By KIMBERLEY HAAS
Changes to fees for loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are under scrutiny after recent reports that homebuyers with good credit scores and substantial down payments will pay more starting May 1.
Last week, The Washington Times published an article with the headline “Biden to hike payments for good-credit homebuyers to subsidize high-risk mortgages.” Author Dave Boyer, a White House correspondent, wrote that although the changes are part of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s push to make housing more affordable, they will negatively impact traditional borrowers.
“Mortgage industry specialists say homebuyers with credit scores of 680 or higher will pay, for example, about $40 per month more on a home loan of $400,000. Homebuyers who…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS A U.S. Congressman serving the 8th district of Texas says housing inflation is crushing the American dream for families. During a hearing, Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady said American families and workers are finding that President Joe Biden’s economy is “cruel.” “Working women haven’t had it this bad in decades. The dangerous baby formula shortage, rising crime, and inflation, and now housing they can barely afford to live in. Just as with crushing gas prices, Democrats in Washington are blaming everyone under the sun for the cruel rise in housing costs: builders, local investors and developers who make the construction of new homes and neighborhoods a reality,” Brady said. He added, “Republicans have held…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS As prices for rental housing continue to climb in many parts of the country, bidding wars are becoming more common. According to a report released last week by Joel Berner and Danielle Hale for Realtor.com, rent has reached another high in the company’s data history, averaging $1,827 in the 50 largest US metropolitan areas. Rental increases are most pronounced in Sun Belt metros, Berner and Hale wrote. That is because as more people have the opportunity to work remotely they are choosing warmer climates to live in. Three Florida metros are particularly affected. They include Miami, where rent was up 51.6% from April 2021; Orlando, 32.9%; and Tampa, 27.8%. Overall median rent in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale,…
By TYRONE TOWNSEND Millions of dollars are being spent on digital real estate as investors take their money to the land of the Metaverse. Since Facebook renamed its company to Meta Platforms in October, plot prices have skyrocketed by 500 percent. Meta and other businesses have a long-term ambition of creating 360-degree immersive worlds that people will access through virtual reality goggles. Users may now access these worlds using a standard computer screen. Real individuals engage in these virtual worlds as cartoon-like characters known as avatars, akin to a real-time multiplayer video game. Journalists from the Wall Street Journal recently spoke with companies investing in digital real estate to understand the economic model, and why investors are spending so much…
Big cities could be making a comeback, with more expensive, populated housing markets appearing on the quarterly Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com® Emerging Housing Markets Index. The top 20 emerging markets listed averaged 500,000 residents this quarter, more than 100,000 people more than last quarter. It is a mix of coastal, Southern, and Midwestern markets. Six of the 100 largest U.S. metros made the list: Raleigh, NC; Colorado Springs; North Port, Fla; San Jose, CA.; Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Fla; and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks, CA. “It could signal a reorientation of the real estate market,” says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. The rankings and their median list price are as follows: Naples, FL ($667,000)North Port, FL ($445,000)Kahului, HI ($937,000)San Luis Obispo, CA ($899,000)San Jose, CA…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS As the number of homes purchased by people with different last names increases, it is being reported that Millennials are choosing to buy single-family houses with their friends. In an article written by Zinhle Essamuah for NBC News, three women talked about their decision to buy a house together. Amanda Scheider, 30, told Essamuah that it’s like having a permanent sleepover. Scheider lives with Kathy Keel, 30, and Stephanie Vandergrift, 28, in Gallatin, Tennessee. They signed for a 30-year, $315,000 mortgage in May of 2020 after renting a house together. Essamuah used analytics from Attom Data Solutions which shows the number of homes purchased by people with different last names increased by nearly 772% between 2010 and…
