Tag: mortgage
-
U.S. Home Prices Continue to Climb
U.S. home prices continued to increase in the third quarter of 2017 by 1.4 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). The index, which is calculated with home prices from mortgages sold to and guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, depicts a 6.5 percent uptick from the third…
-
FHFA Announces Increased Loan Limits for Freddie and Fannie in 2018
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has announced that it will increase the conforming loan limits for mortgages that can be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2018. The 2018 maximum conforming loan limit for single-family homes will be $453,100, up from $424,100 in 2017.
-
Homeownership Rate Increases in the 3rd Quarter 2017
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest “Quarterly Residential Vacancies and Homeownership” release, the U.S. homeownership rate increased to 63.9 percent in the third quarter of 2017. This rate was not statistically different from those of the second quarter 2017 (63.7 percent) or the third quarter 2016 (63.5 percent).
-
How I Reinvented my Career without Reinventing Myself
Baby Boomers are living longer, retiring later and, the truth is, we’re finding that one lifelong career just isn’t enough. Long gone are the days when a high school or college graduate finds a dream job, spends the next 30-35 years moving up the company ladder and retires with a pension at 62. In fact,…
-
Increasing the Odds: Building the Female Executive
If you have had the privilege of meeting with senior managers at mortgage and finance companies, you will notice they are overwhelmingly filled with middle-aged, white men. According to Catalyst, women currently hold only 5.8 percent of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies. This tells us that despite all of the progress, women simply have…
-
Crowdfunding Mortgages: A New Trend?
We’ve all seen crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for a business or a honeymoon; but a new platform from CMG Financial, HomeFundMe, is making it possible for homebuyers to crowdfund their mortgage down payments with donations from family, friends and even perfect strangers.
-
Affordable Housing for Teachers in Expensive Cities
Recently, NAWRB published an article addressing the scenario of a professional, in our case a teacher named Rachel, working in a city she could not afford to live in, and the consequences of this situation on her life. The city of San Francisco—home to one of the most expensive housing markets in the country—is taking…
-
The Hottest Housing Markets in the U.S.
Realtor.com recently released their Market Hotness Index, ranking the current hottest real estate markets around the country according to the latest statistics on housing inventory and demand. In August 2017, the national median home price sits at $275,000 with a national median age of inventory of 66 days.
-
Home Prices Up, Mortgage Rates Down
According to the recently-released National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) home affordability went down in the second quarter of 2017. The rise in home prices counteracted a drop in mortgage rates to continue complicating issues for homebuyers.
-
Is the Mortgage Industry Painting with too Broad a Brush?
Becoming a homeowner helps safeguard a person’s professional achievements and can pull them out of poverty. However, current mortgage lending trends show that a significant portion of Americans are being all but excluded from homeownership by stringent credit-assessing practices leading to mortgage rejections. The Great Recession, which saw nearly 8 million American homes fall into…