The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage continued to move higher this week, now averaging 3.05%, Freddie Mac reports.“It looks like rates in the 2% range are over while current mortgage rates will likely be the lowest,” Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting at the National Association of REALTORS®, writes on the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog. “Since the pandemic struck our country one year earlier, year-over-ye
Cash-out refinances are on the upswing, to the likes of numbers that haven’t been seen since the financial crisis. But economists say they aren’t concerned—at least yet. After all, home prices are still rising. During the financial crisis, home prices started to drop.Cash-out refis surged 42% year over year in 2020, according to Freddie Mac’s data. Homeowners cashed out $152.7 billion in home equity last year, the highest level since 2007
Home prices have surged to double-digit percentage gains over the past year, which means home buyers are having to either bring more to the closing table or borrow more. They’re doing both.Down payments are at record highs, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ fourth quarter 2020 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report. The median down payment on a single-family home and condo purchased with financing in the fourth quarter of 2020
A home often represents about 90% of the total wealth of a household. Homeownership often has long been pointed to as a way to build wealth over the long run. It also could help narrow racial income and wealth inequity gaps, writes Gay Cororaton, senior economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, at the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog.But how much wealth potential can you gain over time? Cororaton offers the following scenari
About 28.6 million baby boomers retired in the third quarter of 2020 alone, according to Pew Research Center data. Some Americans are retiring earlier than they originally intended to due to the COVID-19 pandemic.That has prompted a growing number of new retirees to seek out the perfect place to ride out their golden years in retirement—and Florida isn’t the only place they’re targeting.“Retirees might be able to cash out pretty significa
Home buyers may not be happy: The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped the 3% threshold, averaging 3.02% this week, Freddie Mac reports. Despite the uptick, economists note that mortgage rates remain near historical lows.Since reaching an all-time low in January, mortgage rates have risen by more than 30 basis points, “and the impact on purchase demand has been noticeable,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “While purchase act
In Denver, real estate pros are reporting that some listings are seeing more than 100 showings in one weekend and are then receiving more than 20 offers. Buyers are being told to expect going 20% above the list price if they want a home. Markets across the country are reporting the same.The spring homebuying season is expected to be fierce for house hunters.Here’s the reason: More than 200,000 new listings have been absent from the U.
The drive-thru lane is growing in demand during the pandemic among commercial spaces as more restaurants find it the perfect socially distanced workaround to continue to conduct business. Many restaurants have had limits on seating capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak, which has led them to turn to their drive-thru business to keep sales high.As a result, commercial spaces that offer drive-thru lanes are a particularly hot commodity. A
Financing and appraisals are the culprits causing the most delays in home sales or terminated contracts, according to the latest REALTORS® Confidence Index survey.With little supply on the market, homes are continuing to sell quickly—typically within 21 days—and are garnering an average of nearly four competing offers, according to the report. Home prices have been rising by double-digit percentages over the past year, which could help expla
A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium is unconstitutional, a decision that could set legal precedent and have a sweeping effect on housing providers across the country. Under the moratorium, which President Joe Biden has extended through March, housing providers cannot evict tenants who can prove financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.U.S. District Judge John C
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