Finance - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

It’s the ‘Best Week of the Year’ to Buy a Home

Your buyers likely will see the most housing options, least competition and lowest prices of the year this week, according to new realtor.com® research.Home buyers may want to be in the market this week: It’s the time of year with the most favorable conditions for purchasing a property, a new study shows.Historically, the week of Oct. 1–7 brings the strongest balance of market conditions, with greater home listings, less buyer competition an

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Contract Signings Dive as Higher Mortgage Rates Sideline Buyers

Pending home sales fell last month as house hunters struggled against rising costs. Read more from NAR’s latest home sales report.The National Association of REALTORS® reported Thursday that contract signings tumbled 7.1% month over month in August as mortgage rates float above 7%, pushing many aspiring home buyers to the sidelines. All four major U.S. regions saw monthly decreases, according to NAR. Pending home sales are down 19% from a year

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Mortgage Rates at 23-Year High

The higher borrowing costs are disappointing to home buyers and sellers who expected a lower rate environment this fall, NAR economist says.As mortgage rates continue to rise, more Americans are feeling stuck in their current homes, unwilling or unable to move at today’s higher borrowing costs. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to a 7.31% average this week—the highest level since 2000, Freddie Mac reports.“However, unlike the turn of the

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Mortgage Rates Barely Budge, Remain Over 7%

The higher rates, combined with high home prices, are creating a housing market of “haves and have-nots,” says NAR’s deputy chief economist.Home buyers are being forced to adjust to what is becoming a new norm: Mortgage rates above 7%. At this week’s average of 7.19% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, as reported Thursday by Freddie Mac, the typical monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home of $413,500 would translate to $2,243, sa

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Home Values Fell in 21 of the 50 Largest US Metros in August

Home values are now 11.4% lower in Austin, Texas, than they were in Aug. 2022, Zillow said. Nationally, prices were up slightly from July to August, and there was a small inventory uptick Home values have fallen by more than 10 percent in Austin, Texas, as the nation’s housing market continued cooling down from pandemic-era highs, according to an August market report from Zillow.Nationwide, home values grew 0.2 percent from July to August, 

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Stock Market Drives U.S. Households to Record Wealth

A surging stock market powered U.S. household wealth to a record high of more than $154 trillion in the second quarter, aided by a rebound in property values, Federal Reserve data out on Friday showed.Household net worth rose 3.7% to $154.28 trillion in the period from April through June from $148.79 trillion at the end of the first quarter, the Fed said in its quarterly snapshot of the balance sheets of households, businesses and federal, state

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Mortgage Rates Dip but Remain Above 7%

“The lack of movement is discouraging to home buyers who are also facing higher home prices,” says NAR economist.Mortgage rates backed away slightly from last week’s two-decade high but remain above 7%. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.18%, Freddie Mac’s latest weekly mortgage indicator shows.“The lack of movement is discouraging to home buyers who are also facing higher home prices,” says Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economi

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Single-Family Rent Growth Slows for the 14th Straight Month

A new report from CoreLogic is the latest to confirm that rent growth is falling back toward historical levels as the market moves on from unprecedented growth during COVID-19Rent for single-family homes was 3.3 percent higher in June compared with a year earlier, according to a new report from property data provider CoreLogic.That was the slowest rate of growth since the fall of 2020, shortly after COVID-19 shocked the rental and for-sale h

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Mortgage Rates Surge to 7.23%

Borrowing costs are the highest they’ve been in more than two decades—and rates may go higher over the next few weeks.Home buyers are facing the highest mortgage rates in 22 years. They’re also up against higher home prices and limited inventory. Add to that this week’s 7.23% average mortgage rate for the 30-year fixed-rate loan, which translates to an average monthly mortgage payment of $2,246 for a typical existing single-family home, s

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Home Sales Drop 2.2% in July on Supply, Financing Woes

Existing-home sales continued to fall last month as home buyers faced higher mortgage rates and fewer housing options. Read more from NAR’s latest housing report.Two main factors are driving current sales activity: inventory availability and mortgage rates. “Unfortunately, both have been unfavorable to buyers,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS®.Existing-home sales—completed transactions for singl

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