The Federal Reserve has made two swift rate hikes in just four months and vows of more to come. But there’s a way to slow the pace of interest-rate hikes: Build more homes, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, writes in his new column at Forbes.com.Building more apartments and single-family homes would help slow down inflation, Yun says.The nation has typically added 1.5 million new housing units each ye
A lesser-known home loan may help your clients in the medical industry better afford a home purchase. Known simply as a "physician loan," these mortgages have less stringent credit and debt-to-income requirements than other loan products. They require down payments as low as 10 percent or less—even zero money down in some cases. They also don't require borrowers to pay private mortgage insurance.Why is their a mortgage targeting doctors, you as
More borrowers are turning to shorter-term adjustable-rate mortgages as interest rates rise, but that may be a riskier move than your clients realize. While these mortgages offer lower interest rates, the rates reset after a certain preset time. Still, a five-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged a 3.28 percent rate last week compared to 4.30 for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, according to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage market survey.The
The Federal Reserve is finally taking more action to raise its short-term rates. Last week, it voted to raise the Fed funds rate by 25 basis points. That is expected to add pressure to mortgage rates, too. Many housing analysts fear that rising mortgage rates could further impact home affordability and lead home buyers to pause.However, Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Ten-X and former senior vice president at RealtyTrac, disagrees. He th
Scammers are now using utility bills to try to dupe customers.Scammers reportedly are making calls to customers posing as representatives from companies like ConEd, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, Consumers Energy, or a bogus utility company called General Electric, among others. They’ll threaten to shut off power or service if customers don’t pay immediately. They’ll offer an “energy assistance” or payment plan and ask for the customer’s
Likely to be a hallmark of this year’s spring homeselling season: Bidding wars. As home listings are scarcer and buyer demand remains high, home shoppers are finding a lot more competition this spring, particularly in hot markets like the San Francisco Bay area, Denver, and Boston.“Home buyers are going to find this spring that, in a lot of markets, the inventory of homes priced and sized at price levels they were hoping for will be very limi
Whether your clients are first-time buyers or homeowners listing their property in a red-hot market, are you able to articulate how you can help them save money on their real estate transaction?When you ask agents how they keep more money in their clients’ pocketbooks, some say they’re good negotiators. Others provide coupons to save money on moving, home improvement or perhaps a list of where to get rebates on energy-saving appliances.What e
The Department of Housing and Urban Development would see its funding drop by 13 percent under President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal. The cuts, combined with others elsewhere in the federal government's discretionary budget, would offset proposed increases in defense and homeland security funding, including an increase of $54 billion for Department of Defense programs. The proposal, Trump said, "follows through on my promise to foc
For the second consecutive week, mortgage rates were on the rise. "As expected, the [Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee] announced its first rate hike of 2017 and hinted at additional increases throughout the remainder of the year," says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "Although our survey was conducted prior to the Fed's decision, the release of the February jobs report all but guaranteed a rate hike and boosted the 3
The Federal Reserve is picking up the pace, voting on Wednesday to raise its key interest rate just three months after its last rate hike. The Fed announced that short-term interest rates will increase by one-quarter of a percentage point and suggested that two similar increases likely will occur later this year. Mortgage rates aren’t directly tied to the Fed’s short-term interest rates but tend to follow them.“If you think it’s been hard
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