Only two weeks after Congress passed a bill to reopen the federal government following a three-day shutdown, a repeat of that quagmire is looming. The budget bill Congress passed funds the federal government through Feb. 8, when another shutdown is possible if lawmakers don’t agree on a long-term funding before then. What impact will real estate feel should the government close once more?Most home sales likely will be minimally affected because
Contract signings on home sales rose slightly in December, reaching their highest level since last March, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday. NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, moved 0.5 percent higher to a reading of 110.1 last month, 0.5 percent higher than a year ago.“Another month of modest increases in contract activity is evidence that the housing market has a s
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is accepting public comments about whether to lift some of its manufactured housing regulations in an effort to help alleviate housing shortages. Comments can be submitted through Feb. 26 at regulations.gov.Manufactured homes are constructed according to code administered by HUD, as opposed to the state, local, or regional regulations that govern stick-built housing. HUD estimates that more
In a decision that aligns with arguments by NAR and other industry groups, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reinstated a previous decision that shot down a controversial Sec. 8 anti-kickback enforcement action taken by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2016. The court said the CFPB incorrectly levied a $109 million fine on a mortgage company, PHH Corp., for entering into an arrangement with mortgage insur
Following last year's Experian data breach, many people froze their accounts to safeguard them from potential identity thefts. But with the spring homebuying season on the horizon, don’t forget to remind potential home shoppers that they may face some hassles getting approved for a mortgage if they don’t remember to unfreeze their credit first.Lenders tend to pull reports from the three main credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion
As more states legalize marijuana for recreational and medical purposes, the housing industry is increasingly looking to embrace it as a building material too, The New York Times reports.North Carolina boasts the first modern U.S. hemp house, which was constructed in 2010. About 50 homes in the country have since popped up with hemp built in.Hemp structures date back to Roman times. But now, some builders want to bring it back to their markets
The average credit score in the U.S. was 675 last year—the highest since 2012, according to Experian’s State of Credit: 2017 survey. More Americans fall on the higher end of the credit score spectrum, with 22 percent having “super-high” credit scores between 781 to 850 and 21 percent having “deep subprime” or very low credit scores below 600. Minnesota has the highest credit scores in the country, averaging 709.Mortgage debt was up
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
Millennials make up a quarter of the nation’s population and are expected to have huge influence over real estate in the coming years. But though the millennial population increased 4.7 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to Census data, the growth has not occurred evenly across geographic areas. The cities with the highest share of millennials as of 2015 are: Provo-Orem, Utah: 30.4 percent Austin, Texas: 27.2 percent San Diego: 27 percent
In FBI surveillance video, a young man of about 18 sits at his computer in his room. His mother, donned in a white bathrobe, approaches with a plate of cookies, sets it on his desk, and walks away as he continues to stare intensely at his computer screen. He’s not immersed in a video game. This man—perhaps a recent high school grad still living at home with his parents—is a typical hacker. And he's one of many who are increasingly disruptin
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