Finance - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Consumer Sentiment Breaks Record—Again

For the second consecutive month, Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index reached an all-time survey high in May. But as home prices rise, consumer attitudes about buying and selling a home are diverging even more.The net share of survey respondents who say now is a good to sell rose to 46 percent and is now up 14 percentage points year over year. Meanwhile, the net share who say now is a good time to buy fell to 28 percent and has shown lit

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Global Effort to Curb Chinese Investment

Chinese buyers purchased an estimated $100 billion in property globally in 2016, a rate so high that some areas of the world want to slow down the purchasing power of foreign investors to prevent real estate bubbles from forming, according to Chinese real estate website Juwai.com. In 2010, Chinese buyers bought only $5 billion worth of property. Swelling prices for residential and commercial real estate in Western cities such as Toronto and Vanco

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Flips Hit 6-Year High, But Market Tightens

Home flipping activity is increasing across the country, as more investors look to capitalize on the run-up in home prices. Nearly 50,000 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the first quarter of this year, comprising 6.9 percent of all home sales, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q1 2018 U.S. Home Flipping Report. That matches the highest home flipping rate since the first quarter of 2012.Flips in the first quarter of this year so

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Homeowner Equity Growth Streak Continues

Homeowners with a mortgage saw their equity rise 13.3 percent year over year, according to CoreLogic’s Home Equity Report for the first quarter of 2018, released Thursday. The average homeowner gained $16,300 in home equity between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018. That is the highest growth in home equity in four years.“Home-price growth has accelerated in recent months, helping to build home-equity wealth and lift und

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3 Tenant Screening Checks Landlords Fail to Do

Tenant screening is more than a credit or background check. But many landlords are failing to gather critical documentation that could help avoid approving tenants who later default on their rent, need to be evicted, or have other problems that cut into a landlord’s profitability, according to a new survey by the American Apartment Owners Association of more than 1,100 of its members.Thirty-seven percent of landlords fail to collect paycheck st

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The States With Surging Home Loan Growth

Home prices are near record highs in many markets, and a booming economy and low unemployment are offering promises that the housing market will continue to roar. Sixty-four percent of American adults say they believe home prices will continue to rise in their market this year, which is the highest percentage since prior to the Great Recession, according to a recent Gallup survey.Experian, a consumer credit reporting agency, recently identified t

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Loan Demand Surges on Lower Rates

Mortgage applications reversed course and posted an increase last week, as homeowners and home purchasers sought to take advantage of the lowest rates in six weeks. Mortgage application volume—for home purchases and refinance applications—rose 4.1 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted week-over-week basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. Volume, however, is still 2 percent lower than a year ago.Broken out, applicatio

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‘Low Price’ Homes Appreciating Fastest

Gains for lower-priced homes are seeing significantly higher increases than more expensive homes, according to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index Report.CoreLogic researchers analyzed four individual home price tiers. The tiers were broken down into a “low price” tier that reflected homes priced at 75 percent or less of the median; “low to middle price” homes were between 75 and 100 percent of the median; “middle to moderate price”

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4 Issues Prompting Settlement Delays

Issues related to obtaining financing continued to be the main factor that delayed closings in April. The majority of contracts—78 percent—were settled on time in April. But 17 percent were delayed and 5 percent were terminated, according to the REALTORS® Confidence Index, based on a survey of more than 4,500 REALTORS® who were asked about their transactions in April.The top issues that caused a delay to settlement were: Issues related to

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Owners Say HOAs Protect Home Values

Many Americans recently surveyed say they prefer to live in a neighborhood with a homeowners association, also called a community association, according to the 2018 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey, conducted by Zogby Analytics on behalf of the Foundation for Community Association Research. Ninety percent of survey respondents say their association’s rules protect their investment and enhance their property values, according to the survey.Survey

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