Finance - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Homes Owned by Blacks are Undervalued by $156B

Residential property owned by black Americans has been greatly undervalued, a newly released joint Brookings Institution and Gallup study suggests. Homes in majority-black neighborhoods consistently sell or are appraised for lower prices, by an average of $48,000 per home, researchers found. That amounts to $156 billion in cumulative losses nationwide.Homes of similar value with similar features are valued at 23 percent less in majority-black ne

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Home Buyers, Sellers May Have Tough Road Ahead

Rising mortgage rates and home prices may prove a bigger thorn to home buyers in 2019 as buying a home gets more expensive in the new year. Meanwhile, as more homeowners list their homes, sellers will face greater competition, possibly increasing the need for concessions.Mortgage rates are forecast to reach 5.5 percent by the end of the year, and monthly mortgage payments will increase 8 percent. That could put homeownership more out of reach to

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Where Debt-Ridden Consumers Are Still Buying Homes

Household debt levels have reached a record high of $13.5 trillion this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Many of these financial woes are from housing.“Escalating rises in real estate prices are causing more consumers to be stretched,” Eric Tyson, co-author of Mortgages for Dummies, told realtor.com®. “In the years ahead, we could reach the point where it really puts a lid on future price appreciation.”Realtor.co

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Most Young Adults Prioritize Home Ownership Over Marriage

When asked about life priorities, millennials name homeownership as their second-highest goal behind retirement—and before marriage and having children, according to Bank of America’s 2018 Homebuyer Insight Report. Seventy-two percent of millennials say owning a home is their top priority, while 50 percent pointed to marriage and 44 percent to having children.“Millennials are redefining life’s priorities by placing homeownership above ne

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25 Richest Counties in the U.S.

Teton County, Wyo., is the richest county in the United States, where residents earn an average income that is 10 times higher than those who live in the poorest county, Hayes County, Neb., according to a new analysis from personal finance website SmartAsset. Residents in Teton County, which is home to Grand Teton National Park, earn an average $214,800 annually, most of which comes from real estate investments.“The counties whose well-heeled,

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Plan to Reduce Human Appraisals May Lead to ‘Wildly Inaccurate’ Estimates

Federal agencies have proposed a plan to reduce the number of homes that require an in-person appraisal, hoping to speed up the closing process and save money for home buyers and borrowers looking to refinance. Under the proposal, which was developed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in-person appraisals would be necessary only for homes

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CA REALTORS® Plead, ‘We’re in Crisis and Need Help’

There was a hint of smoke in the air on the morning of Nov. 8 in Paradise, Calif. Aubrey Pruis, in his first year as an association executive at the Paradise Association of REALTORS®, was at the office for a meeting with his colleagues when they spotted ember and ash falling from the sky onto the parking lot. They instantly knew this wouldn’t be an ordinary day.At the time, flames from a wildfire raging nearby hadn’t yet reached Paradise. Bu

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Timing a Black Friday-Like Sale When Buying a Home

Home buyers looking for the best deal of the year on housing may want to wait until the day after Christmas to close on a home. ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm, analyzed the best days and months for advantageous pricing at state and metro levels.Only 10 days of the year offer discounts below estimated market values—seven in December and one each in October, November, and February, according to the study.ATTOM Data Solutions“Peop

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A Turnaround in Home Sales - More Business Is Coming to Town

The streak of sluggish home sales finally came to an end in October. Following six consecutive months of decreases, existing-home sales reversed to post a rise last month, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday. Three of the four major regions of the U.S. reported gains in October.Total existing-home sales—which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops—increased 1.4 percen

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Young Adults Living at Home May Suffer Professionally

Young adults who are given financial help from their parents to live independently instead of living rent-free at their parents’ home tend to do better professionally, according to a study published in August in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.Sociologist Anna Manzoni, the study’s author and an associate professor at North Carolina State University, studied about 7,500 young adults between the ages of 18 to 28. College graduates who rec

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