As homes age, more homeowners are looking to remodeling to spruce up their properties. Of the nation’s stock of 137 million units, nearly 80% are at least 20 years old, and 40% are at least 50 years old.Freddie Mac says its new mortgage product is to help home buyers finance or refinance fixer-uppers. Eligible buyers will be able to finance the purchase of their home and the cost of renovations into a single-close mortgage.“Research indicates
Lower mortgage rates are proving to be a boon for home shoppers this summer. The 30-year fixed-rate loan has stayed near a 3.8% average for the third consecutive week, after consistent declines in late spring.“While the continued drop in mortgage rates has paused, home buyer demand has not,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “This is evident in increased purchase activity and loan amounts, indicating that home buyers still h
Google is the latest tech giant to make a big financial pledge for easing housing affordability.This week, Google announced a pledge of $1 billion in land and money to build homes to help ease the housing crisis in the East Bay area. Google officials estimate that the fund the company will make to repurpose land could potentially add at least 20,000 homes in the Bay Area.“We hope this plays a role in addressing the chronic s
A mortgage may be Americans’ biggest amount of debt, but they view it as the best type to have. Americans with mortgages have the highest level of life satisfaction than those with other forms of debt, such as medical, student loan, or credit card debt. The findings come from the Ascent team by The Motley Fool, who surveyed more than 1,000 Americans with debt to learn more about the psychological impact of debt.Consumer debt has been on the ris
Living on a beach is the dream to many homeowners. But for many, the high cost keeps them from ever making it a reality.However, you don’t need seven figures in your bank balance to buy in some beach towns. Realtor.com®’s research team analyzed the nation’s largest metro areas with the highest share of listings with keywords such as “beach,” “beachfront,” and “ocean.” They also factored in the number of water activities fo
Some would-be home buyers may be able to afford the monthly payments of a mortgage, but they can’t scrape up enough money for the down payment. More than 2,500 government assistance programs nationwide are offering help, and more buyers are taking advantage of the aid.More than 13% of borrowers who used Federal Housing Administration mortgages in the first three months of this year used government assistance for their down payment, up from
Women tend to be less aware of their mortgage options when applying for a loan than men, and that may be causing women to pay thousands of dollars more, according to a new LendingTree study, which tracked Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data.First-time buyers and repeat borrowers who are women reported being less familiar with all aspects of the mortgage process. Male and female first-time buyers show the largest disparaties when it comes to
Home buyers are reaping some of the lowest borrowing costs in years this buying season. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged from last week at 3.82%, which matched last week for the lowest average since September 2017.“Mortgage rates were mostly unchanged from last week due to easing of trade tensions with Mexico, which helped stabilize markets,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “These historically low ra
Participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are ineligible for mortgages from the Federal Housing Administration, a Housing and Urban Development official confirmed in a letter this week, ending recent uncertainty on the issue.President Barack Obama had started the DACA program on June 15, 2012, during his presidency in a move to prevent the deportation of children of immigrants to the U.S. About 800,000 people are par
Many Americans have not fully recovered financially from the Great Recession, more than a decade later.Nearly 48% of Americans who were adults when the downturn first began in December 2007 say they have seen no improvement in their financial situation since then, according to a newly released Bankrate survey based on responses from more than 2,700 consumers. One in four respondents—or 25%—say their overall financial situation is about the sa
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