With home prices mostly holding to an upward trend, more owners are facing rising mortgage costs. But even so, homeowners are still paying less in mortgage payments than they did in 2006 and 2007, when mortgage costs peaked, according to research from real estate data firm CoreLogic.The typical mortgage payment nationwide in June rose 15.1 percent year over year, according to the report. On a metro level, increases in mortgage payments ranged fro
Vinyl siding and stucco were the most common exterior materials used on new homes last year, according to the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction report. Vinyl siding was used on 27 percent of new homes in 2017, followed by stucco at 25 percent, brick or brick veneer at 21 percent, and fiber cement siding at 20 percent. Stone, rock, or other stone materials were used on just 1 percent of homes.The materials used can vary quite a bit by regio
Over the past 12 months, agents credited social media for bringing them the highest number of quality leads, topping other methods such as their MLS sites, brokerage websites, and listing aggregators, according to the National Association of RELATORS®’ 2018 Technology Survey, a survey of more than 2,500 real estate professionals.Many real estate pros cite social media as offering some of the highest quality leads. But they aren’t quite in
It’s common advice to freeze your credit information when cybersecurity breaches potentially put your personal financial data into the hands of criminals who seek to exploit it. However, the three major credit-reporting agencies have routinely charged a fee to put that credit freeze in place—except in the handful of states that forbid such payments. Now all of that has changed.A federal law signed in May by President Donald Trump requires cre
For the fourth consecutive week, mortgage rates continued to climb as home buyers face higher borrowing costs.“Mortgage rates are drifting upwards again and represent continued affordability challenges for prospective buyers—especially first-time buyers,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Borrowing costs are moving right now for three main reasons: the very strong economy, higher U.S. government debt issuances, and global
With higher home prices, homeowners keep getting richer. Homeowners with a mortgage have seen the equity in their home rise by 12.3 percent year-over-year, according to CoreLogic’s newly released Home Equity Report for the second quarter. The average homeowner has gained $16,200 in home equity between the second quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018.Home equity rose in nearly every state in the country in the second quarter. Western st
As home prices continue to rise, homeowners are finding they’re sitting on record amounts of home equity. People have mostly been shy about tapping into that wealth—but a new survey Bankrate.com survey of 1,000 consumers shows they have plenty of reasons they may want to take out a loan to unlock it.Consumers’ “growing penchant toward debt might make it tempting to tap into their home’s value,” says Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief fi
Builders worked to add more single-family homes to many inventory-starved markets last month. Housing starts nationwide climbed 9.2 percent in August, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.28 million units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.Broken out, single-family starts rose 1.9 percent to 876,000 units, while the multifamily sector—which includes apartment buildings and condos—accounted for the biggest part of the uptic
Luxury housing markets continue to climb, as 20 major counties post double-digit gains in home prices, according to realtor.com®’s 2018 Luxury Home Index, released today. The number of sales at or above $1 million climbed 6 percent over the last year. Realtor.com® defines the luxury price tier as the top 5 percent of residential sales.Two-thirds of luxury housing markets are seeing inventory move faster than a year ago, according to the rep
More spiders will likely be building their webs inside homes this fall. The arachnids from gardens and backyards often creep inside when the weather turns colder. But they also may already be there and just more willing to show themselves in the fall to homeowners.Homeowner Nicole Photianos in Georgia’s Paulding County told WSB-TV 2 that when she moved into her new home she found dozens of venomous brown recluse spiders all over the house. Even
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