Opportunity Zones with Highest Price Hikes

Investors are seeing early benefits to their opportunity zone investments: Median single-family and condo prices are increasing in the majority of nationwide opportunity zones—by 62%, according to a third-quarter report released by ATTOM Data Solutions. Prices increased by at least 20% annually in nearly half of the zones.Opportunity zones, established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, were created to help revitalize low-income

Read More

This website includes images sourced from third party websites including Adobe, Getty Images, and as otherwise noted.