Despite rising prices, buying a home makes more sense than paying increasingly high rents in more than half of the U.S. Buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 240 of 447—or 54 percent—of U.S. counties analyzed, according to a new report released by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.Renting a three-bedroom property requires an average of nearly 39 percent of weekly wages across the
In some situations, it might make sense to actually increase the list price to get buyers’ attention, according to a new article at realtor.com®. The article provides several scenarios where increasing the asking price may be justified on a home for sale, including:Market conditions have changed since the home was first listed. When comparable properties start selling for more than the list price, raising a home’s price may actually garner
With steep competition, some buyers are scrambling to come up with larger down payments to gain a competitive edge.“In many purchase situations, there are multiple offers, and the buyers who have the bigger down payment are more likely to win out,” Daren Blomquist, ATTOM Data Solutions’ senior vice president, told The Wall Street Journal.The median down payment for home purchases that were financed in the third quarter of 2017 soared to a
The winter off-peak period may be the best time for investors to snag a deal on a single-family rental property.Single-family rental investors paid 6.6 percent less per square foot on the same property during the winter of 2017/2018 than they did during the spring and summer buying season of 2017, according to a new analysis released by HomeUnion, an online real estate investment and management firm.“For the second year in a row, our study fo
Mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced programs to provide long-term financing at competitive interest rates that could encourage more investors to acquire single-family rental properties, the National Real Estate Investor reports.“Folks who dipped their toes in the market in 2015 or early 2016 and bought one or two single-family rentals are now buying more,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of property
You should be chasing the buyers named Dylan, Chelsea, Austin, Alexandra, and Taylor. Those were the first names of millennials who were most likely to buy a home in 2017, according to a new analysis of more than 4 million home sales by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.On the other hand, Generation X and older buyers with the first names Gerald, Kristin, Stanley, Kurt, and Jaime had the biggest decreases in home sales last year.Not s
Fewer retirees own their home free and clear, as 32 percent of homeowners ages 60 to 70 say it will take them more than another eight years to pay off their mortgage, according to American Financing’s Retirement and Mortgages survey.However, many say they intend to age in place, with 64 percent indicating they plan to remain in their current home. Seventy-one percent say they would prefer to make home renovations rather than move, even if a hea
The majority of buyers who obtained a mortgage last year made a down payment of less than 20 percent, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. The median down payment in 2017 was 10 percent, according to the report.The bulk of buyers’ down payments came from their personal savings, but a fraction also came from the sales proceeds of a previous residence or assistance from family or friends
Luxury homes sold at a slower pace in 2017, as more properties in the high-end market were put up for sale, according to a new realtor.com® report. The number of million-dollar listings grew by an average of 3.9 percent.Luxury properties—defined as those with a sales price in the top 5 percentile—took 5.4 percent longer to sell in 2017 than in 2016, spending an average of 116 days on the market. Prices of luxury homes also increased 5.1 perc
Borrowers kicked off 2018 with a mortgage rate drop. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now down a quarter of a percentage point from a year ago.“Treasury yields fell from a week ago, helping to drive mortgage rates down to start the year,” says Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell four basis points from a week ago to 3.95 percent in the year’s first survey. Despite increases in short
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