Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans were granted a three-month moratorium on their mortgage payments following Hurricane Maria’s destruction last fall. But many of those agreements expire this month, and thousands of homeowners are scrambling to get extensions.Further, some Puerto Ricans who may have stopped making their mortgage payments are now learning that the moratorium was not automatic. They believed their mortgages were frozen, but t
The Super Bowl attracts hundreds of millions of dollars in local tourism and retail business for the city that hosts football’s annual mega-event, but does it have a long-term impact on home sales?Realtor.com® researchers discovered that in host cities, there tends to be at least a 50 percent jump in the number of listings near the stadium where the game is held leading up to the Super Bowl. However, the longer-term impact varied and was more
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address is slated for next week, but realtor.com® released its own “State of the Housing Union.” The housing market outlook is looking bright on several fronts: strong buyer demand, particularly among first-timers, and a growing U.S. economy urging more consumers to buy.But a housing shortage is also proving to be a major obstacle to achieving homeownership, according to the report.“The macro f
Fixed-rate mortgages increased again this week, the third consecutive week to see a rise.“Rates keep climbing,” says Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The 10-year Treasury yield reached its highest point since 2014 reflecting expectations of broad-based economic growth. Mortgage rates, in turn, followed the surge in Treasury yields. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumped 11 basis points to 4.15 percent, its highest level since M
Major metros can still offer bargains for investors. Chicago emerged at the top of the list as the most affordable metro for renters, according to newly released rankings by HomeUnion, a real estate investment management firm. Chicago was the only metro nationwide in its analysis where renters, in general, spent less than 20 percent of their annual income on housing.“With its low cost of living, relatively large housing inventory levels, and hi
California housing markets are still among the top performers in the country, according to realtor.com®’s monthly rankings of the hottest housing markets. Realtor.com® ranks metros based on the most online listing views and the markets where homes are selling the fastest.Overall, the median home list price nationwide was $269,000 in January, 8 percent higher than a year ago. Still, list price increases have subdued somewhat in recent week
LoanDepot, the nation’s second largest non-bank consumer lender, announced a new program to connect preapproved home buyers with real estate agents in their local market. The lender’s mello Home program is now adding real estate agents onto its platform to make the connections.Mello first launched in March 2017 to try to streamline the loan process by blending digital and local relationships when applying for a mortgage, says Anthony Hseih, f
A significant uptick in seriously delinquent mortgages is brewing in areas that were struck by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the fall of 2017, Black Knight reports. Coastal areas within Florida and Texas that faced the wrath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are seeing a dramatic increase in 90-day-plus delinquencies.An estimated 40,200 loans that are 90 or more days delinquent are being blamed on Hurricane Harvey, which struck the Gulf Coast of
Millennials have been stereotyped as a generation that lacks savings or money management skills. But the data isn’t backing that up.Sixteen percent of millennials ages 23 to 37 have $100,000 or more in savings, which is double the number of young people who had that much stowed away in 2015, a newly released survey from Bank of America shows. Nearly half—or 47 percent—have $15,000 saved, up from 33 percent in 2015.Millennials came of age
Existing-home sales in 2017 surged to the best year for sales in 11 years, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday.Total existing-home sales—which include completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops—rose 1.1 percent in 2017 to a 5.51 million sales pace. The sales pace surpassed 2016’s 5.45 million, which had been the highest pace since 2006.However, the end-of-the-year sales numbers were o
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