Finance - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

The Best Places to be a Landlord

Higher home prices and a tight supply of homes for sale may be the mantra nationwide. But certain markets are still offering lucrative options for investors.Real estate sales and auction company TenX released its top picks for investors and Texas had the most markets on its list, scoring three out of the top five. Texas continues to post strong growth in employment and home construction. San Antonio topped TenX’s list for best places for inves

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2017’s Hottest ZIP Codes

For the second consecutive year, Watauga, Texas, is the hottest ZIP code in the U.S., according to realtor.com®’s 2017 Hottest ZIP Codes list. Livonia, Mich., and Kentwood, Mich., landed second and third, respectively, on the annual list.Realtor.com® analyzed 32,000 ZIP codes based on factors like the time it takes properties to sell and how frequently homes are viewed in each ZIP code. The markets on this year’s top 10 list are seeing home

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Lower Rates Spark Higher Loan Demand

A slight decrease in mortgage rates brought refinancers and home shoppers back to lenders last week.Total mortgage application volume for refinancings and home purchases rose 3.6 percent week-over-week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. However, the volume still is nearly 19 percent below the same week a year ago. Interest rates were lower a year ago.Home purchase applications increased 4 percent

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These Lenders Dominate the Mortgage Market

Quicken Loans is commanding the largest share of the mortgage market, according to 2016 data recently released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. But Wells Fargo boasts the highest origination dollar volume at $126 billion in 2016, compared to Quicken Loans’ $90.6 billion.iEmergent, which compiled the data, calculated the top mortgage lenders by looking at the number of purchase and refinance loans originated. The follow

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Rent or buy? Top cities for owning, renting and sharing

Roommates are changing the numbersKey Takeaways If you live in one of the uber-expensive coastal cities of California and Washington state, then continuing to rent is often the only option. In Detroit, a median priced starter home costs $16,463 — the lowest median home sales price in the nation. Buying is typically cheaper, but that changes when roommates are thrown into the mix.In today’s market, renters and buyers often find themselves in t

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The government pays more to rich homeowners than poor renters

Housing subsidies are going to wealthy homeowners at nearly twice the rate of low income rentersThe United States government spends nearly twice the amount on housing subsidies that favor the rich over the section 8 housing program for low income Americans, a new report finds—$71 billion compared to $29.9 billion in 2015, the report from the website Apartment List found.Credit: Apartment ListAs the country heads towards a likely partisan deba

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Best Alternatives to Pricey Urban Meccas

Many of the nation’s premier urban meccas come at a steep price to home buyers and renters. But researchers at realtor.com® have pinpointed affordable alternatives to the country’s hottest locales.They uncovered budget-friendly counterparts to some of the nation’s most expensive metros, referring to them as “metro matchups.” They are places comparable to urban meccas in many ways but whose housing prices largely remain below $350,000.

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Lot Prices in Midwest Hit Record High

Builders are paying more for new-home lots, and those expenses will be passed on to home buyers. Single-family lot prices remained at record levels last year, with half costing $45,000 or more, according to a National Association of Home Builders analysis of Census Bureau data. It’s the second consecutive year that lot prices have been at record highs; the previous record was in 2006, during the housing boom, when lots averaged $43,000.Rising l

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Top Amenities for Relocating Baby Boomers

Baby boomers say they want to move to a home that has a multicar garage and that’s near their grandchildren, according to the latest Del Webb Baby Boomer Survey, sponsored by national home builder PulteGroup Inc. The age at which baby boomers expect to retire is getting younger, down from 65 in 2013 to 63.7 in 2017, according to the survey of more than 1,000 adults between the ages of 50 and 65. Thirty-eight percent say they plan to purchase a

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As Rates Rise, Loan Demand Softens

Mortgage applications dropped across the board last week as interest rates surged to their highest levels since July, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Total application volume dropped 2.1 percent week-to-week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the MBA reported Wednesday.Most of the drop in applications came from those looking to refinance, the group that tends to be the most rate sensitive. Refinance applications dropped 4 percent last

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