With steep competition, some buyers are scrambling to come up with larger down payments to gain a competitive edge.“In many purchase situations, there are multiple offers, and the buyers who have the bigger down payment are more likely to win out,” Daren Blomquist, ATTOM Data Solutions’ senior vice president, told The Wall Street Journal.The median down payment for home purchases that were financed in the third quarter of 2017 soared to a
The winter off-peak period may be the best time for investors to snag a deal on a single-family rental property.Single-family rental investors paid 6.6 percent less per square foot on the same property during the winter of 2017/2018 than they did during the spring and summer buying season of 2017, according to a new analysis released by HomeUnion, an online real estate investment and management firm.“For the second year in a row, our study fo
Mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced programs to provide long-term financing at competitive interest rates that could encourage more investors to acquire single-family rental properties, the National Real Estate Investor reports.“Folks who dipped their toes in the market in 2015 or early 2016 and bought one or two single-family rentals are now buying more,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of property
You should be chasing the buyers named Dylan, Chelsea, Austin, Alexandra, and Taylor. Those were the first names of millennials who were most likely to buy a home in 2017, according to a new analysis of more than 4 million home sales by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.On the other hand, Generation X and older buyers with the first names Gerald, Kristin, Stanley, Kurt, and Jaime had the biggest decreases in home sales last year.Not s
Fewer retirees own their home free and clear, as 32 percent of homeowners ages 60 to 70 say it will take them more than another eight years to pay off their mortgage, according to American Financing’s Retirement and Mortgages survey.However, many say they intend to age in place, with 64 percent indicating they plan to remain in their current home. Seventy-one percent say they would prefer to make home renovations rather than move, even if a hea
The majority of buyers who obtained a mortgage last year made a down payment of less than 20 percent, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. The median down payment in 2017 was 10 percent, according to the report.The bulk of buyers’ down payments came from their personal savings, but a fraction also came from the sales proceeds of a previous residence or assistance from family or friends
Luxury homes sold at a slower pace in 2017, as more properties in the high-end market were put up for sale, according to a new realtor.com® report. The number of million-dollar listings grew by an average of 3.9 percent.Luxury properties—defined as those with a sales price in the top 5 percentile—took 5.4 percent longer to sell in 2017 than in 2016, spending an average of 116 days on the market. Prices of luxury homes also increased 5.1 perc
Borrowers kicked off 2018 with a mortgage rate drop. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now down a quarter of a percentage point from a year ago.“Treasury yields fell from a week ago, helping to drive mortgage rates down to start the year,” says Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell four basis points from a week ago to 3.95 percent in the year’s first survey. Despite increases in short
For the first time since 2004, the renter population decreased, according to the Annual Rent Report from ABODO, an apartment listing service. Still, renters continue to outpace owners, according to the report.There are about 43 million renters in the U.S., which is more than a third of U.S. households, according to a report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.Despite the decrease in renters in 2017, landlords continue t
The recent tax bill could cause the Federal Reserve’s rate increases to come faster—mortgage rates are expected to go up three or four times in 2018. This could push 30-year mortgage rates up past 4 percent in the new year.Mortgage rates typically follow the Treasury yield. The federal funds rate sets the stage for the path mortgages will take. The Mortgage Bankers Association forecasts that mortgage rates will go up, but will stay below 5 p
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