Found 15 blog entries tagged as financing.

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Realtor.com writes, "where are America’s new homes?

That question keeps boiling up to the surface, as buyers grapple with the current state of the housing market. High prices and soaring mortgage rates are driving affordability into the dirt. And lurking at the center of all buyer challenges is one towering and inescapable bugaboo: the lack of available homes. It’s simple math. Fewer homes = increased competition, higher prices, and epic levels of frustration.

Last year, new-home construction permits for single-family dwellings declined by about 14% over the previous year—and it’s hardly a new trend. Since the 1990s, U.S. housing starts per 1,000 households have been about half of what they were for the preceding 30 years. The building slowdown…

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While the term "hottest" may no longer mean desperate buyers bidding thousands over asking prices and waiving inspections, it does mean returning to the basics of healthy demand, supply and financing options.GETTY IMAGES

U.S. News reports, "now that the demand for housing is showing renewed signs of life amid lower mortgage rates, declining inflation and a reduced risk of recession, it’s certainly an opportune time to analyze which markets are the hottest across the country. While the term "hottest" may no longer mean desperate buyers bidding thousands over asking prices and waiving inspections, it does mean returning to the basics of healthy demand, supply and financing options.

Because the U.S. News Housing Market Index incorporates so many varied data points, it provides a simple and comprehensive way to rank the covered metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from shivering to scorching on a scale of 1-100. Designed to work on desktops and laptops but not on…

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For the Southwest Austin market, median prices continued to increase 5.4% from October 2021 to $575,750. (Weston Warner/Community Impact)The latest Austin Board of Realtors report shows prices in the Southwest Austin housing market continue to increase while the number of sales continues to decrease.

Although the Austin housing market continues to show signs of stabilization, with fewer sales and more available inventory in the markets, prices continue to be higher compared to last year, according to the October ABoR report.

“Austin’s housing market is still growing, just at a different pace,” ABoR President Cord Shiflet said in a press release. “We’re entering the time of year that is historically a quieter time for home sales. With more available inventory than our area has seen in a decade and price growth stabilizing, buyers have more options today than ever before. Now is the time for…

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The Austin real estate market is in the middle of a shift.  While the housing market in Austin is still a seller's market, the trend is changing. More would-be buyers are now renting, thanks to a cooling down market. Next year, the market will shift from a seller's to a buyer's market.

Austin's Housing Market Pushed More Would-be Buyers Into Renting During Covid-19 Pandemic

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Austin's housing market was tight, with rents rising by about 5% annually. In Austin alone, there are nearly 125 people moving every day. In addition, builders haven't kept up with demand, and city zoning laws limit the building of new multifamily housing. As a result, home prices have reached new peaks. In May alone, the median sale price in Austin…

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Adjustable-rate mortgages are more popular this summer than they've been since right before the Great Recession.

The share of mortgage applications for ARMs rose to 12.6% in June before they dipped to 12.2% in July, according to an analysis by Seattle-based Zillow Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ZG). It's the first time since August 2007 the share of ARMs among mortgage applications has been more than 12%.

While that could trigger some alarm bells, the conditions today — including lending standards — are very different than the years leading up to the housing crash of the late 2000s, said Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow.

"It's something to keep an eye on but, at the moment, it doesn’t look concerning to us," Tucker said. In the years leading up…

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