Tag Archives: housing market

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For Bigger Homebuying Value, Look in These Smaller Markets

With fixed mortgage rates rising by more than a full percentage point since May and more likely to go higher than lower, homes are becoming significantly less affordable for those not buying with cash. That means homebuyers still trying to take advantage of still-low mortgage rates might have to set their sights a little lower when shopping for what they can afford.

Here’s a look at seven smaller housing markets that would be quite affordable for those who don’t have to live in a major metro area.

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Suze Orman Changes Homebuying Advice

Now that we are seeing a rebound in the housing market, it is time for a new home buying strategy says Suze Orman. “Financial advice needs to change according to what is happening in the economy,” she says.

In today’s economy, with interest rates still low, relatively speaking, and home prices leveling out, Orman says potential homebuyers no longer need to make a down payment of 20 percent. “I’m fine if you can get a mortgage with 10 percent down,” says Orman.

Read more of her advice…

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Will The Mortgage Rate Spike Slow Market Recovery?

Thoughts

Have you been watching mortgage rates rise the past few months and wonder what that means for the housing market? So have a lot of other people!

Find out when mortgage rates are likely to bite and what other factors are influencing the current market nationwide.

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Repeat Buyers, Backbone of Housing Recovery

The growing ranks of repeat home buyers are helping to drive the housing recovery, making up for the dwindling numbers of first-time buyers.

Repeat home buyers accounted for 54 percent of existing-home sales in June, up from 49 percent just one year prior, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Meanwhile, first-time buyers — who usually account for 40 percent of the market share — shrank to 29 percent in June. A lack of lower-priced homes and strict lending requirements are edging more first-time buyers out of the market.

“What we’re seeing are these buyers who’ve waited around and who have finally realized this is a good time to move,” says David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. “They will feed the demand until our economy gets a little more solid.”

The article…

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After months of rising prices, is the Puget Sound housing market cooling off?

 Komo 4 Video

The housing headlines have been screaming all spring and summer about how home buyers have been pushing prices up in King County.

There have been bidding wars for some Seattle-area homes, and median home prices are up 15 percent over a year ago.

Around Lake Sammamish, home prices are back up to peak levels set in 2007. In West Seattle, homes in some turn-of-the-century neighborhoods have been selling for up to $650,000 or more. And in other areas, sellers are getting 10 or 20 offers on a single property.

But now it’s beginning to appear that the price and pace of sales may be cooling off in the Puget Sound housing market.

Watch the KOMOnews…

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Surprising Foreclosure Hot Spots

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While housing markets across the country are recovering from the deepest throes of the foreclosure crisis, others are just stumbling into it — and they aren’t exactly the places you’d expect.

States like Maryland, Oregon and New Jersey, which maintained relatively stable markets after the housing bubble popped, saw new foreclosure filings climb by double- and triple-digit percentages in July, according to RealtyTrac.

Read more…

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The President Moves on Housing Reform

With the great housing reform debate underway, the White House recently weighed in with President Obama’s plan for the future of housing finance in America. The President laid out a vision for housing finance, with key elements similar to those embraced by many stakeholders in the nation’s housing finance system. This is an issue that affects the well-being of every American, whether a homeowner or a renter, and we welcome the President’s attention and leadership.

Read more…

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3 Multiple Personality Market Musts for Smart Sellers

In the dramatic world of the theater, they say “it ain’t over ‘till the fat lady sings.“ In the dramatic world of the real estate market, headlines touting multiple offers and appreciating home values can feel like a premature declaration that the recession is over to some homeowners.

As you’ve probably heard a million times, real estate is hyperlocal. And it’s true – in many, many markets across the country, a mood of exuberant recovery has eclipsed the recession era’s stagnation, doom and gloom.  But the fat lady hasn’t sung for the 10 million homeowners who are still upside down on their mortgages, according to CoreLogic, or for sellers whose homes aren’t following the national trend of flying off the market  after receiving dozens of contingency-free, cash offers.

Here are a few multiple personality market musts for smart sellers…

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The U.S. Housing Market and Its Huge Geographic Differences

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The U.S. housing market can no longer be painted with one brush, as the housing recovery is playing out very differently across the country. Here are some anecdotes gleaned from a consulting team…

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Jobs Market Not Helping Housing

Neighborhood at Sunset

The housing recovery is juicing the jobs market, but the jobs market isn’t returning the favor, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.

Riding on rising home sales, residential construction employment has shot up 4.5 percent year over year, far outpacing the national employment growth rate of 1.7 percent, he said.

But a high unemployment rate is holding back housing demand, Kolko noted, saying 25 to 34-year-olds in particular are suffering from the still-weak jobs climate, with only 75 percent of that cohort employed.

Read more…