Homeowners are less likely to get a rude awakening when going through the mortgage process, according to the latest Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index. Owners’ perception of home values are now the closest to being in line with appraisers’ than in more than three years.In April, appraised values were just 0.33 percent lower than what homeowners expected. Further, only five of the 27 metro areas analyzed in the index had appraisals lowe
Mortgage rates dropped last week, but that didn’t seem to push homeowners or home buyers to take advantage. Total mortgage applications—for home purchases and refinances—dropped 0.4 percent for the week. Volume is now 6 percent lower than a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.Refinance applications, which tend to be the most rate-sensitive, dropped 1 percent last week and are now 18 percent lower than a year ago. M
Optimism for selling a home has helped propel a housing confidence index by Fannie Mae to an all-time high last month. Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index rose 3.4 points in April to a record 91.7. Last month’s survey posted increases in five of six components that set out to measure Americans’ perceptions of the housing market. Consumers were also upbeat about home prices, job security, and their own personal finances.“The lates
Just when the signs were pointing to a slowing rental market, landlords are finding that demand is warranting higher prices. Rents are posting the highest annual growth rates since the end of 2016, according to a new analysis of 250 of the largest U.S. cities by RentCafe, a nationwide listing service for the apartment sector. Rents are up 3.2 percent year over year, and the national average rent was $1,377 in April.Rental costs rose in 84 percent
Where are the next urban powerhouses? Realtor.com® researchers are betting on a handful of smaller cities to become red-hot, following in the steps of Seattle; Nashville, Tenn.; and Austin, Texas. Those cities once were known as secondary markets but have soared to primary status in recent years. “We’ll see small cities continue to be growth centers,” says Chris Porter, chief demographer at John Burns Real Estate Consulting. “A lot of
A growing number of lending programs are helping homeowners pay the upfront costs of solar panels. One lender, Guild Mortgage, an independent lender, recently announced a program that allows home buyers to lump the costs of solar panels into an FHA loan. California residents will be the first to have access to the program. Guild Mortgage’s FHA Solar program follows Federal Housing Administration loan requirements and offers down payment o
The number of homeowners behind on their mortgage is slowing. At the end of the first quarter, more than 5.2 million properties were seriously underwater, which means the combined balance of the loans secured by the property was at least 25 percent higher than the property’s estimated market value. That marks the smallest year-over-year drop since ATTOM Data Solutions began tracking such data in the first quarter of 2013.Read more: Equity-Rich
It’s common advice for buyers to obtain a mortgage preapproval letter from a lender before going out with a real estate agent to look at homes. The rationale is that preapproval puts in writing the loan amount a buyer is qualified to receive, all but guaranteeing the price range the buyer can afford. Agents can then be reassured they are not wasting time on a client whose financing is likely to fall through.Well, that’s flawed thinking.A prea
Many buyers are offering more than the asking price on properties undergoing bidding wars, but when the appraisal reveals the true market value of the home, they may find they’ve agreed to pay too much. Home sales commonly fall through when a property appraises for less than the price the buyer offers; the seller may be unwilling to accept a lower offer, and the buyer may decide the deal isn’t worth it.Appraisal issues are still one of the mo
After mortgage rates rose for most of April, they dropped slightly in the kickoff to May. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped three basis points to average 4.55 percent.“While mortgage rates have increased by one-half of a percentage point so far this year, it has not impacted home purchase demand, which continues to grow this spring,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The observed buyer resiliency in the face of higher
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