A strong job market and consumer credit are driving up mortgage rates for the third consecutive week and now to their highest level in six weeks. Mortgage rates are 0.82 percent higher than a year ago—the largest year-over-year increase since May 2014, Freddie Mac reports.Despite the higher rates, Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, expects buyer demand to remain high. “This spectacular stretch of solid job gains and low unemployment
More lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender couples are purchasing homes since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage more than three years ago, according to the second annual LGBT Real Estate Report produced by the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals. Nearly 50 percent of NAGLREP members reported an increase in married LGBT couples buying homes. Further, 41 percent of the real estate professio
Hurricane Florence is churning off the East Coast, threatening to slam the Carolinas and Virginia with high winds and catastrophic flooding as early as Thursday afternoon. More than 10 million people in the storm’s path have been ordered to evacuate. Meteorologists predict the eye of the hurricane to come ashore Friday afternoon near the North Carolina-South Carolina border.Nearly 759,000 homes are in the storm’s path, and hurricane winds and
Rental fraud is growing, costing landlords thousands, a new survey from Forrester Consulting and TransUnion finds. The majority of property management companies recently surveyed say they’ve been affected by rental fraud, but they lack the resources to combat it.“Working closely with property management companies for the last few decades, it was apparent to us that the prevalence of fraud was rising in the rental industry,” says Mike Doher
The first step buyers most often take in their home shopping pursuit is to check up on financing and to make sure they can even afford a home, according to a new survey of 1,000 recent buyers. The survey was commissioned by loanDepot and mellohome, a real estate services provider. The majority of these customers—nearly 74 percent—sought financing first in their home buying journey before looking at homes. For first-time buyers, that percenta
Buying and selling real estate can be an emotionally-charged venture, especially when it involves property that belonged to a family member who's recently passed away. It’s up to the real estate professional to provide guidance to clients who are making important decisions regarding what’s usually the biggest asset in an estate—the home.But it’s not always straightforward. Take the recent death of legendary singer-songwriter Aretha Frankl
Younger Americans are waiting longer to get married, and the industry has been concerned that the tendency will lead to a delay in homeownership too. But Toll Brothers CEO Douglas C. Yearley says the delay in getting hitched could actually be good for housing. In an interview with CNBC, Yearley predicts more millennials will be able to afford high-end homes, a segment of the market that Toll Brothers is focused on.“We know they’re marrying
Homes for sale are not lingering on the market for long. Properties typically on the market sold for 27 days, shorter than the 30-day median from a year ago, according to the July 2018 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey.The area that saw some of the quickest sales in July was the District of Columbia, where properties sold in just 17 days. Utah was next with 19 days, followed by Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, South Dakota, and Washington, all
Hurricane Florence, still a dangerous Category 4 storm, is threatening to strike the Carolinas and Virginia on late Thursday, with warnings of life-threatening storm surges, destructive winds estimated at 130 mph, massive inland rainfall, and flooding. Weather forecasters are warning that Florence could be one of the strongest strikes on record for this area of the East Coast.Three states lie in its path for a direct hit: North Carolina, South Ca
More buyers are bypassing big, established banks and turning to a growing subset of specialized lenders to obtain a mortgage.Last year, a “nonbank” called Freedom Mortgage originated $51.1 billion in home loans, more than Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., according to research from business news publication Inside Mortgage Finance. Freedom has risen from being the 78th largest mortgage lender in the U.S. in 2012 to the 11th largest
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