Found 75 blog entries tagged as mortgage.

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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Even before the lockdowns were eased, white-collar professionals who saw their jobs go remote were ditching their apartments in places like Seattle and New York City for homes in markets like Austin, Boise, and Las Vegas. That rush of homebuyer activity, of course, saw home prices absolutely skyrocket in those markets. In Las Vegas alone, the Pandemic Housing Boom pushed home prices up 49%.

That boom is over now.

Across the country, housing markets are cooling down. Home sales are falling. Multiple offers are drying up. Homebuilders are scaling back and offering buyer incentives. But every aspect of the cooldown is more intense in markets like Boise and Austin. Simply put: Pandemic boomtowns are getting hit the hardest by the Pandemic Housing…

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After a two-year boom, the United States housing market finds itself at a pivotal moment — but pivoting to what, exactly?

This spring should have been a busy time for home sellers. Instead, the season was a dud, stalled by a dramatic spike in mortgage rates that stunned even industry experts with its chilling effect on the market.

The frenzied environment we had become accustomed to — with its eye-popping price increases and bidding wars that left buyers dejected and sellers giddy — suddenly seemed to be a thing of the past. While buyers stood on the sidelines, recalculating their much larger mortgage payments, sellers began to realize that offers of $100,000 or more over asking might not be forthcoming.

And over in the rental market,…

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Austin home buyers and sellers are getting creative to lessen the blow of rising interest rates. Realtors report more people are exploring temporary interest rate buydowns.

The temporary rate buydowns happening right now involve sellers taking some of their profit from the sale and putting it toward helping the buyer make payments at a lower interest rate. It's usually a benefit that sellers only agree to for a couple of years, but it is helping homes sell while rates are high.

For the first time in years the Austin Board of Realtors says the area housing market is stabilizing—something that will help some buyers get back in the game.

"They can be a little bit more relaxed. They can actually have a shot at making one of their offers stick.…

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Mortgage rates have risen faster this year than they have in decades.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been hovering above 5% for more than a month, taking a toll on prospective homebuyers. While many hopeful buyers have bowed out of the market for now, some are exploring what once seemed like an unlikely option: adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs. The cost of financing a home has risen so much, so fast that many buyers can't afford to buy a home with a traditional fixed-rate mortgage. The typical monthly payment on an average priced home with a 30-year fixed rate loan and 20% down is more than $600 higher now than at the start of this year -- a 44% increase on principal and interest payments, according to Black Knight, a…

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