Borrowing costs were cheaper this week, as mortgage rates continued inching down. “The U.S. economy remains on solid ground, inflation is contained, and the threat of higher short-term rates is fading from view, which has allowed mortgage rates to drift down to their lowest level in 10 months,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “This is great news for consumers who will be looking for homes during the upcoming spring homebuy
As rate hikes ease and growth in home prices slow, Americans are gradually becoming more confident about their purchasing power in the real estate market, according to Fannie Mae’s newest monthly consumer housing survey. And though this shift is relatively small now, economists are hopeful that it foreshadows a larger, more positive turn in consumer sentiment.The share of Americans who say now is a good time to buy a home increased 4 percentage
Women have grown more powerful as a homebuying force over the last few decades, and they tend to take on more financial risk than their male counterparts, according to a new report from personal finance website SmartAsset. In 348 of 402 metros analyzed by SmartAsset, women had a larger loan-to-income ratio than men.SmartAsset ranked the places where women are buying the most homes by looking at the percentage of mortgages approved for women and c
Seniors choosing to age in place—staying put in their current homes—are creating a barrier to young adults buying their first homes, according to Freddie Mac’s February Insight. About 1.6 million existing homes are being held off the market due to seniors’ decision to age in place and remain in their current home, the report notes.Researchers note that those 1.6 million units are roughly the same as the number of new single-family an
Homeowners should have felt richer in 2018. Equity rich properties comprised 25.6 percent of U.S. properties with a mortgage in 2018, according to a newly released report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate research firm.In the fourth quarter, more than 14.5 million U.S. properties were considered equity rich, where the combined estimated amount of loans secured by the property was 50 percent or less of the property’s estimated market valu
Luxury home shoppers can have high expectations for what they want in a home. “The higher the price point, the more features buyers expect and that desire intensifies,” says Alec Traub, a real estate professional with Redfin in Los Angeles.Many of these high-end homes share some traits. Redfin recently highlighted some of the top amenities it's noticing on more luxury shoppers’ wish lists, including:Greater privacy: Buyers purchas
Demand for housing is picking up and housing analysts are pointing to lower mortgage rates as the main reason. The spring buying season may be coming early.In Coppell, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, real estate pros reported a traffic jam of buyers lined up on the front stairway to get into an open house.“It kind of caught us a little bit off-guard,” Laura Barnett, a real estate professional with RE/MAX DFW Associates in the Dallas area, told CNB
More young adults are still living with their parents and not branching out on their own, and that could have a long-term, negative impact to their finances, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. Researchers found there is no long-term advantage financially for young adults who live with their parents.The share of young adults aged 25 to 34 who live with their parents rose from nearly 12 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2017.The tren
Investors are taking on bigger projects and finding an increasing appetite for flipped high-end homes.In 2018, 2.6 percent of homes valued at over $1 million were flipped, compared to 2.2 percent in 2017, according to data from realtor.com®. Realtor.com® analyzed markets where at least 20 flipped homes sold for more than $1 million from January to October 2018. They defined flip as a home that sold twice for a profit within a year.The markets s
Homeowners can become “noseblind” to their home’s own smell, and that could be problematic when putting the home up for sale. After all, the smell of a property can have a big influence on buyers’ perceptions of the home. And no one wants to have the smelly house.Noseblindness happens when a nose detects an odor but determines it’s no longer an annoyance. It then shuts down receptors for that smell. As such, a lingering smell no longer
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