Mortgage and Real Estate News: December 2014

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Why areas with good jobs have hard-to-afford homes

WASHINGTON –It's the new career trade-off:

Around the country, areas with the strongest job markets increasingly have some of the costliest homes. And areas with the most affordable homes lack a solid base of middle-class jobs that attract workers.

College graduates and younger families have been clustering in coastal cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle, where incomes are generally ample and solid middle-class jobs plentiful. Yet studies and government data show that homes in these areas have become prohibitively expensive — driven up in part by demand from the very residents who find homes there too costly.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Frank Lloyd Wright house plans concern Phoenix neighbors

The empty house on Exeter Boulevard in Arcadia sleeps in the shadow of Camelback Mountain, surrounded by about 5 acres of sprawling land dotted with olive trees and an immaculate lawn.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for his son, the circular David and Gladys Wright House stands like a sculpture, the mountain a still backdrop.

Changes to Gateway Airport loan could cost Mesa $75 million

A proposal to essentially forgive nearly $75 million in Mesa loans to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is proving a tough sell at the council dais, with some officials arguing the move would be a betrayal of the public's trust.

For years, Mesa mayors and council members have promised constituents the city's investments in Gateway eventually would be paid back. Now, both airport and city staff say a failure to recharacterize decades of loans from the airport authority's six member agencies as contributions would decimate any chance the airport has to thrive on its own.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Capital Economics: 4 predictions impact renting and homebuying

House prices and rental prices are about to switch roles after three years of soaring home prices and tepid growth in rental prices, a new Capital Economics report said.

Over the next few years, Capital Economics predicts that rents are likely to rise at an annual average rate of 5% or more, while house price inflation will settle around 4%.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Barclays: New Fannie, Freddie mortgages will take business from FHA

The government-sponsored enterprises officially announced Monday the introduction of new, lower down payment mortgages.

And already the mortgage industry is reacting, with one analyst arguing that the boost to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could come at the expense of the Federal Housing Administration.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Choose the right lender for home loan

Getting a home loan can be costly and stressful. Securing the right lender can help reduce both.

Although a quick online search for mortgage lenders might bring up mind-boggling options, in the end, the choices come down to three basic places to securing funds — a broker, a banker or a hybrid of both. There are advantages and disadvantages to each option.

Friday, December 5, 2014

All I want for Christmas is a mortgage

Black Friday 2014 may be over, but holiday home shoppers still have something to look forward to in the form of less stringent mortgage standards. Although shopping for a mortgage may not be as exciting (or dangerous) as competing for that one 42-inch flat-screen TV remaining on the store shelf, the recent loosening of mortgage qualification guidelines is a gift that promises to keep on giving for homebuyers and the economy at large.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Luxury Home Sales still Ascendant as Buyers Shift

Redfin, the large national real estate firm based in Seattle, is reporting that, while sales of homes costing over $1 million is still outpacing the rest of the market, the source of these sales is changing. The company says that the luxury housing market, which was the first segment to recover after the housing crisis, continues strong, driven by a record high stock market, low interest rates and by foreign investors.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Investor Overlays Expected to be Reduced; Rise of Niche Products

I still own a typewriter. But Discover Home Loans conducted a national survey of more than 1,000 recent homebuyers and found that most homebuyers believed they were better buyers due to technology. The survey discovered that 89% of respondents used some form of online technology to help them in the home buying process, 76% felt technology made them a more knowledgeable home buyer and 69% said technology made them more confident. About half of respondents said that using technology saved them money and 92% said it saved them time. For Realtors out there, almost three quarters (74%) said it's essential for their real estate agent to be tech savvy and 42% of buyers working with agents said they did most of the work to initially find properties. And heck, most of the millennials haven't even hit the market yet!

Pages