Many buyers are offering more than the asking price on properties undergoing bidding wars, but when the appraisal reveals the true market value of the home, they may find they’ve agreed to pay too much. Home sales commonly fall through when a property appraises for less than the price the buyer offers; the seller may be unwilling to accept a lower offer, and the buyer may decide the deal isn’t worth it.Appraisal issues are still one of the mo
After mortgage rates rose for most of April, they dropped slightly in the kickoff to May. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped three basis points to average 4.55 percent.“While mortgage rates have increased by one-half of a percentage point so far this year, it has not impacted home purchase demand, which continues to grow this spring,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The observed buyer resiliency in the face of higher
The number of equity-rich properties in the U.S. may have reached a tipping point, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ First Quarter 2018 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report. Equity-rich properties in the U.S. in the second quarter are down from their peak in the second quarter of 2017. ATTOM Data Solutions defines “equity rich” as borrowers who have at least 50 percent equity in their property.“We’ve reached a tipping point in this
Homeownership is still considered vital to the American dream. But for many Americans, joining that dream also means living in a place of economic opportunity and diverse communities.SmartAsset, a personal finance resource, ranked the best places for living the American dream by looking at five key metrics: homeownership rates, diversity rates, upward mobility rates, median home values, and unemployment rates.According to the study’s finding
T-Mobile US and Sprint Corp. are making plans for a $26.5 billion merger. If approved, it could create a wireless company that would be close in size to rivals AT&T and Verizon. The merger could also reshuffle thousands of square feet of real estate in the retail space.The merged firms would operate under the T-Mobile name with two headquarters in Bellevue, Wash., and Overland Park, Kan.In the retail space, there will be some initial closure
The Federal Reserve decided Wednesday that it would not raise rates and keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged, despite rising inflation. Mortgage rates are not directly tied to the Fed’s benchmark rate, but they do tend to be influenced by them.The Federal Open Markets Committee had raised rates for the first time in 2018 at its last meeting in March. At that time, it had increased the federal funds rate by 25 basis points.At May’s meeti
Would-be home buyers and refinancing homeowners both receded from the mortgage market last week as mortgage rates surged to their highest averages in nearly five years. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index showed that total application volume, which includes home purchases and refinances, dropped 2.5 percent last week and are now 3.3 percent lower than a year ago.Refinance volume took most of the hit, dropping 4 percent
DocuSign, the e-signature company that helped usher in the era of digital real estate closings, debuted as an initial public offering on April 27 and is off to a strong start. Shares of DocuSign ended up 37 percent higher by the end of its first day of trading on the Nasdaq. DocuSign is NAR’s official and exclusive eSignature provider under the REALTOR Benefits® Program and an NAR Strategic Investment Company.DocuSign priced its IPO at $29 a
Student housing has long been attractive to real estate investors. So where are developers adding the most inventory? Student housing developers aren’t branching out much, but instead are staying by larger universities they know can deliver.“Tier one markets continue to attract the most development and are still being targeted by the institutional capital that is pouring into the space,” Taylor Gunn, the student housing analytics lead for M
New Jersey homeowners pay the most in property taxes in the nation, and homeowners there also find taxes make up some of the highest percentages of their total housing costs in the nation. A new study by SmartAsset, a personal finance resource, found that seven cities—five of which are in New Jersey—had property taxes that were more than 30 percent of the cost of owning a home. The average effective property tax in New Jersey is 2.19 percent,
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